The impact of analogies as a means of instruction and assessment in high school science

Abstract

Chemistry lessons often overwhelm students with complex vocabulary and intricate scientific concepts, potentially leading to a loss of the central idea. The purpose of this study was to attempt to enhance engagement, confidence, and potential learning gains by integrating familiar analogies into chemistry instruction. Over a three-week period focusing on periodic trends, students were taught using analogies covering topics including Coulomb's law, atomic radius, and electronegativity. Following each lesson, students analyzed the analogy through chemistry-based worksheets, while semi-structured interviews probed their conceptual understanding and frustration levels. After completing the worksheets, students could opt to participate in a survey or questionnaire gauging engagement, confidence, and perceived comprehension. Quantitative analysis of the analogy-based worksheets, using normalized gains, indicated small growth over time. Additionally, descriptive statistics were applied to both survey responses and questionnaire data. Overall, the data allowed for the inference that there was a small increase in learning gains among students and there was a widespread agreement that the use of analogies in the classroom were engaging and increased student confidence.