Using Analogy to Teach: Effect of Analogy Use on Learning in the Chemistry Classroom

Abstract

Instructors in many fields wish to engender greater interest and enthusiasm in their classrooms. Chemistry is a subject in school that is known for having abstract concepts that students have difficulty tying to their lives. This study explored the effect lecture style had on the situational interest and performance of college students learning unit conversion material in a chemistry classroom. Two lectures were compared, one lecture taken directly from a published chemistry textbook acted as a control, and the experimental lecture developed by a chemistry instructor to stress using analogies. Performance was measured utilizing students’ lab work from the following class, an in-class problem set, the first hour exam and the final test material. Affective disposition of the students was also collected, using a 10 item Likert scale, four open-ended response survey. Overall the hypotheses that the experimental lecture would increase performance in classroom activities did not have support. The hypotheses that student interest and self-efficacy would be positively affected by the analogy lecture did not have support. Implications are discussed with findings.