Accessing and influencing preservice teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning represents a fundamental challenge in initial teacher training. By bridging the abstract and the concrete, metaphors constitute a privileged medium for expressing the complexity of the teaching profession. Rooted in analogical reasoning, they guide individuals’ conceptualization and decision-making processes. Although metaphors are omnipresent in educational discourse, their use is rarely conscious or explicit, and their potential effects on teachers remain poorly documented. The reflections carried out in this thesis interweave the field of analogical reasoning with that of conceptual change to investigate the extent to which the pedagogical use of analogies may support conceptual change in preservice teachers.
To address this question, two theoretical chapters on metaphors in education are combined with five empirical studies conducted from 749 preservice teachers at the University of Geneva. Data were collected through research questionnaires linked to pedagogical interventions based on analogical reasoning. Qualitative and quantitative, descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out to assess the effects of these interventions on students’ conceptual development and their ability to flexibly mobilize diverse conceptions.
The findings support the hypothesis that collecting analogies formulated by students provides valuable insights into their conceptions. Moreover, instructional approaches involving the analogical comparison of metaphorical texts and the analysis of analogies promote a change in conceptual prevalence in ways that complement more traditional pedagogies. Additionally, contextualizing ideas through analogical reasoning helps students develop the flexibility needed to draw on multiple conceptions of the same notion.
Furthermore, the conducted studies made it possible to establish an overview of the conceptions held by preservice teachers regarding pedagogical differentiation, assessment, error, and memory. This collection of conceptions, along with the description of analogy-based pedagogical approaches, may serve as a relevant resource for primary and secondary teacher education. Finally, adopting a pragmatic research perspective, the discussion proposes a connection between analogical argumentation, cognitive flexibility, and the development of critical thinking among future teachers.
