Metapherngebrauch in der Wissensvermittlung der Genetik

Lehrbuch und Onlinevideo im Vergleich

Abstract

The present article is concerned with the function of metaphors in science education in the field of genetics. Recently online videos about scientific topics are getting more and more popular among teachers and students. A comparative analysis of a Spanish biology textbook and an online video aims at revealing differences in the use of metaphors between these two media. The results obtained indicate that in the video open and pedagogical metaphors are predominant, while in the textbook there are rather used closed and theory-constitutive metaphors. Besides, the metaphors in the video are derived from more concrete concepts and the personifications used in the video are more noticeable, compared to the textbook. The differences in the use of metaphors could possibly serve as an explanation for the relatively easy comprehensibility and therefore the popularity of online videos.