Collaborative Construction of Scientific Concept through Dialogue in Science Class : Students' Appropriation of Metaphor

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the students' collaborative process of construction of scientific concept using the others' metaphor. To this end, this study focused on an activity called "appropriation" in socio-cultural approach. The case which this study analyzed was sixth-grade science class on the human body. The first step of analysis was to identify the metaphor in students' utterances in the dialogue. The second step was to trace the change of semantics of metaphor through the dialogue. The results are as follows: First, the students' appropriation transformed the semantics of metaphor in the dialogue. Secondly, the each student developed her/his own scientific concept through the appropriation of metaphor. Thirdly, it was suggested that the teacher could utilize the students' metaphor to organize the dialogue.