TEST‐BASED ANALOGIES

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of an author supplied analogy on students’ comprehension of a high school biology text passage describing enzymes. Students were randomly assigned to an experimental passage condition comparing an enzyme to a key that fits only one lock. Students in a control condition read the passage without the lock and key analogy. On a short essay measure, there was no significant difference in comprehension between the two groups. A passage difficulty measure showed that students did not perceive the passage without the analogy to be significantly more difficult than the version containing the lock and key analogy. These results are discussed in terms of the teacher's role in guiding students’ awareness of analogical reasoning. Textbooks that supply analogies to familiar concepts to explain more arcane concepts should be easier for students to comprehend. Indeed, one of the items typically found on checklists and scales to judge a text as “friendly” or “unfriendly” is the degree to which the text includes analogies (Singer, 1986). We wanted to find out if high school students were sensitive to the presence and usefulness of a widely used analogy in a science text passage. Although comparing new information to something familiar should assist comprehension, analogies may be more complicated than we think. The present study was undertaken to explore the impact of text‐based analogies on students’ comprehension of a high school biology text passage describing enzymes. The passage included an analogy comparing an enzyme to a key that fits only one lock. In addition to the question of whether or not the lock and key analogy would assist independent reading and comprehension of the passage, we were curious about students’ perceptions of the material. Would they regard this text passage as more “friendly” than a text omitting the analogy?