Learning Is like . . . like . . .
by Julie Tollefson

    Wire coat hangers and skeletons have a lot in common.

    A wire coat hanger can bend and return to its original shape. So can a skeleton.

    The hanger's triangle gives shape to the coat that hangs on it. The bones of a skeleton give shape to the body around it.

    And both last a long time.

    You could say that a skeleton is like a wire coat hanger because both provide shape for something else and both are flexible and strong.

    But why would you want to?

    Because if you were a struggling student trying to understand the human skeleton, learning to use an analogy to understand it might make the difference between passing and failing an anatomy test, say University of Kansas researchers.

    Analogies -- stories or descriptions that tell how two or more things are alike -- can help students grasp and remember new, complex concepts, the researchers say, leading to better scores on tests and better grades in courses.

    Janis Bulgren and her colleagues at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning have developed a tool to help teachers and students build these analogies in order to "anchor" new information to knowledge students already have.

    The tool is called the Concept Anchoring Table. It's a visual template that allows teachers and students to note, in graphic form, the connections between new and old information.

    A corresponding set of written-out steps -- the Concept Anchoring Routine -- is another learning aid developed by the researchers, says Bulgren, a senior research scientist.

    It guides teachers and students as they name the old and new concepts, explore characteristics of each, identify shared characteristics, and develop an explanation of how the two concepts are alike -- as in the skeleton example -- or define the new concept using the characteristics they have identified.

    With each step, Bulgren says, the teacher prompts students to take an active role in understanding both the material and the learning process itself.

    This approach to learning departs markedly from the teaching style that still dominates in many classrooms. The traditional instructional model of a teacher lecturing to students, who in turn memorize notes and lists to prepare for tests, is simply not effective for many students.

    "What is effective is explicit instruction and learning partnerships of the kind created when teachers and students use the Concept Anchoring Table and the Concept Anchoring Routine," Bulgren says.

    Her research results back her up.

    When teachers in a KU-CRL study used analogies -- in the form of the Concept Anchoring Table and Routine -- their students performed much better on tests than students who were taught using more traditional methods.

    "The use of the routine was associated not only with many more students earning passing scores on the tests, but also with more students earning average and above-average grades," Bulgren said.

    Improved classroom performance is critical if students are to feel good about themselves and their learning, Bulgren said.

    Although KU-CRL's overriding goal is to help students with learning disabilities or who are low achievers, this study showed improvements by all groups of students. "This is important," Bulgren said, "because teachers of academically diverse classes are expected, more and more, to arrange instruction so that all students can successfully reach certain standards."

    Bulgren said that teachers are more likely to adopt a new practice if the majority of their students -- at every level of capability -- see value in what the teacher is doing. Another plus for the Concept Anchoring Table and Routine is that teachers don't change course content, Bulgren said.

    An article about the use of analogy as a teaching tool in diverse classroom was published in 2000 by the Journal of Educational Psychology. The authors are Bulgren; Don Deshler, director of the Center for Research on Learning; associate director Jean Schumaker; and senior research scientist Keith Lenz.

Julie Tollefson is director of communications at the KU Center for Research on Learning.