Metaphors for teaching:
A teacher is just like a cook. You can tell a good cook by the taste of his dishes, so you can also tell a good teacher by his students’ acheivements. Sometimes you can also tell a good cook by observing his cooking process. Good cook can aways get everything ready quickly and easily. Good teacher do the same thing.
Teachers’ job is adapting the curriculum and materials to local settings and particular learning goals. Effective teachers are aware of what they are currently doing, aways pursueing new effecive ways to teach the same content. It is just like cooks making foods for different customers.
Teachers’ content knowledge affect their abilities of transfroming the curriculum and materials to students in a special context to acheive a designed learning goal. It is the foundation of science teacher knowledge. If there is no good content knowledge, there is no good content to transform.
It is like the nutrition in the food, if the food contain no nutriton, the best cook can do nothing to help.
It is also like taxi driving. The taxi driver who knows the traffic system well, is possiblely able to figure out the most quick way to go for you at a special time and location. Content knowledge just provide more pathes to consider and follow. Otherwise, it is easy to get lost and embarrassed.
Metaphor for education reform:
Sometimes science teacher educators complain that teachers’ beliefs are stubborn and reluctant to change their practices. Well, It is true.
The teacher is like a swimmer in a river.
The science teacher educator stand on the river bank and tell the swimmer where to go, how to swim, which style is more effective than others. But the most important thing for a person in the river is to keep safty and the most reliable style is the style which he already got. How can we blame them not trying to change, if their safty is not guaranteed and new skills not developed.
As a science teacher educator, you can not always stand by but jump into the water and provide necessary skills and safety.
