Developing future teachers’ professional speech through analogy

Abstract

The article substantiates the need for systematic training of prospective teachers to use analogy as a constructive technique of professional pedagogical discourse. The relevance of the study is determined by the contradiction between the widespread use of analogies in pedagogical explanation and the lack of a scientifically grounded methodology for developing prospective teachers’ ability to analyse, construct, and apply analogies according to the instructional purpose, the content of explanation, and learners’ cognitive characteristics. The purpose of the article is to develop and theoretically substantiate a stage-based methodology for teaching prospective teachers to use analogy as a constructive technique of professional pedagogical discourse. The study is theoretical and methodological in nature and is based on the analysis of contemporary approaches to the educational use of analogy, pedagogical modelling of the process of developing the corresponding professional skill, and instructional design of a system of learning tasks. The proposed methodology provides for the gradual development of the ability to analyse analogies, determine their pedagogical appropriateness, select appropriate source domains, construct original analogies, refine them, and integrate them into professional pedagogical communication. The system of learning tasks is organised according to the principle of increasing complexity and includes examples from different subject areas, which ensures the universality and adaptability of the methodology in teacher education programmes. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the development of an integrated stage-based methodology for teaching the use of analogy as a constructive technique of pedagogical explanation, the substantiation of the logic of developing the corresponding professional competence, and the design of a system of learning tasks aimed at its formation. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of applying the proposed methodology in teacher education programmes to improve the quality of pedagogical explanation and develop prospective teachers’ professional pedagogical discourse.