A complex analogy for student learning drawing upon chemical ideas (and intended for an audience already familiar with the chemistry).
"We might consider that often there is a considerable 'barrier' to learners acquiring new, abstract and unfamiliar ideas. Once a person has acquired a new concept and integrated into their wider knowledge based (connected into relevant local mental 'concepts maps') and consolidated it through a regular application, it becomes a stable feature of their 'conceptual ecology'. However, the 'transition state', that is whilst the new idea still seems strange, is not yet strongly associated with other ideas, and cannot yet be confidently applied, will be highly unstable. This is reflected in Figure 7.1 which uses the analogy of a reaction profile for the progress of a student's shift in conceptual understanding.
It is as if the transition state is a highly labile and weakly bonded complex that can decompose by any number of pathways unless the teacher carefully guides the process to the desired product. We might see this as the pedagogic equivalent, perhaps, of making sure the pH, temperature, solvent, etc., are carefully chosen to encourage the formation of a preferred product. Extending my analogy, this is reflected in Figure 7.2.
Sometimes, however, we can help things along by using a 'catalyst', so to speak, in presenting a comparison that helps a learner form a notion which, whilst not quite yet what we are working towards, is an accessible 'intermediate' conception on the way to the curriculum target knowledge.
…This may be a lot easier for the learner as the barrier to forming this somewhat more familiar notion is a lot lower than acquiring the new abstract idea. This is clearly a useful thing to do. . . but a good intermediate conception may be so stable, that if we are not careful the reaction does not proceed any further. …
This is reflected in Figure 7.3. It is almost as if the teacher feels that all the hard work is done, and the learner's 'excited' mental state is expected to 'relax' to an intended ground state almost of its own accord, allowing the teacher to move on; whereas within the learner's conceptual ecology, this final stage may be more like a kind of 'forbidden' transition which will only occur given sufficient time (as in phosphorescence where light continues to be emitted for some time after a luminescent material was irradiated by an ultraviolet source)."
Figure 7.1 Conceptual learning may require overcoming a large 'barrier'. 
Figure 7.2 Unless learning is well consolidated, conceptual change can lead to various outcomes. 
Figure 7.3 Teaching analogies and the like may support the ready formation of inter- mediate conceptions that seem convincing to learners in their own right.
Read examples of scientific analogies
