Conceptual metaphors used by educators when teaching graph isomorphism

Jafari, Ali; Haghverdi, Majid; Tehranian, Abolfazl

doi:10.22075/ijnaa.2024.34201.5104

Conceptual metaphors used by educators when teaching graph isomorphism

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Ali Jafari ¹

Majid Haghverdi ²

Abolfazl Tehranian ¹

¹ Department of Mathematics, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

² Department of Mathematics, Arak Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arak, Iran

10.22075/ijnaa.2024.34201.5104

Abstract

The isomorphism of graphs is one of the main themes of graph theory. This study aims to investigate the dialectical language used by teachers when teaching the concept of graph isomorphism. In the study, using the qualitative research method, instructional videos of 4 courses on teaching the concept of graph isomorphism were viewed by two educators and interviews were conducted with both educators after teaching the concept. After the content analysis, the conceptual metaphors used by the educators in the interview and class were identified and categorized into four main categories: Sameness, Mapping, Sameness/Mapping and Formal Definition. The research results showed that both educators paid more attention to sameness metaphors in the classroom setting and to the metaphors of mapping and formal definition metaphors in the interview setting.

Keywords

Graph theory

Isomorphism

Conceptual metaphors

Educator

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