Conceptual integration and educational analysis

Abstract

Conceptual integration is a key operating principle in education and a powerful skill for any teacher. Two different concepts are brought together in a way that recognises what is similar and different in them. This allows for an imaginative synthesis that can illuminate a complex process, such as when the heart is compared to a pump, or the cell to a factory. Good teachers do this intuitively all the time, but the act of conceptual integration is poorly understood and insufficiently researched. With explicit knowledge teachers can gain productive, conscious control of this vital pedagogic act and educational researchers will have insightful tools to grasp the complex operating principles of the process. Thus the purpose of this book is to make the principles and practice visible. Conceptual Integration and Educational Analysis provides a clear model that explains how conceptual integration works as well as numerous practical examples that enable the reader to grasp the process theoretically and apply it in practice. This is a must-read book for educators in South Africa and abroad. The book has both South African and international interest. At an international level there is much interest in Conceptual Blending and a book that takes this conceptual tool and applies it to pedagogy will generate some interest among academics. Pedagogics is of specific interest to the European market and so it should have some takers. Conceptual integration is popular in the USA so there is a chance for this market as well. Within South Africa there is currently huge interest in what teachers are doing and how they are doing it (mostly negative) and this book will provide a way out of the blame game with a suggested route forward. I have already presented seminars and lectures on this work, as well as papers at conferences, all of which has been very enthusiastically received. Students at honours and masters level will find the book worthwhile as well.