Metaphor: Concept, Theories and its educational functions

The main purpose of this paper is to clarify the concept of metaphor and its functions in education. There are two main parts in this paper: the first is to discuss the six major classic and modern theories of metaphor according to their cognitive and intellectual functions, and the second is to identify and classify the four types of figurative language including metaphor, simile, allegory and symbol. In this paper metaphor has construed as a cognitive phenomenon. Therefore, it is argued that metaphor has not merely a heuristic function; it furthermore serves as a constitutive model for pedagogy. It turned out that metaphor, in supporting and conditioning our thinking about education, has some major functions including motivate, discovery, hermeneutical, convinced and extent of meaning that should be strongly emphasized in education system.