Analysis of Students' Use of Metaphor: The Case of a RME-Based Differential Equations Course

This research applies the discursive approach to investigate the social transformation of students' conceptual model of differential equations. The analysis focuses on the students' use of metaphor in class in order to find kinds of metaphor used, their characteristics, and a pattern in the use of metaphor. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the students' conceptual model of differential equations gradually becomes transformed with respect to the historical and cultural structure of the communal practice of mathematics. The findings suggest that through participating in the daily practice of mathematics as a historical and cultural product, a learner becomes socially transformed to a certain kind of a cultural being with historicity. This implies that mathematics education is concerned with the formation of historical and cultural identity at a fundamental level.