From Roof Cracks to Wound Healing: How SBF Analogy Shapes Students' Reasoning in Complex Biology Processes

Abstract

Understanding complex biological systems such as wound healing requires students to reason about structures, their dynamic interactions, and resulting functions. However, secondary school students often struggle with this due to cognitive overload and a tendency to focus on individual components rather than systemic behaviors. Building on prior work that demonstrated the effectiveness of analogical scaffolding, this study explores how analogies designed using the Structure–Behavior–Function (SBF) framework can support deeper biological reasoning. We developed an SBF-based analogical story that maps the wound healing process in the human immune system onto the familiar scenario of repairing a roof crack. While previous research showed that this intervention improved students’ SBF reasoning in pre- and post-test measures, the current study investigates the reasoning processes underlying this learning. We conducted a qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews conducted post-intervention. Inductive open coding revealed that students employed a variety of strategies while engaging with the SBF-based analogies, including sequential alignment between the analogy and target system, identifying dissimilarities, critiquing the limitations of the analogy, and transferring the analogy structure to generate new analogies. These findings suggest that students not only used analogies to understand the biological content but also actively engaged in higher-order thinking by evaluating and extending analogical reasoning. The study highlights the value of carefully designed SBF-based analogies in promoting SBF reasoning and suggests practical implications for scaffolding complex science concepts in secondary education.