Build a bridging analogy from what they know to what they don’t

Map the new concept onto a structure the audience already understands.

Why it works

An analogy transfers the relational structure of a familiar domain onto the unfamiliar one, allowing the learner to borrow inferences they have already built. For a cursed-by-knowledge expert, constructing the analogy forces them to identify what makes their concept structurally unique — which is exactly the distinction a novice needs. The failure mode is a surface analogy that imports the wrong inferences.

How to do it

1. Name the unfamiliar concept and its three or four key structural relationships.
2. Ask: what everyday system has the same pattern of relationships?
3. State the mapping explicitly: "X is like Y in that both have [shared structure]."
4. Also state where the analogy breaks down — this is not optional.

Evidence

Structural analogy research (Gentner) shows that explaining by analogy speeds acquisition of novel concepts when the analogy shares relational structure rather than surface similarity. Effect is well documented in physics and mathematics instruction. Gick & Holyoak (1983) showed that transfer to a new problem depended on learners inducing the shared relational schema across analogs — direct evidence that a bridging analogy works through structural mapping, not surface resemblance. (observational)

Analogies can mislead when the wrong features transfer; always naming the breakdown point is not optional — it is the safeguard.

Sources

• Gentner & Holyoak (1997), reasoning and learning by analogy, American Psychologist
• Gentner, D., & Holyoak, K. J. (1997). Reasoning and learning by analogy: Introduction. American Psychologist, 52(1), 32–34.
• Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15(1), 1–38.

Common mistake

Using the analogy that is easiest for you to produce (one already in your expert vocabulary) rather than one built from what the learner actually knows.