This study comes from a Master's dissertation which tries to make evidencies of the use of analogies and metaphors on a spontaneous way by high school biology teachers. Opposite to one's starting expectation based on the strong presence of didactic collections on the didactic practice of teachers in a general way, in the observations one evidenced that few of the used analogies are the same as the ones present in the didactic collections adopted by the teachers that were subject of the research. One detected another sources from which can come the analogies that are presented and discussed in this text. Besides it, one discusses the results refering to the incorporation of analogies in the personal planning of the referred teachers.
pre-service teacher education; physics teaching methods courses; teacher knowledge.