We propose that students should develop “the ability to learn by focusing on similarities." “The ability to learn by focusing on similarities" is the potential to find similar elements among different things, situations, or phenomena, and then to associate or analogize them with each another. This skill enables us to apply the knowledge developed in a certain genre to another one, thereby leading to “cognitive fluidity" and “bricoleur."
In this case study, we showed students some pictures of lunch dishes and a washbasin one by one, and finally had them determine the similarities between the pictures and a human face. By extracting certain elements and ignoring others, students experienced how to recognize the objects in which they found “similarities." Through a simplified activity, students came to be aware of “finding similarities."