Exploring the role that visual representations play when teaching and learning chemical bonding : An approach built on social semiotics and phenomenography

In this thesis, I explore the role that visual representations play in the teaching and learning of chemistry, using chemical bonding as a particular case. I do this in a novel way by drawing on a combination of social semiotics and phenomenography. This combination allowed me to explore both the “what” and the “how” of teaching and learning with regards to the visual representations used. And, by exploring the three interconnected dimensions that constitute the phenomenographic concept of the object of learning – the intended, enacted and lived object of learning, I am able to provide a more extensive understanding of the role visual representations play in chemistry education. The empirical context is the Swedish upper secondary school chemistry classroom. I conducted interviews with teachers and students to explore their views of the role visual representations play in the teaching and learning of chemistry. When observing and recording teachers’ lessons of intermolecular forces I also explored their unpacking of visual representations.  I found that chemistry teachers do not always explicitly reflect on their use and selection of visual representations. The teachers’ limited reasoning in this regard presents a strong case for increasing the focus on visual communication in chemistry teacher education and in teacher development programmes in order to improve teachers’ visual representational practices. Furthermore, I found that visual representations can be unpacked in five qualitatively different ways when teaching intermolecular forces. These ways of unpacking can be arranged hierarchically, based on their perceived complexity from a student perspective. Two of these ways of unpacking are teacher-centered, whilst the other three are student-centered. The hierarchy suggest that teachers should reason not only about what visual representations they should use, but also how they should unpack them in order to maximise the possibilities for their students’ meaning-making. The analysis of the students’ interviews confirmed that if teachers are going to open up learning possibilities, then they need to unpack visual representations in student-centered ways. However, a key issue from a student perspective is that the teacher should also reflect on how to verbally guide the students through this process of unpacking

Exkursion – ett lärandetillfälle? : Lärare och elevers uppfattningar om exkursioners betydelse för lärande i ekologi

The main purpose of this study was to obtain insight into what students and teachers think about field trips in ecology and whether they think that fieldtrips result in increase of students’ learning. Open questionnaires and half structured interviews were used to investigate this. Persons who answered the questionnaires and participated in the interviews were senior high school teachers in biology or science and high school science students. All the teachers and most of the students thought that field trips in ecology resulted in increased learning. Those students who had spent more time on field trips found it more learning and fun than students which had spent less time on field trips, which can indicate that if students spend more time on field trips they think it is more fun and that they learn more. The teachers realized some difficulties with taking students out on field trips such as lack of money, lack of time, large groups and fitting the field trips into the school schedule. Earlier studies confirm to a large extent my results regarding teachers’ views upon field trips and they also show that field trips result in an increase of students’ knowledge. My study is unique because I investigate the students’ views on field trips, if they experience that they learn on field trips and if field trips make them motivated to learn more about ecology

Exploring the role that visual representations play when teaching and learning chemical bonding : An approach built on social semiotics and phenomenography

In this thesis, I explore the role that visual representations play in the teaching and learning of chemistry, using chemical bonding as a particular case. I do this in a novel way by drawing on a combination of social semiotics and phenomenography. This combination allowed me to explore both the “what” and the “how” of teaching and learning with regards to the visual representations used. And, by exploring the three interconnected dimensions that constitute the phenomenographic concept of the object of learning – the intended, enacted and lived object of learning, I am able to provide a more extensive understanding of the role visual representations play in chemistry education. The empirical context is the Swedish upper secondary school chemistry classroom. I conducted interviews with teachers and students to explore their views of the role visual representations play in the teaching and learning of chemistry. When observing and recording teachers’ lessons of intermolecular forces I also explored their unpacking of visual representations.  I found that chemistry teachers do not always explicitly reflect on their use and selection of visual representations. The teachers’ limited reasoning in this regard presents a strong case for increasing the focus on visual communication in chemistry teacher education and in teacher development programmes in order to improve teachers’ visual representational practices. Furthermore, I found that visual representations can be unpacked in five qualitatively different ways when teaching intermolecular forces. These ways of unpacking can be arranged hierarchically, based on their perceived complexity from a student perspective. Two of these ways of unpacking are teacher-centered, whilst the other three are student-centered. The hierarchy suggest that teachers should reason not only about what visual representations they should use, but also how they should unpack them in order to maximise the possibilities for their students’ meaning-making. The analysis of the students’ interviews confirmed that if teachers are going to open up learning possibilities, then they need to unpack visual representations in student-centered ways. However, a key issue from a student perspective is that the teacher should also reflect on how to verbally guide the students through this process of unpacking

Making the Invisible Visible : The role of undergraduate textbooks in the teaching and learning of physics and chemistry

As disciplines, undergraduate physics and chemistry leverage a particularly wide range of semiotic systems (modes) in order to create and communicate their scientific meanings. Examples of the different semiotic systems employed are: spoken and written language, mathematics, chemical formulae, graphs, diagrams, sketches, computer simulations, hands-on work with experimental apparatus, computer simulations, etc. Individual semiotic resources within this range of semiotic systems are coordinated in specific constellations (Airey & Linder, 2009) in order to mediate scientific knowledge. In this Swedish Research Council project, we are interested in the representation of scientific phenomena that cannot be seen. The question we pose is: How is scientific knowledge mediated when we cannot directly interact with the phenomena in question through our senses?  We adopt a social semiotic approach (Airey & Linder, 2017; van Leeuwen, 2005), to investigate the ways in which two phenomena—electromagnetic fields and chemical bonds—are presented in undergraduate textbooks. To do this we carried out a semiotic audit (Airey & Erikson, 2019) of eight textbooks (four in each discipline). We note that the individual resources used have a mixture of affordances—whilst the majority retain high disciplinary affordance, others are unpacked (Patron et al. 2021) providing higher pedagogical affordance. We discuss the ways in which the resources have been combined and orchestrated (Bezemer & Jewitt, 2010) in order to attempt to make visible that which is invisible, and identify a number of potential problems. In earlier work, Volkwyn et al. (2019) demonstrated how experimental work with physics devices can make the Earth’s magnetic field accessible to students through chains of transduction. Thus, we propose that encouraging transductions across the semiotic resource systems provided in textbooks may help students to experience the invisible. References Airey, J. (2006). Physics students' experiences of the disciplinary discourse encountered in lectures in English and Swedish (Licentiate dissertation, Department of Physics, Uppsala University). Airey, J. (2009). Science, language, and literacy: Case studies of learning in Swedish university physics (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis). Airey, J. (2015). Social Semiotics in Higher Education: Examples from teaching and learning in undergraduate physics. In In: SACF Singapore-Sweden Excellence Seminars, Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research in   Higher Education (STINT) , 2015 (pp. 103).  Airey, J., & Eriksson, U. (2019). Unpacking the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: A social semiotic analysis of the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of a central resource in astronomy. Designs for Learning, 11(1), 99-107. Goodwin, C. (2015). Professional vision. In Aufmerksamkeit: Geschichte-Theorie-Empirie (pp. 387-425). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. O’Halloran, K. (2007). Mathematical and scientific forms of knowledge: A systemic functional multimodal grammatical approach. language, Knowledge and pedagogy: functional linguistic and sociological perspective, 205-236. Patron, E. (2022). Exploring the role that visual representations play when teaching and learning chemical bonding: An approach built on social semiotics and phenomenography(Doctoral dissertation, Linnaeus University Press).Making the invisible visible: The role of representations in teaching and learning university physics and chemistry

Making the Invisible Visible : The role of undergraduate textbooks in the teaching and learning of physics and chemistry

As disciplines, undergraduate physics and chemistry leverage a particularly wide range of semiotic systems (modes) in order to create and communicate their scientific meanings. Examples of the different semiotic systems employed are: spoken and written language, mathematics, chemical formulae, graphs, diagrams, sketches, computer simulations, hands-on work with experimental apparatus, computer simulations, etc. Individual semiotic resources within this range of semiotic systems are coordinated in specific constellations (Airey & Linder, 2009) in order to mediate scientific knowledge. In this Swedish Research Council project, we are interested in the representation of scientific phenomena that cannot be seen. The question we pose is: How is scientific knowledge mediated when we cannot directly interact with the phenomena in question through our senses?  We adopt a social semiotic approach (Airey & Linder, 2017; van Leeuwen, 2005), to investigate the ways in which two phenomena—electromagnetic fields and chemical bonds—are presented in undergraduate textbooks. To do this we carried out a semiotic audit (Airey & Erikson, 2019) of eight textbooks (four in each discipline). We note that the individual resources used have a mixture of affordances—whilst the majority retain high disciplinary affordance, others are unpacked (Patron et al. 2021) providing higher pedagogical affordance. We discuss the ways in which the resources have been combined and orchestrated (Bezemer & Jewitt, 2010) in order to attempt to make visible that which is invisible, and identify a number of potential problems. In earlier work, Volkwyn et al. (2019) demonstrated how experimental work with physics devices can make the Earth’s magnetic field accessible to students through chains of transduction. Thus, we propose that encouraging transductions across the semiotic resource systems provided in textbooks may help students to experience the invisible. References Airey, J. (2006). Physics students' experiences of the disciplinary discourse encountered in lectures in English and Swedish (Licentiate dissertation, Department of Physics, Uppsala University). Airey, J. (2009). Science, language, and literacy: Case studies of learning in Swedish university physics (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis). Airey, J. (2015). Social Semiotics in Higher Education: Examples from teaching and learning in undergraduate physics. In In: SACF Singapore-Sweden Excellence Seminars, Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research in   Higher Education (STINT) , 2015 (pp. 103).  Airey, J., & Eriksson, U. (2019). Unpacking the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: A social semiotic analysis of the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of a central resource in astronomy. Designs for Learning, 11(1), 99-107. Goodwin, C. (2015). Professional vision. In Aufmerksamkeit: Geschichte-Theorie-Empirie (pp. 387-425). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. O’Halloran, K. (2007). Mathematical and scientific forms of knowledge: A systemic functional multimodal grammatical approach. language, Knowledge and pedagogy: functional linguistic and sociological perspective, 205-236. Patron, E. (2022). Exploring the role that visual representations play when teaching and learning chemical bonding: An approach built on social semiotics and phenomenography(Doctoral dissertation, Linnaeus University Press).Making the invisible visible: The role of representations in teaching and learning university physics and chemistry

Making the Invisible Visible : The role of undergraduate textbooks in the teaching and learning of physics and chemistry

As disciplines, undergraduate physics and chemistry leverage a particularly wide range of semiotic systems (modes) in order to create and communicate their scientific meanings. Examples of the different semiotic systems employed are: spoken and written language, mathematics, chemical formulae, graphs, diagrams, sketches, computer simulations, hands-on work with experimental apparatus, computer simulations, etc. Individual semiotic resources within this range of semiotic systems are coordinated in specific constellations (Airey & Linder, 2009) in order to mediate scientific knowledge. In this Swedish Research Council project, we are interested in the representation of scientific phenomena that cannot be seen. The question we pose is: How is scientific knowledge mediated when we cannot directly interact with the phenomena in question through our senses?  We adopt a social semiotic approach (Airey & Linder, 2017; van Leeuwen, 2005), to investigate the ways in which two phenomena—electromagnetic fields and chemical bonds—are presented in undergraduate textbooks. To do this we carried out a semiotic audit (Airey & Erikson, 2019) of eight textbooks (four in each discipline). We note that the individual resources used have a mixture of affordances—whilst the majority retain high disciplinary affordance, others are unpacked (Patron et al. 2021) providing higher pedagogical affordance. We discuss the ways in which the resources have been combined and orchestrated (Bezemer & Jewitt, 2010) in order to attempt to make visible that which is invisible, and identify a number of potential problems. In earlier work, Volkwyn et al. (2019) demonstrated how experimental work with physics devices can make the Earth’s magnetic field accessible to students through chains of transduction. Thus, we propose that encouraging transductions across the semiotic resource systems provided in textbooks may help students to experience the invisible. References Airey, J. (2006). Physics students' experiences of the disciplinary discourse encountered in lectures in English and Swedish (Licentiate dissertation, Department of Physics, Uppsala University). Airey, J. (2009). Science, language, and literacy: Case studies of learning in Swedish university physics (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis). Airey, J. (2015). Social Semiotics in Higher Education: Examples from teaching and learning in undergraduate physics. In In: SACF Singapore-Sweden Excellence Seminars, Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research in   Higher Education (STINT) , 2015 (pp. 103).  Airey, J., & Eriksson, U. (2019). Unpacking the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: A social semiotic analysis of the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of a central resource in astronomy. Designs for Learning, 11(1), 99-107. Goodwin, C. (2015). Professional vision. In Aufmerksamkeit: Geschichte-Theorie-Empirie (pp. 387-425). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. O’Halloran, K. (2007). Mathematical and scientific forms of knowledge: A systemic functional multimodal grammatical approach. language, Knowledge and pedagogy: functional linguistic and sociological perspective, 205-236. Patron, E. (2022). Exploring the role that visual representations play when teaching and learning chemical bonding: An approach built on social semiotics and phenomenography(Doctoral dissertation, Linnaeus University Press).Making the invisible visible: The role of representations in teaching and learning university physics and chemistry

Making the Invisible Visible : The role of undergraduate textbooks in the teaching and learning of physics and chemistry

As disciplines, undergraduate physics and chemistry leverage a particularly wide range of semiotic systems (modes) in order to create and communicate their scientific meanings. Examples of the different semiotic systems employed are: spoken and written language, mathematics, chemical formulae, graphs, diagrams, sketches, computer simulations, hands-on work with experimental apparatus, computer simulations, etc. Individual semiotic resources within this range of semiotic systems are coordinated in specific constellations (Airey & Linder, 2009) in order to mediate scientific knowledge. In this Swedish Research Council project, we are interested in the representation of scientific phenomena that cannot be seen. The question we pose is: How is scientific knowledge mediated when we cannot directly interact with the phenomena in question through our senses?  We adopt a social semiotic approach (Airey & Linder, 2017; van Leeuwen, 2005), to investigate the ways in which two phenomena—electromagnetic fields and chemical bonds—are presented in undergraduate textbooks. To do this we carried out a semiotic audit (Airey & Erikson, 2019) of eight textbooks (four in each discipline). We note that the individual resources used have a mixture of affordances—whilst the majority retain high disciplinary affordance, others are unpacked (Patron et al. 2021) providing higher pedagogical affordance. We discuss the ways in which the resources have been combined and orchestrated (Bezemer & Jewitt, 2010) in order to attempt to make visible that which is invisible, and identify a number of potential problems. In earlier work, Volkwyn et al. (2019) demonstrated how experimental work with physics devices can make the Earth’s magnetic field accessible to students through chains of transduction. Thus, we propose that encouraging transductions across the semiotic resource systems provided in textbooks may help students to experience the invisible. References Airey, J. (2006). Physics students' experiences of the disciplinary discourse encountered in lectures in English and Swedish (Licentiate dissertation, Department of Physics, Uppsala University). Airey, J. (2009). Science, language, and literacy: Case studies of learning in Swedish university physics (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis). Airey, J. (2015). Social Semiotics in Higher Education: Examples from teaching and learning in undergraduate physics. In In: SACF Singapore-Sweden Excellence Seminars, Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research in   Higher Education (STINT) , 2015 (pp. 103).  Airey, J., & Eriksson, U. (2019). Unpacking the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram: A social semiotic analysis of the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of a central resource in astronomy. Designs for Learning, 11(1), 99-107. Goodwin, C. (2015). Professional vision. In Aufmerksamkeit: Geschichte-Theorie-Empirie (pp. 387-425). Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden. O’Halloran, K. (2007). Mathematical and scientific forms of knowledge: A systemic functional multimodal grammatical approach. language, Knowledge and pedagogy: functional linguistic and sociological perspective, 205-236. Patron, E. (2022). Exploring the role that visual representations play when teaching and learning chemical bonding: An approach built on social semiotics and phenomenography(Doctoral dissertation, Linnaeus University Press).Making the invisible visible: The role of representations in teaching and learning university physics and chemistry

Exploring hybrid learning activities with six-year-olds

This paper aims to explore how pupils' positioning, competencies and meaning-making emerge in hybrid learning activities when they create digital animations in different subjects. Children of today have never lived in an analogous world but in a hybrid reality where the physical and the digital are so intertwined that they cannot be separated (Wernholm, 2020). The qualitative project draws on the frameworks of social semiotics (Kress et al., 2001) and Designs for Learning (Selander, 2008), where teaching and learning are seen as a multimodal design. As part of the Design for Learning framework, the Learning Design Sequence model is used as an analytical tool. Data has been generated by filming when pupils, in pairs or small groups, create digital animations in different subjects. The children’s digital animations were also used to get them to tell their stories about what they had done and what their intentions behind certain actions were (cf. Wernholm & Reneland-Forsman, 2019). The researchers were sensitive and paid particular attention to the children’s nonverbal communication to ascertain genuine consent to participation. Preliminary results indicate that when pupils participate in hybrid learning activities by creating digital animations together, they position themselves in relation to each other and the tablet. Furthermore, they draw on their previous experiences and competencies to make meaning. Thus, this project contributes by providing implications for the early years of schooling by showing how the use of digital tools can put a variety of children’s competencies into play and support their meaning-making in different subjects

An Exploration of How Multimodally Designed Teaching and the Creation of Digital Animations can Contribute to Six-Year-Olds' Meaning Making in Chemistry

Previous research shows that pupils’ participation in educational activities increases when they are allowed to use several forms of expression. Furthermore, digital media have become increasingly prominent as “carriers” of meaning in chemistry education. Based on that, this paper aims to explore ‘what is happening’ and ‘what is possible’ when six-year-old pupils participate in multimodally designed learning activities and create digital animations of water molecules and phase changes of water. This study is qualitative and draws on the frameworks of social semiotics and Designs for Learning, DfL, where teaching and learning are seen as a multimodal design. The Learning Design Sequence model, developed within DfL is used as a basis for the lesson design and as an analytical tool. The analyzed data were generated by filming when pupils participated in multimodal learning activities, created digital animations, and participated in meta-reflective discussions regarding their digital animations. The main findings are that multimodally designed lessons can increase pupils’ meaning making in chemistry, that the creation of digital animations may both increase pupils’ participation and support their meaning making, and that meta-reflection of pupils’ representations is an important part of the lesson design

Pupils creating digital animations in the early years of schooling

Research show that the use of computers and other digital tools such as tablets, smartboards and game consoles is rapidly becoming a reality in early-childhood educational settings and in the early years of schooling in Sweden. Thus, an important question is what potential digital tools and digital resources has to increase pupils’ meaning making when integrated into educational practices. Therefore, the aim of this project is to explore ‘what’s happening’ and ‘what’s possible” when pupils in small groups create digital animations together. The theoretical base for the project is Designs for Learning (DfL), according to which teaching, and learning are seen as a form of multimodal design: the teacher stages, or designs, learning activities, thus giving the pupils access to different resources that enable meaning making, and the pupils in turn re-design their learning based on their previous knowledge, interests and experiences. As part of the DfL framework, a model – Learning Design Sequence (LDS) – has been developed for teachers to use to plan and evaluate their teaching, and for researchers to use as an analytical tool in research studies.This project is carried out in three currently running studies in which the creation of digital animations when learning different subjects is studied, based on LDS. The chosen subjects are Swedish, Mathematics and Science. The project adheres to the ethical considerations regarding informed consent, anonymity, and the right to withdraw participation from the study without giving a reason. Data has been generated by filming when pupils create digital animations together. In one of the studies the pupils’ talk about their digital animations were also filmed. Thereby, fine-tune details of pupils’ multimodal interaction could be captured and analyzed. Also, pupils’ multimodal texts (writing, drawings, digital animations), teaching material and teachers’ lessons plans were collected. The results also indicate that the highest level of engagement, in terms of negotiating, contributing, making suggestions, and making conscious choices of what signs to use, can be traced to learning activities where digital tools and digital resources were afforded. Thus, this project contributes with valuable knowledge to the field of Nordic educational research by showing how the use of digital tools and digital resources can create conditions for children’s participation, positioning and meaning making in the early years of schooling.Ej belagd 240903Digitala verktyg och digital kompetens i förskolans- och skolans undervisnin