How far can multimodal teaching go in science teaching?

Abstract

Teaching and learning of science is multimodal by nature. Visual modes play a key role in them. The visual modes bear a higher affordance than verbal modes in representing concrete ‘structures’ and – with the use of appropriate symbols – ‘processes’. There is an issue with the role of multimodal teaching, particularly the use of visual modes, in supporting students’ learning of non-structure and non-process abstract concepts. This could be a challenge because these concepts are ‘abstract’ (as contrast to ‘concrete’ according to Paivio), meaning that they are less likely to trigger and be supported by visual mental representations. Curricula around the world (e.g., in NGSS, Grades 7-12 Science/ Integrated Science curricula in Hong Kong) emphasize intellectual tools that transcend topics and subjects. They are called crosscutting concepts or unifying concepts. Unifying concepts include ‘forms and functions’, ‘change and constancy’, ‘systems and organizations’, ‘evidence and models’. So far, little resources are available to support the teaching of these concepts. We would like to explore what multimodal teaching can offer to facilitate students’ learning of these abstract concepts. In the talk, we will present a classroom episode in which Swedish primary school students constructed multimodal representations to explain gaseous expansion at a submicro level. Such construction may touch upon the unifying concepts ‘change and constancy’. We will report a multimodal analysis of the classroom episode. We also analyze it based on Lemke’s theory of thematic patterns, and suggest how the classroom episode may be extended to the teaching of ‘change and constancy’.