Multimodal Transduction in Secondary School Physics
Trevor S. Volkwyn1,2 John Airey1,3
Bor Gregorcic1 Filip Heijkenskjöld1
3Department of Languages Linneaus University,
Sweden
1Physics Education Research Group Uppsala University,
Sweden
2Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of the Western Cape, South Africa
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Want students to work with magnetic field to experience movability of a coordinate system
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Learning goal
Illustrate three types of transduction
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
A critical constellation • Disciplinary meaning is distributed across modes.
• Airey & Linder (2009) suggested students need fluency in a critical constellation of modes.
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Scientific Concept
A persistent resource
• Students need a persistent semiotic resource that functions as a coordinating hub (Fredlund et al. 2012).
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Theory
Multimodal learning sequence:
1. Set of non-persistent semiotic resources 2. Coordinated around a persistent semiotic resource 3. Creates a critical constellation 4. “Aha!” moment of understanding 5. Confirmatory transduction (this work adds an extra phase to the above established sequence)
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
The need for mediating tools
• Many physics phenomena are not directly accessible to our senses.
• Need mediating tools to transduct the meaning potential to a modality that is available to the senses Bezemer & Kress (2008), Newfield (2017).
• Example: The Earth’s magnetic field.
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
The Earth’s magnetic field
Mediating tool: Compass
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
• Interests of signmaker: Navigational.
• Shows direction of magnetic field along surface of the Earth. It points North
• But this is not the direction of the magnetic field (compass needles are weighted).
Mediating tool: IOLab
• Device with a coordinate system printed on it (NB!).
• Gives visual display (graph) on a laptop.
• Interests of signmaker: pedagogical, but generic.
• Want students to work with magnetic field to experience movability of a coordinate system
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Learning goal
In books coordinates appear fixed:
One major disciplinary affordance of coordinate systems is that they are not fixed.
Pedagogical affordance? How can students experience this movability of a coordinate system?
Example: use a physical coordinate system with three wooden rods in mutually orthogonal arrangement); but no physicist does disciplinary work with this!
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Coordinate Systems y
x
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
The task and setup • Students
worked in pairs • No detailed
instructions or what they had in front of them
• Task statement: “Find the magnetic field of the earth in room and paste red arrow to show it.”
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Speech
Gaze
Graph
Manipulation – proprioceptory
A multimodal ensemble
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
What happens if we move it? … Look at that, holy crap!
Students explore
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Speech
Getting a feel for the system
Gaze
Graph
Manipulation – proprioceptory
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Help from the teacher
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Transduction to an arrow…
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Gaze
Graph
Manipulation – proprioceptory
Speech
A critical constellation
Arrow Fredlund et al. (2012) persistent representation as a coordinating hub for meaning making
persistent representation acts as coordinating hub
Theory (so far …)
Multimodal learning sequence:
1. Set of non-persistent semiotic resources 2. Coordinated around a persistent semiotic resource 3. Creates a critical constellation 4. “Aha!” moment of understanding
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
The Aha! Moment…
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
It’s a 90 degree angle there. Aha! That is so cool … Yes!!
Yeah, that makes sense.
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
But what happens next?
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Confirmatory transduction
New meaning quickly transducted to iconic gesture – a new semiotic resource
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Confirmatory transduction
More iconic gesture – using arrow as coordinating hub (Fredlund et. Al. 2012)
Theory
Multimodal learning sequence:
1. Set of non-persistent semiotic resources 2. Coordinated around a persistent semiotic resource 3. Creates a critical constellation 4. “Aha!” moment of understanding 5. Confirmatory transduction
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Three types of transduction
1. IOLab transducts meaning potential in the room to something available to our senses (graph)
2. Students can then transduct meaning from the set of resources to a persistent representation (the arrow)
3. Once students experience the critical constellation, they quickly transduct meaning to a new semiotic resource (gesture) to confirm their new understanding.
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
Conclusions for teachers
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
• Disciplinary meaning is distributed across semiotic resources (modes).
• So there is a critical constellation of semiotic resources that is needed.
Conclusions for teachers
Volkwyn et. al, 8icom, Cape Town, 7-9 December 2016
• Task must facilitate appropriate coordination.
• Need to carefully decide what the persistent coordinating semiotic resource will be.
• Should look for confirmatory transduction to new semiotic resources as signal that learning is taking place.
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