Multimodal Teaching and Learning: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom

Description

This book takes a radically different look at communication, and in doing so presents a series of challenges to accepted views on language, on communication, on teaching and, above all, on learning. Drawing on extensive research in science classrooms, it presents a view of communication in which language is not necessarily communication - image, gesture, speech, writing, models, spatial and bodily codes. The action of students in learning is radically rethought: all participants in communication are seen as active transformers of the meaning resources around them, and this approach opens a new window on the processes of learning. Title Page Copyright Page Contents List of Figures List of Tables Foreword References Acknowledgements Introduction Representation and communication Motivated signs Transformation and learning Design and innovation Language The origins of this book Chapter 1 Rhetorics of the science classroom: A multimodal approach Introduction A social semiotic approach to multimodality Rhetorics of the science classroom Rethinking learning Multimodal analysis of the science classroom Chapter 2 Multimodality Introduction A multimodal approach to communication The multimodal environment of the science classroom Conclusion Chapter 3 Analysing action in the science classroom Introduction A focus on action Analysing action Conventionalized forms of action in the science classroom The construction of particles through actional modes The action of students in the science classroom: Burning fuels What makes a good fuel? The pedagogic implications of action as a meaning-making resource Chapter 4 Shapes of knowledge Introduction Concept maps Summary From picture cards to written facts: Rubbing out difference Conclusion Chapter 5 Rethinking learning in the multimodal environment: Learning to be scientific Introduction Pupils’ signs as evidence of learning: Emergent expressions of scientificness Summary: Achieving ‘scientificness’ Chapter 6 Written genres and the transformation of multimodal communication: Students’ signs as evidence of learning Introduction Genre and multimodality Chapter 7 Materiality as an expression of learning Introduction Transformations: New signs Reality in the science classroom Texture, shape and colour Imported objects Visibility: Absence and presence Design Materiality and learning Chapter 8 Conclusion Introduction Practical issues Theoretical issues Reference Index