I artikeln undersöks hur elever positionerar sig och vilka kompetenser de använder i skapandet av digitala animationer i hybrida läraktiviteter. Syftet är att bidra med kunskap om centrala utgångspunkter för design av undervisning som innefattar hybrida läraktiviteter. Data består av videoobservationer av elever som tillsammans skapar digitala animationer i svenska, matematik och kemi. Studien tar utgångspunkt i det teoretiska perspektivet Design för Lärande, där undervisning och lärande betraktas som en form av multimodal design. Multimodal interaktionsanalys används för att analysera elevernas handlingar. Resultatet visar att eleverna använder tre kompetenser i de hybrida läraktiviteterna; digital kompetens, social kompetens och ämneskompetens. Utifrån hur kunniga och delaktiga eleverna är framträder fem olika positioneringar: kapten, guide, utforskare, missnöjd passagerare och passagerare. I artikeln diskuteras hur de olika positioneringarna och kompetenserna förhåller sig till och varandra och samverkar i hybrida läraktiviteter, samt vad lärare kan fokusera på i sin design av undervisning med digitala verktyg. 

In this article, the focus is on how students position themselves and what competencies they use when creating digital animations. The aim is to contribute with knowledge about important aspects for designing teaching that includes hybrid learning activities. The data consists of video observations of pupils' collaborative creation of digital animations in Swedish, Mathematics, and Chemistry. Multimodal interaction analysis was applied to analyze the pupils' actions. The study is theoretically framed by Design for Learning, where both teaching and learning are viewed as a form of multimodal design. The results showed five different positionings: captain, guide, explorer, dissatisfied passenger, and passenger. Three different competencies that pupils used in the hybrid learning activities were identified: digital, social, and subject competence. How the different positions and competencies relate to and interact with each other in hybrid learning activities were discussed, as well as what teachers can focus on in their design for learning. 

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.

Making meaning about disciplinary knowledge involves both disciplinary content and relevant semiotic resources (e.g., text structures) for communicating the content, as two sides of a coin. The purpose of this study is to contribute to research in science education with a model for visualising how the two sides of the coin are elaborated in classroom interaction, aiming to support students’ disciplinary knowledge development. The model was developed based on data from a series of lessons in a primary science classroom where the teacher and her students negotiated and made meaning about action and reaction forces. We show how the model can be used to deepen the understanding of how the meaning making through classroom interaction forms a pathway, visualising different levels of disciplinary literacy and hence the model's usefulness for both research and for designing teaching practices.

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.

Over the past decades, languages and literacies have become a prominent focus in science education research and practice. While there is broad consensus on the central roles of disciplinary, representational, and cultural languages and their associated literacies in learning and teaching science, the field faces a critical moment. An ever-growing number of new theoretical and methodological perspectives have revealed rich facets of the multilingual and multimodal nature of learning processes in science. These developments prompt us to reflect on the distinct identity and impact of languages and literacies on the contemporary discourse in science education, especially in light of technological innovations (e.g. large-language models) and societal developments (e.g. multilingual contexts). This position paper offers an opportunity to assess the field's past developments and future directions, building on a recent meeting of the Special Interest Group (SIG) on Languages and Literacies in Science Education under the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA). We present viewpoints from four founding members of the SIG, discussing current trends, challenges, and visions for the future. Ultimately, this paper invites our global community to engage in informed dialogues on the role and value of languages and literacies in science education today.

Denna studie syftar till att utforska ”vad som händer” och ”vad som är möjligt” när elever deltar i teoribaserad multimodal undervisning i kemi som inkluderar skapande av digitala animationer. Att elever ges möjlighet att skapa egna representationer har i tidigare studier lyfts fram som gynnsam för meningsskapande i kemi. Majoriteten av dessa studier är dock genförda med äldre elever. I föreliggande studie skapar sexåringar digitala animationer av vattenmolekyler och vattnets fasövergångar. Många sexåringar kan hantera digitala verktyg bland annat för social kommunikation och för spelande. Samtidigt är ett känt problem att barns intressen, tidigare erfarenheter och kunskaper inte alltid erkänns eller ligger till grund för fortsatt lärande i skolan. Digitala verktyg har dock visats öka elevers delaktighet och meningsskapande. En anledning till detta är att eleverna då kan använda flera uttrycksformer som exempelvis tal, skrift, bilder och gester för att representera sin kunskap. Föreliggande studie utgår från socialsemiotik och Design för Lärande (DfL), där undervisning och lärande ses som en multimodal design. Lärdesignsekvensmodellen, utvecklad inom DfL, användes som grund för lektionsdesignen och som ett analytiskt verktyg. Data samlades in genom att videofilma när elever i en förskoleklass deltog i multimodala läraktiviteter som inkluderade skapande av digitala animationer och metareflekterande diskussioner om sina digitala animationer. De huvudsakliga resultaten visar att teoribaserad multimodal undervisning av detta slag har potential att vara inkluderande och kan bidra till elevers meningsskapande i kemi, att skapandet av digitala animationer kan främja elevers deltagande och samarbete, samt att metareflektion kring animationerna är en viktig del av lektionsdesignen.

Challenges previously identified in teacher education in Sweden include: i) a gap between theoretical education provided by universities and the practical experiences encountered during teaching practice in schools, and ii) a lack of teaching methodologies in general, especially those involving digital tools. Despite research indicating that collaborative creation of digital animations by students can facilitate participation and cooperative learning (Ebbelind et al., 2023; Patron et al., 2024; Wernholm et al., 2023), these challenges persist. This developmental project aims to address these issues by introducing students to a theoretical model for designing learning activities and providing them with opportunities to utilize this model in planning, implementing, and evaluating learning activities involving digital tools.The theoretical model utilised in this project is the Learning Design Sequence (LDS)-model (Selander, 2008), which is developed within the Designs for Learning theory that in turn is theoretically connected to a social semiotics perspective of multimodality (Kress, 2010). Teacher students, university teachers and in-service teachers participate in this developmental project. Initially, university teachers and in-service teachers attended a lecture and a workshop. During this workshop, they were given the opportunity to engage in the same activity, to create a digital animation, that the teacher students are later offered to participate in. Subsequently, students utilised the LDS-model to plan, implement, and evaluate a learning design sequence with pupils. Finally, the students wrote individual reflections and shared and discussed their experiences with their peers. Following these activities, interviews were conducted with the university teachers, in-service teachers and the students to explore their experiences. Additionally, the students were asked for consent to share their written reflections with the researchers. The participating university teachers and students came from four different subject areas in three different teacher education programmes.Preliminary results suggest that the students experienced some challenges when using digital tools in their learning design, including technical issues and conflicts among younger pupils. However, the students also observed an improvement in pupil motivation and collaboration when given the opportunity to create digital animations to represent their knowledge. Additionally, the analysis indicates that the students perceived a clear connection between theory and practice, something that also in-service and university teachers expressed. 

This paper aims to explore how well-designed multimodal teaching affects pupils' meaning-making and ‘what’s happening’ and ‘what’s possible’ when pupils create multimodal digital animations of water molecules and phase changes of water. Previous research has shown that pupils’ participation in educational activities increases when they are allowed to use several forms of expression (Petersen, 2020). The project is qualitative and draws on the frameworks of social semiotics (e.g., see Kress et al., 2001) and Designs for Learning, DfL (Selander, 2008), where teaching and learning are seen as a multimodal design. The Learning Design Sequence model, developed within DfL is used as an analytical tool. Data has been generated by filming when pupils, in pairs or small groups, create digital animations in Chemistry. Afterwards, the children while showing their digital animations were asked about what they had been doing and what their intentions behind certain actions had been (cf. Wernholm & Reneland-Forsman,2019). The project adheres to the ethical considerations regarding informed consent, anonymity, and the right to withdraw participation without giving a reason. The researchers were sensitive and paid particular attention to the children’s nonverbal communication to ascertain genuine consent to participation. Preliminary results indicate that well-designed multimodal activities where pupils both create and reflect upon their digital animations appear to contribute to increased meaning-making in Chemistry. Thus, this project contributes with implications for early years of schooling by showing how using digital tools can create conditions for children’s participation and meaning-making in Chemistry.

One central issue for research in classrooms is to provide insights concerning characteristics of classroom interaction that can help teachers improve their teaching. In the present study, we analyse spoken interaction in one elementary physics classroom by the use of two different frameworks, targeting similar aspects of social communication, namely how discourse patterns shape the relations between participants. The two frameworks utilized are on the one hand analyses of the communicative approach according to Mortimer and Scott, combined with analyses of discourse patterns such as IRE-patterns, and on the other hand analyses related to the interpersonal meta-function in Halliday’s systemic-functional grammar, SFG. The aim was to highlight possibilities and limitations of the different frameworks. 

Our analyses reveal that the two analytical frameworks have partly the same, partly different affordances concerning what they can reveal about classroom interaction. The analyses of the communicative approaches have the potential of elucidating discursive patterns and power relations at a general level, while the analyses based on SFG can provide more details about the power relations in terms of how the participants actually structure their utterances. The results are also discussed regarding implications for education.