Eftersom kemi ofta handlar om saker som inte kan ses med blotta ögat är visuella representationer en central del av kommunikation och meningsskapande i ämnet. Studien fokuserar på hur ”osynliga” kemiska fenomen synliggörs i läroböcker för universitetsstudenter inom området kemisk bindning. 

Studien grundas i ett socialsemiotiskt perspektiv med fokus på hur kommunikation och meningsskapande sker med olika semiotiska resurser. Inledningsvis genomfördes en övergripande analys av de visuella representationer som används för att synliggöra kemisk bindning i tre läroböcker. Resultatet visar att läroböckerna främst använder diagram med ett disciplinärt och abstrakt innehåll. En slutsats som dras är att dessa representationer kan behöva packas upp i läromedlet för att främja studenters meningsskapande. 

I nästa steg genomfördes en mer detaljerad analys av hur molekylorbitaldiagram illustreras och packas upp i läroböckerna. Denna typ av diagram är centrala i bindningsteori, samtidigt som de visats vara svåra för studenter att förstå. Diagrammen analyserades med avseende på vilka relevanta aspekter som synliggörs och hur de packas upp. Resultatet visar fem olika kategorier av upp-packning; 

·       antagande, (dvs. ingen uppackning sker),

·       skriven text i representationen, 

·       omgivande skriven text,

·       visuella representationer i samma semiotiska system,

·       visuella representationer i annat semiotiskt system

Baserat på resultaten dras slutsatsen att studenters möjlighet till meningsskapande kan påverkas av hur relevanta aspekter packas upp i läroböcker. Det är centralt att läromedelsförfattare reflekterar över vilka visuella representationer som används och hur de packas upp i läromedlet. Resultaten bör även vara relevanta för lärare i andra ämnen som berör fenomen som inte går att se med blotta ögat. 

In this chapter we use the concept of disciplinary literacy (Airey, 2011a, 2013) to analyze the goals of university physics lecturers. Disciplinary literacy refers to a particular mix of disciplinary-specific communicative practices developed for three specific sites: the academy, the workplace and society. It has been suggested that the development of disciplinary literacy may be seen as one of the primary goals of university studies (Airey, 2011a). The main data set used in this chapter comes from a comparative study of physics lecturers in Sweden and South Africa (Airey, 2012, 2013; Linder, Airey, Mayaba, & Webb, 2014). Semi-structured interviews were carried out using a disciplinary literacy discussion matrix (Airey, 2011b), which enabled us to probe the lecturers' disciplinary literacy goals in the various semiotic resource systems used in undergraduate physics (i.e. graphs, diagrams, mathematics, language). The findings suggest that whilst physics lecturers have strikingly similar disciplinary literacy goals for their students, regardless of setting, they have very different ideas about whether they themselves should teach students to handle these disciplinary-specific semiotic resources. It is suggested that the similarity in physics lecturers' disciplinary literacy goals across highly disparate settings may be related to the hierarchical, singular nature of the discipline of physics (Bernstein, 1999, 2000). In the final section of the chapter some preliminary evidence about the disciplinary literacy goals of those involved in physics teacher training is presented. Using Bernstein's constructs, a potential conflict between the hierarchical singular of physics and the horizontal region of teacher training is noticeable. Going forward it would be interesting to apply the concept of disciplinary literacy to the analysis of other disciplines-particularly those with different combinations of Bernstein's classifications of hierarchical/horizontal and singular/region.

Recently, in the wake of the Bologna Declaration and similar international initiatives, there has been a rapid increase in the number of university courses and programmes taught through the medium of English. Surveys have consistently shown the Nordic countries to be at the forefront of this trend towards English-medium instruction (EMI). In this paper, we discuss the introduction of EMI in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). We present the educational setting and the EMI debate in each of these countries and summarize relevant research findings. We then make some tentative suggestions for the introduction of EMI in higher education in other countries. In particular, we are interested in university language policies and their relevance for the day-to-day work of faculty. We problematize one-size-fits-all university language policies, suggesting that in order for policies to be seen as relevant they need to be flexible enough to take into account disciplinary differences. In this respect, we make some specific suggestions about the content of university language policies and EMI course syllabuses. Here we recommend that university language policies should encourage the discussion of disciplinary literacy goals and require course syllabuses to detail disciplinary-specific language-learning outcomes.

Disciplinary learning is a multimodal endeavour that calls for achieving representational competency (Linder et al 2014), which is constituted from the coordination of disciplinary semiotic resources (Airey & Linder, in press). Examples of these semiotic resources for disciplines such as physics and chemistry are mathematics, graphs, gestures, diagrams and language. The effective learning of complex subjects such as these presents many unsolved challenges. In order to begin working towards solving these challenges much still needs to be done to deepen our understanding of how such disciplinary learning takes place. Taking the idea that formal learning is made possible through experiencing specific patterns of variation (Marton 2015), we will use our analysis of student-engagement data to present a case for seeing complex learning in terms of the multimodal emergence (Davis & Sumara, 2006) of transduction (Kress, 2010).  We use these results to propose a model of disciplinary learning that characterizes the multimodal emergence of transduction in terms of the start of a journey towards achieving fluency in a critical constellation of semiotic resources (Airey & Linder 2009; in press) for a given object of learning.

References

Airey, J. & Linder, C. (in press) Social Semiotics in University Physics Education, in Treagust, D., Duit R., Fischer, H. (eds) Multiple Representations in Physics Education: Springer.

Airey, J., & Linder, C. (2009). A disciplinary discourse perspective on university science learning: Achieving fluency in a critical constellation of modes. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46(1), 27-49.

Kress G. 2010. Multimodality. A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. London: Routledge.

Davis, B., & Sumara, D. (2006). Complexity and education: Inquiries into learning, teaching and research: Erlbaum.

Linder, A., Airey, J., Mayaba, N., & Webb, P. (2014). Fostering Disciplinary Literacy? South African Physics Lecturers’ Educational Responses to their Students’ Lack of Representational Competence. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 18(3), 242-252. 

Marton, F. (2015). Necessary Conditions of learning: Routledge

Introduction

In this chapter I discuss the European-inspired notion of content and language integrated learning (CLIL). What makes CLIL different from English-medium instruction (EMI) on the one hand and English for academic purposes (EAP) on the other? A cursory examination of the acronym itself raises a number of questions. The Ls in CLIL-language and learning-are straightforward enough, but what about the I and the C? The I in CLIL stands for integrated: this signals CLIL’s dual emphasis on disciplinary learning outcomes along with language learning. Which brings us to the C in CLIL-content. More than anything else, it is this focus on the teaching of disciplinary content that makes CLIL unique. Can EAP professionals teach content? Can disciplinary experts teach language? Or does the CLIL approach necessarily imply collaboration between language and content teachers? These are some of the questions I address in this chapter.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a social semiotic approach to analysing objects of learning in terms of their critical aspects. Design/methodology/approach – The design for this paper focuses on how the semiotic resources – including language, equations, and diagrams – that are commonly used in physics teaching realise the critical aspects of a common physics object of learning. A social semiotic approach to the analysis of a canonical text extract from optics is presented to illustrate how critical aspects can be identified. Findings – Implications for university teaching and learning of physics stemming from this social semiotic approach are suggested.

Originality/value – Hitherto under-explored similarities between the Variation Theory of Learning, which underpins learning studies, and a social semiotic approach to meaning-making are identified. These similarities are used to propose a new, potentially very powerful approach to identifying critical aspects of objects of learning. 

Introduction

In Sweden, the training of secondary physics teachers generally consists of three parts: physics courses in the physics department, pedagogical core courses in the education department and teaching practice in schools. In this paper we study the discourse models enacted in these three training environments at a large university in Sweden. Our interest is the potential effects these discourse models may have on trainee physics teachers’ professional identity building.

Building a professional identity

Teacher training has numerous goals. Apart from learning subject matter and pedagogical skills, trainees are also in the process of building their professional teacher identity. Here, we argue that in order to support this process as effectively as possible we need to better understand the role the training environment plays in this identity-building process.

The concept of professional identity has been used within educational research in a variety of ways (see for example summaries in Beauchamp & Thomas, 2009 and Beijaard, Meijer, & Verloop, 2004). For our purposes, we follow Connelly and Clandinin (1999) who view professional identity as consisting of the set of narratives teachers tell about what it means to be a teacher. In order to be judged as professional, these narratives need to be framed within accepted discourse models. As Gee points out:

“[Discourse] allows (and requires) people to be (for a time and place) socioculturally distinctive who's and to accomplish socioculturally distinctive what's. These who's and what's are always defined, partially, in opposition to other sorts of who's and what's, and are always related to models of what count as "valuable" (and "normal") people, activities, and things.” (2005, p. 31).

Thus, our aim is to study the potential effects of a Swedish teacher training programme on trainee physics teachers’ professional identity-building. What interests us are the discourse models that are enacted in the three environments that trainee physics teachers encounter, and the affordances and constraints for the construction of professional identities that these models entail.

Methodology – data collection – analysis

We conducted semi-structured interviews (Kvale, 1996) with nine teacher educators (three physics lecturers, three pedagogy lecturers and three school placement supervisors). The interviews were guided by a smaller number of overarching themes, such as the informant’s opinion about what physics teacher students need to learn. Each of the themes was followed up with open-ended questions in order to elicit the particular concerns of the informant. The interviews lasted around 90 minutes and were later transcribed verbatim, iteratively coded and analysed thematically (Bogdan & Biklen, 1992)

Findings

Our analysis resulted in a number of distinct and potentially competing discourse models (Gee 2005) that are enacted in the three environments trainee physics teachers meet. In this paper we particularly focus on the ‘physics expert’ model (see figure 1). Our reason for focusing on this particular model is that it dominates amongst both teacher educators at the physics department and school placement supervisors. In this model, the primary goal of physics education, both in secondary school and at university level is to create future physics experts.

Figure 1: The physics expert discourse model

In the physics expert discourse model current research into physics and its applications is seen as exciting and motivating both for students and teachers. In contrast, secondary school subject matter is viewed as inherently boring—something that needs to be made interesting. Following this logic, one important thing for trainee teachers to learn is how to keep up with new discoveries in physics in order to make school physics exciting and meaningful.

The physics expert model co-exists with several other discourse models that are more likely to be invoked in the education department. These models value quite different goals such as the development of practical skills, reflective practice, critical thinking and citizenship.

Educational significance

Invoking the physics expert model makes the building of a professional identity problematic for trainee physics teachers in a number of ways. First choosing to become a secondary school teacher does not sit very well with the valuing of a physics expert identity. If focused, cutting-edge research is what is valued, why would anyone choose to go and work with physics in an unfocused, general manner in schools? Second, the underlying premises of many of the courses trainee physics teachers take in the education department are difficult to reconcile with this model. For example, if the main role of a physics teacher is the creation of future physicists, important parts of the curriculum such as developing a scientifically literate society become relegated to a subsidiary status.  

Conclusions

We have identified a number of discourse models that we claim tacitly steer what is signalled as valued (and not valued) in the teacher-training programme we studied. For teacher trainers, we argue that a better understanding of these models will allow conscious, informed decisions to be taken about their own teaching practice. For prospective teachers, knowledge of these models is important since it empowers them to question the kind of teacher they want to become. Going forward it would be interesting to see whether similar models can be found in other teacher training programmes both within Sweden and in other countries.

References

Beauchamp, C., & Thomas, L. (2009). Understanding teacher identity: an overview of issues in the literature and implications for teacher education. Cambridge Journal of Education, 39(2), 175–189.

Beijaard, D., Meijer, P. C., & Verloop, N. (2004). Reconsidering research on teachers’ professional identity. Teaching and Teacher Education, 20(2), 107–128.

Bogdan, R., & Biklen, S. K. (1992). Qualitative research for education : an introduction to theory and methods. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1999). Shaping a professional identity : stories of educational practice. New York: Teachers College Press.

Gee, J. P. (2005). An introduction to discourse analysis : theory and method. New York: Routledge.

Kvale, S. (1996). Interviews : an introduction to qualitative research interviewing. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.

In this theoretical article we propose three factors that can enhance the possibilities for learning physics from representations, namely: (1) the identification of disciplinary-relevant aspects for a particular disciplinary task, such as solving a physics problem or explaining a phenomenon, (2) the selection of appropriate representations that showcase these disciplinary-relevant aspects, and (3) the creation of variation within the selected representations to help students notice these disciplinary-relevant aspects and the ways in which they are related to each other. An illustration of how these three factors can guide teachers in their efforts to promote physics learning is presented.

This chapter summarizes my research work in Swedish higher education in the area of teaching and learning in English. Sweden makes for a particularly interesting case study since there are high levels of English competence in the general population and a large percentage of university courses have traditionally been taught through the medium of English.

The work I have done falls into three broad categories:  University learning in English, University teaching in English and Disciplinary differences in attitudes to English language use.

Over the years I have used a range of data collection techniques including video recordings of lectures, semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and stimulated recall. The research work is almost exclusively qualitative in nature adopting a case study approach.