Researching Science and Technology Teachers' Decisions Through Multimodal Narratives

Abstract

This chapter aims to identify certain interaction dynamics between pedagogical decisions and students' epistemic practices (EPs) that occur during science and technology lessons conducted by teachers at two different teaching levels. A content analysis was undertaken of multimodal narratives (MNs) of lessons based on two case studies of secondary and higher education teachers. MN excerpts are used to illustrate the interaction dynamics between pedagogical decisions and students' EPs for each teacher. Results show that the secondary education teacher makes more pedagogical decisions than the higher education teacher and that the secondary school students engage in fewer EPs than the higher education students. The results also show that it is possible to use MNs as an instrument to develop research on teachers' pedagogical decisions. Teachers' pedagogical decisions are an important asset for teacher professional development as they have an impact on students' epistemic work in the physical science classroom.