Signs of Learning—Multiple Modes as Support for Interaction in a Linguistically Diverse Physics Classroom

Abstract

Students’ and teachers’ meaning making in science classrooms is dependent on language in a broad, multimodal, sense, comprising specialized lexicogrammar and ways of using semiotic resources such as models, diagrams, and subject specific symbols. Altogether, the multimodal demands of science can be challenging, in particular for students learning the language of instruction in parallel with the subject content. Yet, multimodal perspectives are scarce in research concerning science learning in linguistically diverse classrooms, where several students are educated in their second language. Drawing on designs for learning theory, the interaction in a linguistically diverse physics classroom was analyzed through the Learning Design Sequence model to investigate the teacher’s design for learning for students’ meaning-making about ‘sound’. Thereto, students’ ‘signs of learning’ regarding subject content and how to communicate content in line with the discourse of science was analyzed. The teacher’s design for learning gave the students opportunities to interact about content by use of different semiotic modes, with gradually higher demands regarding both content and how to express the content which appeared to support students’ development of content knowledge and competency to express this knowledge in line with the discourse of science. However, some of the teacher’s choices appeared to be a hindrance for the students.