Affordances and Constraints of Meaning-Making in Multimodal Science Classrooms

When explaining concepts in science classes, teachers make available to students a variety of communicative resources, both verbal and nonverbal. Nonverbal resources are especially useful when concepts are abstract or pertain to the microscopic world that is not immediately (visually, physically) available to students. Although the notion of teaching as a multimodal activity is well documented in the science education literature (e.g., [1], [2]), there still remains a gap in our understanding of how these multimodal resources are integrated in teaching, affording or constraining the construction of meanings [3] In this study, we report on an analysis of teachers' use of multimodal resources while teaching the same scientific concept in different languages, in different sociocultural contexts, and to students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Data was collected in two high school Biology classes, a grade 9 in an inner-city public school in a large Brazilian city, and a grade 11 in a suburban high school in a metropolitan Canadian city. Both teachers were female and native speakers of the specific language of instruction in each of the classes (i.e., Portuguese in Brazil, and English in Canada). Digital camcorders were used to capture the teacher, the students, and the board/screen in these classes. Data was analyzed with Transana (R) software. Comparing the two contexts by analyzing the multimodal resources the two teachers utilized while teaching about synapses, as part of the unit on anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, the affordances and constraints of making meanings available to the audience became evident. Although the scientific concepts being taught were the same, the resources used and the way in which the explanation of the concepts unfolded during classes were starkly different in the two contexts. Understanding how the multimodal resources used in teaching science help or hinder the construction of meanings have implications for researchers, science teaching methods instructors, and teachers. A focus on how multimodal resources are integrated to create the conditions for meaning-making to occur will allow us to better equip future and practicing teachers with the pedagogical content knowledge needed to effectively communicate abstract, complex concepts to students.