In this paper we discuss the role of transduction in the teaching and learning of science. We video-filmed pairs of upper-secondary physics students working with a laboratory task designed to encourage transduction (Bezemer & Kress, 2008). The students were simply instructed to use a hand-held electronic measurement device (IOLab) to find the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field and mark its direction using a paper arrow.

A full multimodal transcription of the student interaction was made. In our analysis of this transcription we identify three separate transductions of meaning. In particular, we observed that student transduction of meaning to the paper arrow allowed it to function as both a persistent placeholder for all the meaning making that had occurred up until that point and as a coordinating hub for further meaning making.

Our findings lead us to recommend that teachers interrogate the set of resources necessary for appropriate disciplinary knowledge construction in the tasks they present to students. Here, teachers should think carefully about whether the introduction of a persistent placeholder would be useful and in that case what this placeholder could be. We also suggest that teachers should think about what persistent resource may function as a coordinating hub for the students.

Finally, we suggest that teachers should be on the lookout for student transductions to new semiotic resources in their classrooms as a sign that learning is taking place. We claim that the constraining and complementary nature of transduction offers a good opportunity for teachers to check student understanding, since disciplinary meanings need to be coherent across semiotic systems (modes).

In this study we video-filmed upper-secondary physics students working with a laboratory task designed to encourage transduction (Bezemer & Kress 2008) when learning about coordinate systems.

Students worked in pairs with an electronic measurement device to determine the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field. The device, IOLab, can be held in the hand and moved around. The results of this movement are graphically displayed on a computer screen as changes in the x, y and z components of the Earth’s magnetic field. The students were simply instructed to use the IOLab to find the direction of the Earth’s magnetic field and mark its direction using a red paper arrow.

A full multimodal transcription of the student interaction was made (Baldry & Thibault 2006). In our analysis of this transcription, three separate transductions of meaning were identified—transduction of meaning potential in the room to the computer screen, transduction of this meaning to the red arrow, and finally transduction into student gestures. We suggest that this final transduction could not have been made without the introduction of the arrow, which functioned as a coordinating hub (Fredlund et al 2012).

We recommend that teachers should carefully think about the resources in a task that may function as a coordinating hub and should also look for student transductions in their classrooms as confirmation that learning is taking place.

References

Ainsworth, S. (2006). DeFT: A conceptual framework for considering learning with multiple representations. Learning and Instruction, 16(3), 183-198.

Airey, J. (2009). Science, language, and literacy: Case studies of learning in Swedish university physics (Doctoral dissertation, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis). http://publications.uu.se/theses/abstract.xsql?dbid=9547 

Airey, J. (2015). Social Semiotics in Higher Education: Examples from teaching and learning in undergraduate physics In: SACF Singapore-Sweden Excellence Seminars, (STINT) , 2015 (pp. 103). urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-266049.

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.

Airey, J. & Linder, C. (2015) Social Semiotics in Physics Education: Leveraging critical constellations of disciplinary representations ESERA          2015 From http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn%3Anbn%3Ase%3Auu%3Adiva-260209

Airey, J., & Linder, C. (2017). Social Semiotics in University Physics Education. In D. F. Treagust, R. Duit, & H. E. Fischer (Eds.), Multiple Representations in Physics Education (pp. 95-122). Cham, Switzerland: Springer.

Baldry, A., & Thibault, P. J. (2006). Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis. London: Equinox Publishing.

Bezemer, J., & Kress, G. (2008). Writing in multimodal texts: a social semiotic account of designs for learning. Written Communication, 25(2),           166-195.

Fredlund, T., Airey, J., & Linder, C. (2012). Exploring the role of physics representations: an illustrative example from students sharing knowledge about refraction. European Journal of Physics, 33, 657-666.

Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication. London: Routledge.

Lemke, J. L. (1998). Teaching all the languages of science: Words, symbols, images, and actions. In Conference on Science Education in Barcelona.

Selen, M. (2013). Pedagogy meets Technology: Optimizing Labs in Large Enrollment Introductory Courses. Bulletin of the American Physical      Society, 58. http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/APR13/Session/C7.3

Volkwyn, T., Airey, J., Gregorčič, B., & Heijkenskjöld, F. (2016). Multimodal transduction in secondary school physics 8th International Conference on Multimodality, 7th-9th December 2016. Cape Town, South Africa. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-316982.

Volkwyn, T., Airey, J., Gregorčič, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2018). Physics students learning about abstract mathematical tools when engaging with “invisible” phenomena. PERC proceedings 2018 https://www.compadre.org/per/perc/proceedings.cfm.

Volkwyn, T., Airey, J., Gregorčič, B., & Heijkenskjöld, F. (submitted). Learning Science through Transduction: Multimodal disciplinary meaning-making in the physics laboratory. Designs for Learning.

Wu, H-K, & Puntambekar, S. (2012). Pedagogical Affordances of Multiple External Representations in Scientific Processes. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 21(6), 754-767.

A great deal of work has been carried out on student approaches to problem solving in physics. One of the seminal findings of this body of work highlights the ways in which expert physicists carefully model physics problems, in order to gain a better understanding of the system at hand. Only after this modelling stage do experts move on to select the simplest method for problem solution (Van Heuvelen, 1991). Students, on the other hand, have been shown to have a tendency to overvalue mathematical representations, missing out the important conceptual understanding of the system, preferring to quickly move over to a “Plug and chug” mathematical approach (Tuminaro, 2004). It has also been suggested that novice students may hold the alternative conception that coordinate systems are fixed (e.g. the x-axis is always drawn to the right, with the y-axis pointing up) (Volkwyn, et al., 2017). Clearly such a conception will be a major hindrance to the simplification and solution of physics problems.

In this presentation we describe a laboratory exercise in which we allowed students to experience the expert process of problem solving in physics together with the movability of coordinate systems by exposing them to a situation where careful positioning of coordinates removes the necessity for any mathematical calculation whatsoever.

We designed an open-ended laboratory task, in which students working in pairs were tasked with finding the magnitude and direction of the Earth’s magnetic field using a mediating tool—the iOLab. This device is equipped with a magnetometer and wirelessly sends information on the Cartesian components of the field to a display, in real time. Although solving the laboratory task is possible by following a purely mathematical approach without moving the iOLab, this yields a potentially laborious calculation and does not challenge the alternative conception that coordinate systems are fixed. The first pair of students attempted this approach and quickly became bogged down in complicated calculations, requiring intervention from the laboratory assistant. The second pair of students took a much more exploratory approach to the problem. In their interactions with the iOLab device they eventually devised a strategy where they moved the iOLab so that one of the coordinates was aligned with the field. At this point the direction and magnitude of the field could simply be determined by observation (reading off the value on screen and noting the orientation of the iOLab device). In doing so the students came to experience themselves as holding a movable coordinate system.

We claim that our experimental design opens up the possibility for students to learn three key disciplinary affordances of coordinate systems; (i) they are not fixed in an up/down, right/left orientation, (ii) they are at the service of physicists, and (iii) physicists always position their coordinate systems in such a way as to make the problem easy to solve.

References

Tuminaro, J. (2004). A Cognitive framework for analyzing and describing introductory students' use of mathematics in physics. PhD Thesis: University of Maryland.

van Heuvelen, A. (1991). Learning to think like a physicist: A review of research-based instructional strategies. American Journal of Physics, 59(10), 891-897.

Volkwyn, T. S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2017). Physics students learning about abstract mathematical tools when engaging with “invisible” phenomena. In American Association of Physics Teachers Physics Education 2017 Summer Meeting, Cincinnati, OH, July 26-27 (pp. 408-411). American Association of Physics Teachers. DOI:10.1119/perc.2017.pr.097.

Aktiva studenter gör demonstrationsexperiment

Filip Heijkenskjöld, Institutionen för fysik och astronomi avd. Fysikens didaktik

Bengt Edvardsson, Institutionen för fysik och astronomi, avd. Astronomi

Marcus Lundberg, Institutionen för kemi - Ångström, Teoretisk kemi

Sammanfattning

Projektet avser att aktivera studenterna och gör dem till deltagande aktörer i föreläsningarna genom att ge studenterna ansvar för att designa sina egna experiment som kan visa på centrala begrepp inom fysiken. Studenterna får använda ett mätverktyg (IOLab) för att enkelt kunna experimentera och samla in data. För information om IOLab se http://www.iolab.science

Vi låter studenterna i kursen 1KB302, Fysik för kemister, ta ansvar för en del av undervisningen. De väljer själva ut vad de vill illustrera med experiment. Studenterna bidrar med var sitt ca 5 minuter långt demonstrationsexperiment och deltar i en efterföljande diskussion på 10 minuter. Efter godkänd insats får de en tentamensdel godkänd. Detta ökar studenternas engagemang och även kopplingen till andra kurser som studeras inom programmen.

The construction of physics knowledge of necessity entails a range of semiotic resources, (e.g. specialized language, graphs, algebra, diagrams, equipment, gesture, etc.). In this study we documented physics students' use of different resources when working with an "invisible" phenomenon--magnetic field. Using a social semiotic framework, we show how appropriate coordination of resources not only enabled students to learn something about the Earth's magnetic field, but also about the use of an abstract mathematical tool--coordinate systems. Our work leads us to make three suggestions: 1. The potential for learning physics can be maximized by designing tasks that encourage students to use a specific set of resources.  2. Thought should be put into what this particular set of resources should be and how they may be coordinated. 3. Close attention to the different resources that students use can allow physics teachers to gauge the learning occurring in their classrooms.

The construction of physics knowledge of necessity entails a range of semiotic resources, (e.g. specialized language, graphs, algebra, diagrams, equipment, gesture, etc.). In this study we documented physics students' use of different resources when working with an "invisible" phenomenon--magnetic field. Using a social semiotic framework, we show how appropriate coordination of resources not only enabled students to learn something about the Earth's magnetic field, but also about the use of an abstract mathematical tool--coordinate systems. Our work leads us to make three suggestions: 1. The potential for learning physics can be maximized by designing tasks that encourage students to use a specific set of resources. 2. Thought should be put into what this particular set of resources should be and how they may be coordinated.3. Close attention to the different resources that students use can allow physics teachers to gauge the learning occurring in their classrooms.

When students are introduced to coordinate systems in their physics textbooks these are usually oriented in the same manner (x increases to the right). There is a real danger then, that students see coordinate systems as fixed. However, as we know, movability is one of the main disciplinary affordances of coordinate systems. Students worked with an open-ended task to find the direction of Earth’s magnetic field. This was achieved by manipulating a measurement device (IOLab) so as to maximize the signal for one component of the field, whilst at the same time keeping the other two components at zero. In the process of completing this task, students came to experience themselves as holding a movable coordinate system. From this point they spontaneously offer elaborations about the usefulness of purposefully setting up coordinate systems for problem solving. In our terms, they have discovered one of the disciplinary affordances of coordinate systems.

Most students will be familiar with the compass as a tool that points north. However, the compass only shows us one component—the terrestrial projection—of the Earth’s magnetic field. In contrast, the IOLab potentially gives students access to the actual direction of the field. We have designed an open-ended task in which pairs of students use the IOLab to determine the actual direction of the Earth’s magnetic field in a laboratory classroom. Without any prior instruction or step-by-step procedure to follow, students simultaneously coordinate a set of resources: speech (in groups; and with facilitator), interpretation of graphical readouts, physical manipulation of the IOLab and proprioception. By coordinating the resources available, the students in our study can be seen to quickly come to a moment of disciplinary insight, where they realize the true direction of the magnetic field.

In the teaching and learning of physics, a wide range of semiotic resources are used, such as spoken and written language, graphs, diagrams, mathematics, hands on work with apparatus, etc. (Lemke, 1998). In this respect it has been argued that there is a critical constellation of semiotic resources that is needed for appropriate construction of any given disciplinary concept (Airey & Linder, 2009; Airey, 2009). In this social semiotic tradition, it is the development of “fluency” in the individual semiotic resource systems and the ease of transduction (movement and coordination of meaning) between the various semiotic resource systems that makes disciplinary learning possible. We report here findings from an interpretive study of physics students working with a laboratory task designed to encourage transduction when learning about coordinate systems. A hand-held electronic measurement device (IOLab) was used to display components of the Earth’s magnetic field in real time. Our intention was for students to experience the movability of coordinate systems by open-ended investigation of dynamic, real-time changes in the x, y and z components displayed on the computer screen as they manipulated the device. Building on earlier work of Fredlund et. al. (2012) our analysis identifies three types of transduction, the last of which is transduction of meaning to a new modality (iconic gesture) not previously used by the students. We suggest this final form of transduction is indicative of what students have learned and offers the teacher a chance to confirm/challenge student conceptions. Our data clearly demonstrates how careful, open-ended task design, coupled with timely instructor questions can leverage the pedagogical affordances (Airey, 2015) of a range of semiotic resources to make physics learning possible. We therefore claim that understanding the roles that different semiotic resources play for physics learning is vital and call for further research in this area.