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This article provides rich insights into the process of data generation for discourse analysis from three separate studies of the video recordings of a single science classroom in action. The central claim is that multimodal transcription can contribute to developments in discourse theory. A three-stage reflective heuristic is developed and used in the article to support meta-methodological discussion on different researchers’ negotiations with the complexity of the video data. The focus is how the different researchers attended to modalities of meaning making (e.g. speech, learning artefacts, whiteboard notes, gestures, bodily actions) and appropriated, adapted and transformed their theoretical framework in order to construct the transcripts for each study. The three-stage heuristic is shown to facilitate transparency in analytic decision-making and is recommended for promoting much needed discussion on processes of data generation for discourse analysis that draws upon video recordings of action in situ.

Learning science encompasses learning the language of science, which can pose considerable challenges to students due to its specialized features and structures. Addressing the three-language problem (the need to transition between daily, general school and disciplinary languages) and the specific language demands of science thus constitutes part of the larger goal of promoting disciplinary literacy. Most studies have focused on the conceptual demands of science learning and have not examined what knowledge teachers require to support students’ learning of the language of science. In this study, we focus on science teachers’ knowledge of students (KS) for addressing the language demands of science. This qualitative case study has two aims: (1) to unpack a teacher’s KS related to their language use in science and (2) to uncover how this KS informs teaching practices. Transcripts of teacher interviews, lesson planning sessions and lessons drawn from two Grade 4 science classrooms taught by a primary science teacher constituted the data for this study. We identify five aspects of KS (i.e. prior knowledge of and about language, difficulties with language, abilities across modes of language and across subject areas and learning progress) that inform four distinct teaching practices. This case study highlights and unpacks a dimension of KS that is often overlooked in the current literature on pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for science teaching. The implications to teachers’ PCK, science teaching and teacher professional development are discussed in light of the findings.

This study examined student language in learning the human circulatory system, to understand the challenges they face in representing the knowledge in this topic. Data for this study comprised students’ written responses to a range of structured test items. Responses to 17 test items from 70 students across four classes were analysed using tools adapted from the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework using the seven categories of: Process error, Participant error, Descriptor error, Circumstance error, Connective error, Missing word and Irrelevant word. The analysis revealed six problems in language use that occurred in all four classes taught by three different teachers. Students in the study encountered most difficulties with the use of Participants. Reasons for the prevalence of this error type are proposed. The problematic nature of student language use is discussed in relation to both the conceptual demands inherent in the topic and the scientific practice of language generation in science. Examining the student language illuminates the need for students to understand the rationale for the finely distinguished terminology found in this topic.

IASA, which stands for “Integrative Approach to Science Argumentation,” is a project that sought to augment the goals of science education by integrating scientific argumentation with conceptual learning within the lower secondary science curriculum. Bearing in mind the constraints that our science teachers might face within a content-packed syllabus, our team set out to develop a pedagogical model embedded with novel contextual tasks. These student tasks were aimed at developing argumentative skills, which encompassed data sense-making, evidence harnessing, options weighing, and reasoning and communicative skills, alongside content development. Multiple resources that constituted our IASA “toolkit” were developed over the course of the 2.5-year project to provide professional learning and support for science teachers keen in embarking on this pedagogical innovation. This chapter will outline the designs of our pedagogical model, digital platform, IASA toolkit, and professional learning model as well as explicate impact for students as an overview of the project’s conceptualization and implementation.

This case study examines how three science teachers in a secondary school attended to the language demands of science through oral interactions in classes of multilingual students with diverse English proficiencies. It specifically unpacks the intricate role of language in science education, where teachers must address disciplinary-specific language demands as well as build academic language, within a policy environment that stresses English as medium-of-instruction for science education. Thirty-nine video recordings, comprising three full sets of lessons on the topic Human Circulatory System, were analysed. Instances of whole-class discussion during which an aspect of language (e.g. form, meaning or type) was addressed were the focus of analysis. The analysis shows some common features of language support across teachers, especially in terms of teaching scientific terminology, as well as features that provided additional support from one teacher. These features included unpacking the language dem...

This study of three science teachers’ lessons on heat and temperature seeks to characterise classroom talk that highlighted the ways language is used and to examine the nature of the language demands revealed in constructing, negotiating, arguing and communicating science ideas. The transcripts from the entire instructional units for these teachers’ four culturally and linguistically diverse Grade 4 classes (10 years old) with English as the language of instruction constitute the data for this investigation. Analysis of these transcripts focused on teachers’ talk that made explicit reference to the form or function of the language of science and led to the inductive development of the ‘Attending to Language Demands in Science’ analytical framework. This framework in turn revealed that the major foregrounding purposes of teachers’ talk include labelling, explaining, differentiating, selecting and constructing. Further classification of the instances within these categories revealed the extensive and contextualised nature of the language demands. The results challenge the conventional assumption that basic literacy skills dominate over disciplinary literacy skills in primary school science. Potential uses of the analytical framework that could further expand our understanding of the forms, functions and demands of language used in elementary school science are also discussed.

As the first stage of a multi-year project that aims to develop computer-based tools offering adaptive remedial interventions for primary level students, we present here a literature review we conducted on the use of multiple representations in education. We also provide a more focused review on the subtopic of representational fluency. Next, we build on this review to justify the need for a representational fluency test for primary school students. We set the foundations of this proposed instrument by identifying the competences it has to cover, in the light of literature, local curriculum, previous exams, and discussions with educators. Finally, in the future work section we elucidate the next stages of our project, which include testing and using our proposed representational fluency test. The outcomes of using this test are planned to be used later to design and develop an intelligent system that provides remedial interventions personalized for each student with representational fluency weaknesses. We expect that our work can contribute toward the learning of STEM subjects at the primary level and beyond.

As part of a multi-year project that aims to develop digital learning environment offering adaptive remedial interventions for primary level students, we present the design of a new instrument that tests the representational fluency of primary school students. Representational fluency refers to learners' ability to reason and work among multiple representations. In this article, we identify the competences that the Representational Fluency Test (RFT) has to cover, in the light of literature, local curriculum, previous national exams, and discussions with educators. Next, we design the questions of the test following these competences. In addition, we report a pilot study that we administered to test and validate the RFT. We present the results of the pilot study and also discuss the next stages of our project that include testing and using our proposed RFT. The long-term goal of our project is to develop an intelligent system that provides remedial interventions customized for each student with representational fluency difficulties. We expect that our work can contribute toward a more personalized education at the primary school level.

This study examines how a class of Grade 7 students employed linguistic resources to explain density differences. Drawing from the same data-set as a previous study by, we take a language perspective to investigate the challenges students face in learning the concept of density. Our study thus complements previous research on learning about density which has mostly focussed on the conceptual challenges. The data consist of transcripts of lessons on density and students’ written assignments. Using selected analytical categories from the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework, we first examined students’ use of linguistic resources in their written reports of a practical activity. We then compared the language employed by the students with the instructional language, identifying possible links. Our analysis identified specific aspects of language that the students need to appropriate in order to express an understanding of density that aligns with a scientific perspective. The findings from this study il...

Although the importance of language in science learning has been widely recognized by researchers, there is limited research on how science teachers perceive the roles that language plays in science classrooms. As part of an intervention design project that aimed to enhance teachers’ capacity to address the language demands of science, interview data (N = 9) were collected to understand teachers’ perceptions and experiences with a wide range of issues related to language use in science classrooms. Adopting an interpretive approach to qualitative data, the analysis revealed that the teachers perceive a wide range of student difficulties related to language use in science classrooms, especially to the use of specialized terms and writing. Although the teachers are keenly aware of how language can be a barrier to learning science, they are less certain as to what students need to know about the language of science in order to master it. The findings suggested professional support that highlights the distinctive language demands of science and how these demands differ from other subject areas could be useful to these elementary school teachers.

This study is an attempt to examine the use of linguistic resources by primary science students so as to understand the conceptual and language demands encountered by them when constructing written explanations. The students’ written explanations and the instructional language (whole-class discussion and textbook) employed over the topic, the life cycle of plants, in four grade 4 classrooms (age 10) taught by three teachers constitute the data for this study. Students’ written explanations were subjected to a combination of content and linguistic analysis. The linguistic analysis was conducted using selected analytical tools from the systemic functional linguistics framework. A diversity of linguistic resources and meanings were identified from the students’ explanations, which reveal the extent to which the students were able to employ linguistic resources to construct written scientific explanations and the challenges involved. Both content and linguistic analyses also illuminate patterns of language use that are significant for realising scientific meanings. Finally, a comparison is made in the use of linguistic resources between the students’ explanations and the instructional language to highlight possible links. This comparison reveals that the teachers’ expectations of the students’ written explanations were seldom reflected in their oral questioning or made explicit during the instruction. The findings of this study suggest that a focus on conceptual development is not sufficient in itself to foster students’ ability to construct explanations. Pedagogical implications involving the support needed by primary students to construct scientific explanations are discussed.

This case study of a science lesson, on the topic thermal expansion, examines the language demands on students from an integrated science and language perspective. The data were generated during a sequence of 9 lessons on the topic of ‘States of Matter’ in a Grade 7 classroom (12–13 years old students). We identify the language demands by comparing students' writings with the scientific account of expansion that the teacher intended the students to learn. The comparison involved both content analysis and lexicogrammatical (LG) analysis. The framework of Systemic Functional Linguistics was adopted for the LG analysis. Our analysis reveals differences in the meaning and the way LG resources were employed between the students' writings and the scientific account. From these differences, we found the notion of condition-of-use for LG resources to be a significant aspect of the language that students need to appropriate in order to employ the language of school science appropriately. This notion potentially pr...

In this study we explored questioning behaviors among elementary students engaging in inquiry science using the Knowledge Forum, a computer-supported collaborative learning tool. Adapting the theory of systemic functional linguistics, we developed the Ideational Function of Question (IFQ) analytical framework by means of inductive analysis of the questions found in 10 online forums contributed by three classes of Year 4 elementary school students and their teachers. We found 25 categories of questions which we grouped into three main kinds: Scientific, Epistemological, and Meta-discoursal. We then narrowed our analysis to three forums involving digestive systems. Using the IFQ framework, we explored the relationship between nature of inquiry task and students' questioning behaviors. Our analysis shows that for close-ended task that sought scientific facts from authoritative sources, students tended to ask only scientific questions. For open-ended problem-solving task that demanded epistemic justification from the students, there was more even distribution in all three kinds of questions.

This study attends to the possibilities of analyzing students' writings at a lexicogrammatical level in terms of their use of linguistic resources, and the insights afforded by this approach into the challenges students faced when they employed the language of school science related to the phenomenon of expansion. For the purpose of this study, the data consist of Grade 7 students' written assignments generated from a sequence of lessons on the topic of “States of Matter.” We analyzed the language by employing the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework. The analysis reveals similarities and differences in the use of linguistic resources among the students, from which we identified several patterns of language use that appeared to be significant for realizing scientific meanings. These patterns of language use suggest that students face challenges not just in learning to use language as both a cognitive and a semiotic tool but also in interpreting the requirements of task when employing the language of school science. The findings demonstrate the productivity of this approach in expanding our understanding of the conceptual and representational challenges that students face when learning the language of school science. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed95:852–876, 2011

The present study attempted to investigate whether young learners who were new to knowledge building approaches could work towards advancing both individual and collective knowledge, and whether knowledge building could be beneficial to both high-achieving and low-achieving students. Findings reported in this paper are from one and a half-year design research for science learning in one primary school in Singapore. In this study, we closely examined the design and enactment of the Knowledge Building Community model in one class with high-achieving students and two classes with mixed-ability students. The research consists of two phases: Phase I Cultivating a collaborative knowledge building culture and Phase II Progressive Knowledge Building using Knowledge Forum. Data were collected from multiple sources, including knowledge assessment, conceptual understanding tasks, and the content analysis of Knowledge Forum postings. The results in Phase I show that while it is critical for students to monitor and build knowledge for their own understanding, they had difficulties developing such skills. In both phases, we found positive impacts on academic achievements showing improvement of student understanding in the course of reflective thinking and progressive inquiry. Overall, quantitative data suggest that the collaborative knowledge building environment was beneficial for both high-achieving and low-achieving students. We conclude by discussing some of challenges and issues in designing collaborative knowledge building environments for young learners with diverse abilities.

This review aims to clarify the concept and boundary of research on online learning communities, identify the major trends of research, and suggest pertinent issues for future research. Four online learning communities, namely, Knowledge Building communities, Quest Atlantis, Virtual Math Team, and Web-based Inquiry Science Environment were reviewed. We compare and contrast the design principles and characteristics of these learning environments along cognitive, social, and technological dimensions. Potential implementation and research issues were discussed, including the contradictions with traditional school cultures and practices, the issues of authenticity versus simulation approach in schools, the cognitive and socio-emotional outcomes of online learning communities, and the possibilities and impact of advances in technologies.