n/a

Various features of scientific discourse have been characterized in the science education literature, and challenges students face in appropriating these features have been explored. Using the framework of conceptual metaphor, this paper sought to identify explicit and implicit metaphors in pedagogical texts dealing with the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics, an abstract and challenging domain for learners. Three university-level textbooks were analyzed from a conceptual metaphor perspective, and a range of explicit and implicit metaphors were identified. Explicit metaphors identified include entropy as disorder, thermodynamics processes as movements along a path, and energetic exchange as financial transactions among others. Implicit metaphors include application and elaboration of the generic Location Event Structure metaphor, application of the Object Event Structure metaphor, and others. The similarities and differences between explicit and implicit metaphors found in the textbooks are also described. Two key pedagogical implications are discussed: that the selection of explicit instructional metaphors can be guided by consistency with implicit metaphors; and that the range of implicit metaphors found in pedagogical texts implies that a multiple instructional metaphor strategy is warranted. The depth of the phenomenon of conceptual metaphor and its implications for future research are also discussed

Making meaning about disciplinary knowledge involves both disciplinary content and relevant semiotic resources (e.g., text structures) for communicating the content, as two sides of a coin. The purpose of this study is to contribute to research in science education with a model for visualising how the two sides of the coin are elaborated in classroom interaction, aiming to support students’ disciplinary knowledge development. The model was developed based on data from a series of lessons in a primary science classroom where the teacher and her students negotiated and made meaning about action and reaction forces. We show how the model can be used to deepen the understanding of how the meaning making through classroom interaction forms a pathway, visualising different levels of disciplinary literacy and hence the model's usefulness for both research and for designing teaching practices.

Recently, educational institutions, especially in Europe, have received a growing number of newly-arrived pupils (Eurydice, 2019), which has attracted researchers to assess the educational attainment of these pupils. This research project hence aims to investigate meaning-making processes in the subject of Science where the learning process of newlyarrived Turkish pupils is scaffolded by their study-guidance teachers during studyguidance sessions. To outline the theoretical perspective of the research, Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory on meaning-making and scaffolding is adopted. Data was collected through the observation of newly-arrived Turkish pupils and their study guidanceteachers during the study-guidance sessions. A piece of dialogue between a studyguidance teacher and a newly-arrived pupil has been presented to indicate the challenges which arise during scaffolded interactions.

One central issue for research in classrooms is to provide insights concerning characteristics of classroominteraction that can help teachers improve their teaching. In the present study, we analyse spokeninteraction in one elementary physics classroom by the use of two different frameworks, targeting similar aspects of communication, namely how discourse patterns shape the relations between participants. The two frameworks utilized are on the one hand an analysis of the communicative approach according to Mortimer and Scott, combined with an analysis of discourse patterns such as initiation-response-evaluation(IRE), and on the other hand analysis related to the interpersonal meta-function in Halliday’s systemicfunctional grammar (SFG). The aim was to highlight possibilities and limitations of the differentframeworks. Our analyses reveal that the two analytical frameworks have partly the same, partly different affordances concerning what they can reveal about classroom interaction. The analysis of the communicative approach has the potential of elucidating discursive patterns and power relations at a general level, while the analysis based on SFG can provide more details about, e.g., the power relations in terms ofhow the participants actually structure their utterances. The results are also discussed regarding implications for education. 

One central issue for research in classrooms is to provide insights concerning characteristics of classroom interaction that can help teachers improve their teaching. In the present study, we analyse spoken interaction in one elementary physics classroom by the use of two different frameworks, targeting similar aspects of communication, namely how discourse patterns shape the relations between participants. The two frameworks utilized are on the one handananalysisof the communicative approach according to Mortimer and Scott, combined withananalysisof discourse patterns such as initiation-response-evaluation (IRE), and on the other hand analysisrelated to the interpersonal meta-function in Halliday’s systemicfunctional grammar(SFG). The aim was to highlight possibilities and limitations of the different frameworks. Our analyses reveal that the two analytical frameworks have partly the same, partly different affordances concerning what they can reveal about classroom interaction. The analysisof the communicative approach hasthe potential of elucidating discursive patterns and power relations at a general level, while the analysis based on SFG can provide more details about, e.g.,the power relations in terms of how the participants actually structure their utterances. The results are also discussed regarding implications for education.

I naturvetenskapliga klassrum används olika former av representationer av ett ofta abstrakt och svårfångat ämnesinnehåll, som till exempel kraft och skuggbildning. Det är också vanligt att eleverna genomför undersökningar av fenomen som de sedan ska beskriva och förklara, i samtal eller genom skrift och bild. I det här projektet undersökte vi hur elever och lärare i mellanstadieklassrum arbetade med att representera dels fenomenen ljus och skugga, dels kraft och motkraft i fysikundervisningen.

This study reports on a case study about multimodal work in a primary physics classroom focusing on forces. Previous research reports that students benefit from multimodal work in science classrooms. Yet, few systematic studies have been performed to reveal how students represent their experiences and ideas of science phenomena over time within and across different semiotic modes (e.g., through action, speech, writing, and image, including multimodal ensembles). The design of the lessons was built around a number of experimental activities, starting with a puzzling phenomenon and where students for each experiment predicted, observed, described, and tried to come up with explanations. Based on social-semiotics, we combined analysis at an overall level (long timescale and large grain size) and a detailed level (short timescale and small grain size) to shed light on how the science content was represented within and between modes over the teaching and learning period, and what content was expressed in these representations. Our findings reveal how students moved from focusing on attributes such as a “heavy” regarding artifacts used in the experiments, towards the central physics processes, such as one object exerting force on another object. Furthermore, we were able to detect that such “signs of learning” were shown in students’ small-group discussions and multimodal texts following a carefully orchestrated multimodal exposition by the teacher. Hence, such a careful multimodal orchestration appeared to be critical for the students’ meaning-making about the science content.

The aim of the present study is to advocate the use of a participatory action research programme, the Formative Scaffolding Programme (FSP), in mathematics. The FSP’s main structure is presented as well as an implementation of a class intervention, with the aim of exploring the FSP test cycle’s virtues in a social science class in a Swedish upper-secondary school. The motivations for the FSP’s development were to enhance students’ awareness of their mathematical proficiency, alter the level and strength of their self-efficacy, foster self-regulated learning (SRL), reduce and prevent mathematics-related anxiety, and visualise the learning process in mathematics. The primary findings of the study were there was a resemblance between the FSP setting and SRL phases, and that participation in the test cycle altered the level and strength of students’ self-efficacy and fostered self-regulation in a mathematics test situation. The benefits of working in a formative scaffolding manner indicate that it is worth implementing the FSP on a larger scale. The study is an example of how students can engage in transforming classroom practice and be radical agents of change. 

Use of self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method for students to learn about a new subject by reference to what they previously know, in line with a constructivist perspective on learning and a resource perspective on conceptual change. We report on a group exercise on using completion problems in combination with self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes. The participants (N = 8) were preservice physics teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. The students experienced challenges in accounting for the constant entropy in reversible, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas and the constant temperature in free, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. These challenges were found to be grounded in the students’ intuitive understanding of the phenomena. In order to come to terms with the constant entropy in the first process, the students developed idiosyncratic explanations, but these could by properly adjusted given suitable scaffolding. In contrast, the students by themselves managed to make sense of the constant temperature in free expansion, by use of microscopic explanatory models. As a conclusion, self-generated analogies were found to provide a useful approach to identifying challenges to understanding among students, but also for the students to come to terms with these challenges. The results are discussed against a background of different perspectives on the issue of conceptual change in science education.

Elever kan bara lära sig nya saker genom att bygga på det de redan vet och sina tidigare erfarenheter. Detta är en viktig utgångspunkt i konstruktivismen. Samtidigt är naturvetenskapen ofta abstrakt till sin karaktär. Hur kan vi som lärare skapa miljöer och situationer i naturvetenskapsundervisningen där våra elever ges möjlighet att dra nytta av sina tidigare kunskaper och inne­boende resurser? Ett sätt att åstadkomma detta är att använda sig av modeller, analogier och metaforer i undervisningen.

I denna antologi presenteras forskning och undervisningsexempel kring hur man kan använda modeller, analogier och metaforer, samt elevers egna representationer i undervisningen i fysik, kemi och biologi.

Antologin vänder sig främst till blivande och verksamma lärare i ­naturvetenskap med fokus på grundskolans senare år och gymnasiet, samt lärarutbildningen i naturvetenskapliga ämnen och deras didaktik.

Using self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method in a constructivist tradition for students to learn about a new subject, by use of what they previously know. We report on a group exercise on using self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes, reversible adiabatic expansion and free adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. The participants (N = 8) were physics preservice teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. A main finding was that work with self-generated analogies tended to be accompanied by the students assuming ownership for their learning, manifested in terms of actions of choice and control and the use of exploratory talk. Consequently, several self-generated analogies were elaborated and developed to a high-order relational structure. However, we also found that with the use of self-generated analogies in science teaching follows the risks of developing idiosyncratic explanations of the encountered phenomena or getting stuck in overly complex comparisons.

Science education research suggests that our everyday intuitions of motion and interaction of physical objects fit well with how physicists use the term “momentum”. Corpus linguistics provides an easily accessible approach to study language in different domains, including everyday language. Analysis of language samples from English text corpora reveals a trend of increasing metaphorical use of “momentum” in non-science domains, and through conceptual metaphor analysis, we show that the use of the word in everyday language, as opposed to for instance “force”, is largely adequate from a physics point of view. In addition, “momentum” has recently been borrowed into Swedish as a metaphor in domains such as sports, politics and finance, with meanings similar to those in physics. As an implication for educational practice, we find support for the suggestion to introduce the term “momentum” to English-speaking pupils at an earlier age than what is typically done in the educational system today, thereby capitalising on their intuitions and experiences of everyday language. For Swedish-speaking pupils, and possibly also relevant to other languages, the parallel between “momentum” and the corresponding physics term in the students’ mother tongue could be made explicit.

This study investigates primary school children’s (7-8 year-old, N = 25) ideas of mixing of marbles and of heat, expressed in small-group predict-observe-explain exercises, and drawings representing the children’s own analogies in a classroom setting. The children were typically found to predict that marbles of two different colours would mix when rocked back and forth on a board. This idea of mixing is slightly more advanced than previously reported in the literature. The children’s ideas of heat included reference to warm objects, their own bodies when exercising, and the process of one warm solid object heating another object in direct contact. In addition, through scaffolding, some of the children expressed a substance view of heat. Finally, the potential and challenges in probing children’s ideas through a combination of data collection techniques in a classroom setting are reflected upon

This exploratory study in a classroom setting investigates first graders (age 78 years, N = 25) ability to perform analogical reasoning and create their own analogies for two irreversible natural phenomena: mixing and heat transfer. We found that the children who contributed actively to a full-class discussion were consistently successful at making analogical comparisons between known objects provided by a researcher and that some of the children could come up with their own analogies for the abstract natural phenomena with which they interacted. The use of full-class and small-group settings, shared laboratory experiences of the phenomena and childrens drawings as different kinds of scaffolding was found to be helpful for the childrens analogical reasoning. As an implication for science education, self-generated analogies are put forward as a potential learning tool within a constructivist approach to education.

Thermal science is challenging for students due to its largely imperceptible nature. Handheld infrared cameras offer a pedagogical opportunity for students to see otherwise invisible thermal phenomena. In the present study, a class of upper secondary technology students (N = 30) partook in four IR-camera laboratory activities, designed around the predict-observe-explain approach of White and Gunstone. The activities involved central thermal concepts that focused on heat conduction and dissipative processes such as friction and collisions. Students interactions within each activity were videotaped and the analysis focuses on how a purposefully selected group of three students engaged with the exercises. As the basis for an interpretative study, a "thick" narrative description of the students epistemological and conceptual framing of the exercises and how they took advantage of the disciplinary affordance of IR cameras in the thermal domain is provided. Findings include that the students largely shared their conceptual framing of the four activities, but differed among themselves in their epistemological framing, for instance, in how far they found it relevant to digress from the laboratory instructions when inquiring into thermal phenomena. In conclusion, the study unveils the disciplinary affordances of infrared cameras, in the sense of their use in providing access to knowledge about macroscopic thermal science.

Thermal cameras offer real-time visual access to otherwise invisible thermal phenomena, which are conceptually demanding for learners during traditional teaching. We present three studies of students’ conduction of laboratory activities that employ thermal cameras to teach challenging thermal concepts in grades 4, 7 and 10–12. Visualization of heat-related phenomena in combination with predict-observe-explain experiments offers students and teachers a pedagogically powerful means for unveiling abstract yet fundamental physics concepts.

n/a

The aim of this book project was to bring together international educators, researchers and practitioners on the use of Thermal Cameras in Science Education. The outcome was a collection of chapters describing the physics behind thermal cameras, empirical studies on their use in educational settings, and examples of their practical use for teaching.

Studying thermal phenomena involves exploring physical processes beyond what we can see. Central concepts in thermal science, such as energy, heat and temperature are not visible to the naked eye. These concepts permeate physics, chemistry, and biology as scientific areas of study, but also teaching of the corresponding subjects at multiple levels of education. As witnessed in the educational research literature through decades, learning thermal concepts continues to be a significant obstacle in science teaching across the world.

Integration of technology, social learning and scientific models offers pedagogical opportunities for science education. A particularly interesting area is thermal science, where students often struggle with abstract concepts, such as heat. In taking on this conceptual obstacle, we explore how hand-held infrared (IR) visualization technology can strengthen students’ understanding of thermal phenomena. Grounded in the Swedish physics curriculum and part of a broader research programme on educational uses of IR cameras, we have developed laboratory exercises around a thermal storyline, in conjunction with the teaching of a heat-flow model. We report a narrative analysis of how a group of five fourth-graders, facilitated by a researcher, predicts, observes and explains (POE) how the temperatures change when they pour hot water into a ceramic coffee mug and a thin plastic cup. Four chronological episodes are described and analysed as group interaction unfolded. Results revealed that the students engaged cognitively and emotionally with the POE task and, in particular, held a sustained focus on making observations and offering explanations for the scenarios. A compelling finding was the group’s spontaneous generation of multiple "what-ifs" in relation to thermal phenomena, such as blowing on the water surface, or submerging a pencil into the hot water. This was followed by immediate interrogation with the IR camera, a learning event we label instant inquiry. The students’ expressions largely reflected adoption of the heat-flow model. In conclusion, IR cameras could serve as an access point for even very young students to develop complex thermal concepts.

This book presents a collection of educational research and developmental efforts on the rapidly emerging use of infrared cameras and thermal imaging in science education. It provides an overview of infrared cameras in science education to date, and of the physics and technology of infrared imaging and thermography. It discusses different areas of application of infrared cameras in physics, chemistry and biology education, as well as empirical research on students’ interaction with the technology. It ends with conclusions drawn from the contributions as a whole and a formulation of forward-looking comments.

A challenge in the teaching of entropy is that the word has several different senses, which may provide an obstacle for communication. This study identifies five distinct senses of the word entropy, using the Principled Polysemy approach from the field of linguistics. A semantic network is developed of how the senses are related, using text excerpts from dictionaries, text books and text corpora. Educational challenges such as the existence of several formal senses of entropy and the intermediary position of entropy as disorder along the formal/non-formal scale are presented using a two-Dimensional Semiotic/semantic Analysing Schema (2-D SAS).

Elever kan bara lära sig nya saker genom att bygga på det de redan vet och sina tidigare erfarenheter. Detta är en viktig utgångspunkt i konstruktivismen. Samtidigt är naturvetenskapen ofta abstrakt till sin karaktär. Hur kan vi som lärare skapa miljöer och situationer i naturvetenskapsundervisningen där våra elever ges möjlighet att dra nytta av sina tidigare kunskaper och inne­boende resurser? Ett sätt att åstadkomma detta är att använda sig av modeller, analogier och metaforer i undervisningen.

I denna antologi presenteras forskning och undervisningsexempel kring hur man kan använda modeller, analogier och metaforer, samt elevers egna representationer i undervisningen i fysik, kemi och biologi.

Antologin vänder sig främst till blivande och verksamma lärare i ­naturvetenskap med fokus på grundskolans senare år och gymnasiet, samt lärarutbildningen i naturvetenskapliga ämnen och deras didaktik.

Over the last 20 years there has been an extensive amount of research on science learning conducted from a “knowledge-in-pieces” or “resources” perspective. One of the main goals of that research has been to identify and characterize available cognitive knowledge resources that can be productive components of scientific understanding. In relation to characterizing available knowledge resources, the research, adopting the resource perspective, has focused on finding out and describing the continuity between the novice/learner and expert in various scientific domains. However, even though there exists an extensive amount of studies with a clear focus on characterizing available cognitive knowledge resources, research with a special focus on the role of language in relation to thermodynamics adopting a resource perspective is limited. In this thesis, on the one hand I describe challenges that can be related to language and, on the other hand, I identify possible available resources in the form of conceptual metaphors. Based on the results from the first two papers included in this thesis I show, among other things, the ambiguity of the physical concept of entropy. Furthermore, the result of paper two also highlights that there is an ambiguity in the words used as source domain words for metaphors that include entropy. For instance, source domain words such as ‘disorder’ in the metaphor ‘entropy is disorder’ turn out not to be as unambiguous as one might first think. In addition, in papers three and four, I highlight how very experienced people construe entropy in both written text and in a problem-solving situation based on textbook analyses and interviews. The included texts for analyses, in paper three, represented university textbooks on introductory physics, chemistry and statistical mechanics. In addition, all the texts covered macroscopic and microscopic accounts (as well as links between the two) of thermodynamics. The results from the text book analyses show that there is a systematic difference between the conceptual metaphors used for macroscopic and microscopic descriptions. In addition, the largest number of conceptual metaphors was identified at the macroscopic level. The problem-solving situation, in paper four, was structured around three thermodynamic problems where two PhD students worked together in pairs while they solved the three tasks. In addition, the problem-solving situation was captured by use of audio and video recordings. From the problem-solving situation I show, among other things, that a single conceptual metaphor was used in a sustained way to ground reasoning and, in addition, a number of conceptual metaphors were coordinated with each other and with other symbolic forms in a coherent way. In sum, the results of this thesis indicate that adopting tools from other disciplines, such as cognitive linguistics, may contribute to the field of science education.

Varför klingar gitarrens strängar olika? Varför känns en sten kallare än trä? Har du funderat på hur du kan förklara naturvetenskapliga och tekniska fenomen på ett lekfullt sätt, så att barnen blir nyfikna och vill veta mer? I den här praktiska metodboken visar författarna hur estetiska ämnen som drama, musik och bild, kan bredda våra möjligheter att förklara och uppleva naturvetenskap och teknik. Teori varvas med praktiska exempel och övningar som integrerar ämnesområdena och lockar till samspel och lek. När kropp och sinne aktiveras i ett sådant tvärvetenskapligt arbetssätt stärks också lärprocessen, vi förstår helt enkelt och minns bättre.

Worksheets are common in science classrooms with an aim to support pupils meaning-making, e.g., for guiding them in performing hands-on activities and documenting their experiences of such activities. Yet, there have been few systematic studies of pupils disciplinary representations in worksheets. Drawing on systemic functional linguistics, we have analyzed fifth grade pupils (age 10-11) multimodal texts in worksheets (n = 25) when they were working with shadow formation as part of their regular classroom activities. In the worksheets they were asked to first explain in writing why or why not a shadow was formed and then explain shadow formation through a drawing. At an overall level, we found that a majority of the pupils managed to express in writing why a shadow is formed, though it appeared to be more challenging for them to explain why a shadow is not formed. In their drawings, quite a few pupils managed to include several key aspects of shadow formation, at least when combining image with writing. For all tasks, the explanatory parts of the pupils responses were often implicit. Based on our results, we suggest that pupils may benefit from teaching practices that integrate a parallel focus on form and content as a way to raise their awareness of, for instance, the affordances of different resources and how explanations can be structured. Such practices may support pupils to be able to consider and choose appropriate resources in their disciplinary texts.

Elever kan bara lära sig nya saker genom att bygga på det de redan vet och sina tidigare erfarenheter. Detta är en viktig utgångspunkt i konstruktivismen. Samtidigt är naturvetenskapen ofta abstrakt till sin karaktär. Hur kan vi som lärare skapa miljöer och situationer i naturvetenskapsundervisningen där våra elever ges möjlighet att dra nytta av sina tidigare kunskaper och inne­boende resurser? Ett sätt att åstadkomma detta är att använda sig av modeller, analogier och metaforer i undervisningen.

I denna antologi presenteras forskning och undervisningsexempel kring hur man kan använda modeller, analogier och metaforer, samt elevers egna representationer i undervisningen i fysik, kemi och biologi.

Antologin vänder sig främst till blivande och verksamma lärare i ­naturvetenskap med fokus på grundskolans senare år och gymnasiet, samt lärarutbildningen i naturvetenskapliga ämnen och deras didaktik.

Lärarutbildningen uppmärksammas inte sällan för att dess studenter har svårt att uppnå den nivå av akademiskt skrivande som krävs, inte minst vid examensarbeten. Som kontrast till den beskrivningen vill vi lyfta fram motexempel, där lärarstudenters examensarbeten och andra skrivuppgifter har nått en sådan kvalitet att de genom samförfattande med handledare och andra medförfattare har kunnat omarbetas och publiceras som vetenskapliga artiklar eller i mer lärartillvända forum, i vårt fall inom fysikdidaktik. Samförfattande med lärarstudenter kan på så vis vara ett sätt att stärka forskningsförankringen i lärarutbildningen. Förutsättningarna för att kunna lyckas med detta diskuteras, bland annat utifrån att under lärarutbildningen gradvis låta studenterna inlemmas i en praktikgemenskap av ämnesdidaktisk forskning.

Many studies have previously focused on how people with different levels of expertise solve physics problems. In early work, focus was on characterising differences between experts and novices and a key finding was the central role that propositionally expressed principles and laws play in expert, but not novice, problem-solving. A more recent line of research has focused on characterising continuity between experts and novices at the level of non-propositional knowledge structures and processes such as image-schemas, imagistic simulation and analogical reasoning. This study contributes to an emerging literature addressing the coordination of both propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures and processes in the development of expertise. Specifically, in this paper, we compare problem-solving across two levels of expertise-undergraduate students of chemistry and Ph.D. students in physical chemistry-identifying differences in how conceptual metaphors (CMs) are used (or not) to coordinate propositional and non-propositional knowledge structures in the context of solving problems on entropy. It is hypothesised that the acquisition of expertise involves learning to coordinate the use of CMs to interpret propositional (linguistic and mathematical) knowledge and apply it to specific problem situations. Moreover, we suggest that with increasing expertise, the use of CMs involves a greater degree of subjective engagement with physical entities and processes. Implications for research on learning and instructional practice are discussed.

A growing body of research has examined the experiential grounding of scientific thought and the role of experiential intuitive knowledge in science learning. Meanwhile, research in cognitive linguistics has identified many conceptual metaphors (CMs), metaphorical mappings between abstract concepts and experiential source domains, implicit in everyday and scientific language. However, the contributions of CMs to scientific understanding and reasoning are still not clear. This study explores the roles that CMs play in scientific problem-solving through a detailed analysis of two physical chemistry PhD students solving problems on entropy. We report evidence in support of three claims: a range of CMs are used in problem-solving enabling flexible, experiential construals of abstract scientific concepts; CMs are coordinated with one another and other resources supporting the alignment of qualitative and quantitative reasoning; use of CMs grounds abstract reasoning in a “narrative” discourse incorporating conceptions of paths, agents, and movement. We conclude that CMs should be added to the set of intuitive resources others have suggested contribute to expertise in science. This proposal is consistent with two assumptions: that cognition is embodiment and that internal cognitive structures and processes interact with semiotic systems. The implications of the findings for learning and instruction are discussed.

The words disorder, information, freedom and spreading are used as metaphors and analogies in science teaching to capture the scientific qualitative sense of entropy. In addition, the identification of entropy with the everyday conception of heat has been proposed. While physical sciences are regarded as exact disciplines, in which terms have precise definitions, the words being used in the qualitative interpretation of entropy have many senses. This may provide an obstacle to achieving a scientific understanding of entropy. In this study, the metaphors for entropy and seeing entropy as heat were analysed by use of the different entries for the words in a dictionary. The present paper is a contribution to highlighting the importance of making any metaphors and analogies and their benefits and limitations explicit.

The present study focus the presence and role of deep qualitative conceptual knowledge of temperature among a group of ten individuals (n=10), academic well-educated and experienced in science, when solving a task about changes in temperature of a given thermodynamic system. The aim is to find out the variation of comprehension of temperature in the task solving process. Data is gathered by interviews based on the thinking aloud method. The interviews were video-recorded and verbatim transcribed. Transcriptions were analysed by using a two dimensional semiotic/semantic analysing schema (acronym 2-D SAS). The results revealed a broad variation in the comprehension of the term temperature in the given context. The three informants who produced correct answers structured the task by identifying the scientifically appropriate referent and sense of the term temperature according to the given context.

This study has developed as a part of an ongoing co-operation between Taiwan, Finland and Sweden with the purpose of examining and comparing the conceptions of students of different ages concerning electric circuits. The purpose of this explorative study is to find out what conceptions Swedish students of different ages have concerning the electric circuit. The study has been accomplished by means of semi-structured interviews. Altogether nine students in the age of eleven, fifteen, seventeen and eighteen have been interviewed. The interviews have been analyzed partly from Kärrqvist’s (1985) models that students have shown regarding electric circuits. The result inter alia demonstrates that three models are to be found among the respondents corresponding to Kärrqvist’s (1985) ideas. In addition, we discovered a new model, which does not correspond to Kärrqvist’s (1985) models or any other known model in the literature. The new model has been named “kopplingsberoende modell” (connection-dependent model). Furthermore we revealed that all the respondents had the idea of a closed circuit where they often used the word wire to describe end explain the electric circuit.

This paper examines the affordances of physical objects (e.g. apparatus, models, manipulatives) as they were used by teachers and students to make meaning in coordination with their speech and gestures. Despite the pervasive use of physical objects as material and tactile resources in hands-on investigations or demonstrations, there have been few attempts to analyze their role and function in meaning-making, in the same way, that researchers have previously done for other modes of representation such as speech, written text, diagram and gesture. Using social semiotics as a theoretical framework, we conceptualise physical objects as a semiotic mode with a particular affordance for making meaning that involves embodied actions and manipulation of tools. Based on a multimodal discourse analysis of numerous classroom situations, we illustrate how physical objects as a mode have four unique affordances for meaning-making in science classrooms. These affordances are: (a) enacting material interaction, (b) providing evidential meaning, (c) orientating three-dimensional spatial meaning and (d) sensitising experiential meaning. The implication of why we should use physical objects to support or value-add science meaning-making is then discussed.

In science education research, there is a growing body of studies focusing on the role of multiple representations in pupils’ learning. This study is based on a social semiotic perspective and in the analysis, there is a special focus on how the content is conveyed and how relations are created through interaction between teachers/pupils and the infrared camera and between teachers and pupils. We report the results from a pilot study involving one teacher’s work with thermal phenomena in grade 6. A class of 45 primary pupils, divided in 4 groups. Overall, we describe findings from three lessons involving experiments situated in pupils’ everyday experiences of thermal phenomena. In the analysis, we focus on two groups of pupils (N = 25) and data are generated from three lessons by video and audio recordings. With the help of the infrared camera, the pupils manage to represent heat as a process. The infrared camera provides a visual interface for a shared point of reference and is an important semiotic resource for stimulating verbal communication between pupils and between pupils and teachers.