Exploring the materiality of science learning: analytical frameworks for examining interactions with material objects in science meaning-making

ABSTRACT

Background

With a growing new materialism paradigm and research on multimodality, there is an increasing attention on the role of material objects in science teaching and learning. However, there is currently no available framework, coding scheme, or method of inquiry to specifically analyze the use of material objects in science meaning-making.

Purpose

This paper presents and discusses two analytical frameworks developed to examine teachers’ and students’ interaction with material objects during classroom discourse.

Design and methods

The first analytical framework was theoretically informed by multimodal interaction analysis (MIA), focusing on humans’ situated interaction using embodied and disembodied modes located in the material world. The second framework was informed by social semiotics multimodal analysis (SSMA), focusing on material interaction as a semiotic mode with unique affordances for sign-makers to make meaning alongside other semiotic modes (e.g. speech, gesture).

Sample

Both frameworks are used to analyze two vignettes of classroom discourse generated from video data to illustrate their applications, coding procedures, and interpretative potential.

Results

The MIA-informed framework highlighted the dynamic and reciprocal relations between students’ experiences and the transformation of materials, while the SSMA-informed framework highlighted the subtle meanings constructed with the unique affordances of the material mode.

Conclusion

The affordances and limitations of the two frameworks are discussed, along with their compatibility and complementary relations. This work contributes to the emerging field of materiality in science education research and provides a foundation for future studies on the analysis of material interaction in science meaning-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Classroom discourse
• Discourse analysis
• Materiality
• Meaning-making
• Multimodality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The video stream in the data captured the students’ faces and their gazes on the objects and on one another. However, the video snapshots shown in Table 3 were cropped to show only the students’ hand actions with the materials. This cropping was done to maximize the usage of space in Table 3.