Aug 25, 2010 - To cite this article: Carey Jewitt , Gunther Kress , Jon Ogborn & Charalampos .... The teacher drew an image on the white board (Figure 1) and.
Teaching Education
ISSN: 1047-6210 (Print) 1470-1286 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cted20
Teaching and Learning: Beyond language Carey Jewitt , Gunther Kress , Jon Ogborn & Charalampos Tsatsarelis To cite this article: Carey Jewitt , Gunther Kress , Jon Ogborn & Charalampos Tsatsarelis (2000) Teaching and Learning: Beyond language, Teaching Education, 11:3, 327-341, DOI: 10.1080/713698977 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/713698977
Published online: 25 Aug 2010.
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Teaching Education, Vol. 11, No. 3, 2000
Teaching and Learning: beyond language CAREY JEWITT & GUNTHER KRESS Culture, Communication, and Society, Institute of Education,University of London, UK
JON OGBORN Institute of Education, University of Sussex, UK
CHARALAMPOS TSATSARELIS Director of Research and Development, Ziridiz School, Athens, Greece
ABSTRACT As conceptions of communication shift from a single focus on language to the full repertoire of communicational resources (e.g. image, action, sound), this paper challenges the assumption that learning and teaching are primarily linguistic accomplishments. Through an example of school-based teaching, we show that classroom texts are realised through the interaction of different `modes’ of communication (organised, regular, socially speci® c means of representation). That is, they are multimodal: Action and image are not mere illustrations to language, rather each realises speci® c representational work. Further we suggest that learning is a multimodal process, and goes beyond language. We conclude that multimodality presents a new challenge to current teacher education and the evaluation of learning.
In the past there has been a tendency to understand and theorise communication as monomodal communication. In this, the dominance of language had been unquestioned. However, the communicational landscape is changing; new modes of representing and (re)producing knowledge are emerging (Lemke, 1998) and this is forcing a reassessment. The availability of word processing, visual design applications, and CD-ROM have accelerated the transformation from a dominance of writing to multimodal `design’ . At the same time, people’s everyday interactions with multimodal texts (e.g. advertising, multi-media computer applications, television, and ® lm) draw on and develop visual `literacy’ and `communicational awareness’ of the multimodal environment (Street, 1998). These changes have begun to unsettle the dominance, both in common sense and in theory, of the role of language within communication. In `reality’ we assert, communication has always been multimodal (Kress, Jewitt, Ogborn & Tsatsarelis, in press).1 Language is always accompanied by other forms of communication. When we speak, we articulate our message through a complex interplay of speech, facial ISSN 1047-6210 (print)/ISSN 1470-1286 (online)/00/030327-15 Ó 2000 Graduate School of Education, University of Queensland DOI: 10.1080/10476210020021653
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expression, gesture and posture. When we write, our message is not only expressed through `language’ , but also through a visual arrangement of marks on a page (van Leeuwen & Kress, 1995). In short, language is one part of the multimodal communicational ensemble. Analysis of communication which does not attend to the full repertoire of modes in operation will be unable to account for all the meanings expressed. The trend towards more prominently multimodal communication is apparent within education. Previously, the dominance of language was re¯ ected and further asserted through classroom structures, educational resources, and forms of teaching. By the time of secondary schooling, teaching and learning were commonly considered to be primarily linguistic accomplishments. The dominance of language has also been re¯ ected in the linguistic focus of much educational research. Over the past decade, however, the reliance in education on language to convey meaning has begun to alter. For example, a comparison of science education textbooks in the 1990’ s with those of the 1940’ s shows an exponential growth in the use of images and a change in the relationship between image and language (Kress, Ogborn & Martins, 1998). In the 1940’ s textbooks, the images served a primarily illustrative function in which part of the information conveyed in the writing is `repeated’ (Barthes, 1977). In the 1990’ s textbooks, image and language have distinct tasks, and information is realised in language and in image. Our research on teaching and learning in the science classroom shows that contrary to common conceptions amongst teachers, teacher educators, and educational researchers, narratives (as well as other text-genres) are carried using a range of modes in the classroom, not purely through language. It shows that learning is a multimodal process drawing on image, action, and linguistic resources each of which does far more than illustrate the meanings realised through speech or written language. Further our research suggests that the meanings of language can be better realised by exploring language within the communicational ensemble it operates within. This paper discusses these ® ndings in relation to a school science lesson drawn from our analysis of 21 science lessons in four London schools. This example is typical with respect to the range of modes used by the teachers. We suggest that our focus on mode in the science classroom, rather than on content or pedagogic models, means that our claims may be useful in understanding science classrooms in general. However, due to the substantive differences between science classrooms, operating on different pedagogic models, the generalisability of these claims to all science classrooms remains uncertain. Multimodal Narratives In this section we focus on a teacher’ s construction of a narrative of blood circulation in a science lesson with year 8 pupils. Our intention is not to say what is `good’ or `bad’ about the teacher’s narrative, rather it is to show that teachers draw on a wide range of resources, and not on speech alone, to construct `blood circulation’ as an entity. That is, science classroom narratives are multimodal. We present our analysis of the lesson in three `stages’ . First, we present a
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descriptive overview of the modes and sequence of modes used in the lesson. Second, we focus on how each of these modes contributed to the construction of the narrative. Third, we discuss how each of these modes worked together to realise the dynamics of the unfolding themes within the narrative (i.e. cycle, exploration, abstraction). In this process our initial separation of modes, followed by their addition as `multiple layers’ of meaning, is an analytical process. We are not suggesting that each mode works independently, rather that in order to understand the multimodal nature of the narrative the whole has to be `broken-down’ , the parts have to be interpreted, and their relationships and discourses `re-interpreted’ as these parts are `rebuilt’ to form the whole. That is, the meaning of a multimodal text is more than its constituent modes, it is in the multiplicity of meanings realised by the interactions between modes. Overview of the Lesson The teacher used a range of communicative modes to construct the `entity’ (Ogborn, Kress, Martins & McGillicuddy, 1996) `blood circulation’ (including, speech, gesture, image, and action), and regularly shifted between modes in the lesson. Initially his speech was foregrounded: As the lesson started he took the register with his body still, the board blank, and his voice monotone. He then distributed a textbook, and asked the pupils to look at an image on one of the pages. The image set the agenda for the lesson. The conception of the circulation of the blood as a circle was created. The teacher drew an image on the white board (Figure 1) and gave a verbal narrative of the circulation of the blood which he transposed through gesture onto the image on the white board. The transcript below is problematic in a number of ways (see Kress et al., in press). First, re-presenting action as a written sign severely impoverishes it, making it dif® cult to get a sense of action unfolding over time (the notion of time itself is `translated’ into a visual dimensionÐ layoutÐ from the top to the bottom of the page), and the spatial dynamics of action. Second, it is hard to get a sense of the interaction between the modes, in this case action and speech, from the transcript. Third, the process of transcription raises a number of theoretical questions, such as: the order of modes, and where to draw the boundaries between modes (e.g. When the teacher draws the circle on the board, is he drawing, gesturing, or both? Are action and speech different modes, is speech not action?). The development of multimodal transcribing processes involved us in an iterative process between multimodal theory, our data, and pragmatic concerns (e.g. time, manageability of the data). This remains an area for development within our work. The teacher went on to offer a more complex verbal description of the cycle of the blood as a `double loop’ , with blood going to the lungs, and the rest of the body. He added this second loop to his initial drawing on the white board (see Figure 2). He then used gesture on his body to locate the processes he described and to introduce direction and movement. He outlined the key players in the process by gesturing at parts of his bodyÐ his body became the locus of attention, the canvas on which the narrative was `drawn’ .
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Speech We can think about it as a circle of Blood like this, going round, and at various points say, the lungs are here, the small intestine here, and the cells are here, the kidneys up here, okay so its going all the way around and what it needs is something to start pumping it Again to give it a bit more motion to go around okay
Action points at heart, traces ® nger around circle returns hand to heart, draws on arrows places opened hand at left of diagram places opened hand at bottom left of diagram places opened hand bottom right of diagram places opened hand at top right of diagram draws arrows on circle, points at heart bends elbows, arms at side, `bellows’ action makes `bellows’ action three times puts pen lid on
FIGURE 1. FIRST IMAGE ON THE WHITE BOARD.
Having described the route of the blood through talk, image, and gesture, the teacher placed a model of the human body on the bench in front of him (see Figure 3). He then shifted mode from his speech (and body) to the model. His manipulation of the model enabled him to place the organs named in his verbal account in relation to one another, locate the process in `the human body’ , and to classify these parts and processes visually. He handled the model heart while telling a narrative of how the blood moves through the heart and the contracting of the heart’ s muscles. `Cyclicity’ was represented by the teacher’ s `animation’ of the model and his use of verbs of going and coming. He then shifted attention from the model to a diagram in a text book (Figure 4). The teacher used his ® nger to trace the process of the circulation of the blood on the image, providing a multimodal (visual, verbal, and gestural) summary of the lesson. Through gesture he linked the diagram to the model, and the model to his body. His verbal narrative and gesture linked the three visual resources, body, model, and diagram, as a series of representations of the body.
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FIGURE 2. SECOND IMAGE ON THE WHITE BOARD.
Mode and Meaning: functional specialism In this section we discuss the function of each of the modes in the construction of the narrative of blood circulation. We focus on how visual, actional, and linguistic modes of communication have been re® ned (developed) through their social usage
FIGURE 3. TEACHER INTERACTING WITH MODEL OF HUMAN BODY.
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Vein
Artery
Heart
Capillaries in body
FIGURE 4. DIAGRAM IN TEXTBOOK. (Reproduced with permission from Johnson, K., Adamson, S. & Williams, G. (1994) Spotlight Science. Stanley Thornes, Cheltenham.)
(generally and within the teaching and learning of science) to make meaning in different ways, to realise different meaning making potentialsÐ functional specialisms. That is, there are some things that some modes have been developed to do better than others. The meaning making potentials realised in the resources of the visual, of action, and languageÐ spoken and written, each performs a special and signi® cant role. Each of these sets of multimodal potentials are rhetorically organised to provide an integrated whole. These potentials are not simply the result of essential attributes, rather they are the consequence of the `affordances’ of the materiality of the modes shaped through the social usage of modes, and the status this has afforded particular modes over time. In this way, the selection of mode can be viewed as a part of the rhetorical process. Each mode offers teachers and pupils different ways of fashioning (representing) `truth’ or `knowledge’ . The process of organising these modes into a `communicative event’ involves consideration of what is to be communicated, and how this can best be done given the functional specialism of each mode available within the science classroom, the interests of the communicator, and the audience. In short, we suggest below that each mode of communication shaped the teacher’ s narrative in particular ways.
Speech: creating difference At the beginning of the second half of the lesson the teacher contrasted the initial schematic verbal description of the blood’s circuit developed in the ® rst half of the lesson, with a second more detailed version of `what actually happens’.
Beyond Language ª It would be very simple if that is what it was like ¼ simple ¼ º
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.But it’ s not quite that
The contrast was achieved by a juxtaposition of the teacher’ s more `detailed’ verbal description with the image of the abstract cycle drawn on the white board. The contrast between what the teacher said, the abstract diagram of one circuit and what he went on to say `actually happens’ set up the need for an explanation. The Image on the White Board: a visual backdrop The image provided the starting point for the lesson and formed the ground on which the other modes were developed. The image on the white board (Figure 1) presented a view of the circulatory system as a highly abstracted entity. The image could be adapted and provided a visual backdropÐ an abstract map, on which to read the verbal explanations the teacher offered. As the teacher went on to mention the places on the route of the blood, `the lungs’ , `the small intestines’ , `the cells’, `the kidneys’ , he did not draw them on to the imageÐ is speech and gesture served to form a `transparent (mental) overlay’ of detail onto the abstracted image. The materiality of the white board afforded a ¯ exibility which enabled the organs to be presented in a transient way, a momentary presence overlaid on the stable image which `evaporated’ . In this way the teacher’s engagement with the materiality of the white board avoided him having to change the position of the `lungs’ when he later extended the image to re¯ ect a more complex view of the circuit of the blood. The adapted image (see Figure 2) provided a visual analogy of a ® gure eight which translated the teacher’ s verbal explanation of `what actually happens’ to an abstracted image rooted in the everyday which served as a memory tool. Manipulating the Model: locating the discussion in a physical setting The two dimensional images used by the teacher represented the schematic knowledge of `how to think’. The model (as shown in Figure 3) presented a sense of the scienti® c process of exploration: going deeper into the subject. `Inside’ is brought `out’ onto the surface (literally). The model is used to take that surface view inside, to say `when this schematic process works, here is where it works’. What is being explored is how the actual contains the ideal. The model made the usually unseen insides of the human body visible and in the process transformed the entity `human body’ . Colour was used as a visual representation of the transformative process of blood circulation: grey/blue for `used blood’ and red for oxygenated blood. The model presented the spatial relation between the parts (the organs) and the whole (the human body) in more complex dimensional relationships than the two-dimensional representation afforded. It represented depth and layered relationships between the organs in the teacher’s narrative. The static, solid materiality of the model limited the role of the model in the explanation of a dynamic and organic process by representing the organs as hard lifeless things that do not move. However
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this seeming limitation enabled the heart to be physically handled in ways that living hearts could not be.
Action: made dynamic The teacher’ s gestures introduced the dynamic nature of the circulation of the blood and the pumping of the heart and they compensated for the limitations of the image and model. He used pantomimic gestures throughout the lesson to enact the movement of the different imagined entities in the narrative, the parts of the body involved in the narrative of his speech, he took on the movement of the different entities the pupils were required to imagine: the body; the heart; the heart’ s valves; and the blood. For example, at the start of the segment he uses his body as a model to provide a physical location for the circulation of the blood; he later holds his open hand ¯ at in a pantomimic act of being winded, shocked, demonstrating the physical effect of his speech: `It’ s got no oxygen in it. Okay, where does it need to go to get oxygen?’ . He used his arms and hands to demonstrate the movement of the heart and the heart valves; and later, when he used the model to demonstrate the ¯ ow of the blood through the heart he used his ® nger as a physical representation of bloodÐ he made a lassoe like motion with his index ® nger. Here his gesture had the role of enacting the movement of the imagined players in the narrative of the blood’ s route around the body. Again this introduced a sense of the dynamic to the static visual representations in the diagram, the model, and the image in the text book. The teacher’ s use of his body realised an interpersonal function: he used his body as a visual location for the verbal and visual information he provided in the lesson. He connected the real and the schematic. In doing so he oriented the pupils in a way which was suggestive of the need for them to think about their bodies not as they usually experience them but to imagine their internal structure. Later in the segment, the teacher’s use of his body provided a living location for the model. He stood behind the model, his arm on its shoulder, and embraced the model in a way which presented the model as an aspect of himself. In this way his body provided an outside for the insides, a real for the analysed. The teacher’s use of his body and gesture functioned to dynamise the human body, while the model served to classify the human body. The teacher used his body to show how the human body `looks’ , how it is for us. The model represented the body as analysed into parts. The image represented the body parts analytically in terms of function. There were therefore three levels of analysis of the body within the lesson: movement, parts, and functions, as summarised in Table 1. The teacher’ s use of his body also realised a shift in inter-subjectivity from his use of the model: he is speaking, he is differently positioned in space than the model; he has a personal history with the students. All of that mediates his interaction with the students in a different way than would the model. The teacher repeatedly made two gestures throughout the lesson: a circular motion made with his hand and arm; and a contracting gesture made with his hand
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Table 1. Summary of the role of each mode in the construction of the narrative
Speech
White board image
Creates the schematic need for backdrop explanation memory tool `Blood blood circulation’ circulation as a as a temporal function process `route’ Mediates `abstractÐ abstract highly system and specialised’ speci® c (body)
Gesture Body
Textbook diagram
classify spatial relations
dynamise narrative
canonical summary
body as parts `spatial’
body/blood circulation as movementÐ `living’
body as schema system
Model
`insideÐ `outsideÐ analysed’
real’ `abstractÐ highly specialised’
and arms pressed against his body. He made the circular gesture in relation to his body, by making a circular movement around his upper torso; he used his arm and hand to trace the circles of the image on the white board; he used his arms to encircle the model and to show the circular route of the imagined blood from the heart; ® nally he traced the circular route of the blood on the image in the text book. At one point, he made this circular gesture a total of 16 times in ® ve minutes. The gesture emphasised the movement of the blood as a cycle. During the same ® ve minute segment of the lesson he made the contracting gesture, holding his palm wide open and closing it in a grabbing motion to form a ® st a total of 23 times. This contraction gesture represented the `pump’Ð the squeezing of the heart. In this way the teacher’ s gestures realised two meanings, two key themes of the lessonÐ cyclical movement and contraction. The teacher’ s repetition of the circular and contracting gesture provided a rhythmic backdrop for the lesson which enabled movement across different modes and mediums to achieve coherence.
The Image in the Text Book: a stable summary The image in the text book (Figure 4) served the function of providing a stable summary of the two dimensional and three dimensional images and actions presented by the teacher. It provided a topographical representation of the heart and the circulation of the blood which drew on the visual analogy of a ® gure eight and presented it in a form that required the knowledge introduced by the teacher’ s enactment of the model.
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Orchestration of Modes As we have stated earlier, the modes worked together, interacted and interplayed, in different ways throughout the lesson. Here we focus on how this interaction produced a multiplication of meanings. Different modes were foregrounded at particular points in the lesson. At times the teacher’ s speech was foregrounded, at times independently coherent; at others the meaning of his speech was entirely intertwined with his action, to the extent that neither his speech nor his actions were coherent when viewed independently of one another. In short each mode contributed to the meaning being made, the meaning was not carried purely by the classroom talk: the narrative was multimodal. The teacher’ s use of image and action alongside his speech realised the continuous cyclical movement of the blood and the contraction of the heart. The teacher’ s speech combined with his actions and use of image to build a schematised version of the circulation. The ® gure eight image offered a basic map with which to read what will follow in the lesson. Standing in front of the image on the white board he introduced the model of the insides of the human body, using his body as a `model’ for the outside: his body mediated the transition between the image on the board and the modelÐ like a layering effect: his body overlaid the image; the model overlaid his body. His speech, gesture and the concrete model were fully integrated. His speech provided an explanation through narrative, his gesture indicated the players and made concrete the verbal narrative, the model provided an analytical representation of the body, the physical location for the discussion and the relationship between the parts and the whole. And lastly, the text book image offered a more detailed image, a visual summary of all that had happened. Throughout the ® rst half of the lesson the model was made salient through the teacher’ s manipulation of it to display the parts named in his verbal narrative. The model was then backgrounded by the teacher as he focused on the text-book diagram, and later went on to use his body as a canvas for explanation. The model was made salient later, foregrounded again, as the location of the teacher’s narrative in order to indicate the direction and route of the blood’ s cycle. These shifts can be seen as the result of the material potentials and limitations of the model and other resources, and of each of the modes available to the teacher in the science classroomÐ to convey the required meaning. As the focus of the teacher’s communication shifted from one of `organic movement’ , to the need to explain blood circulation as a process which `unfolds over time’ , the teacher shifted mode from action to speech. Within the lesson each of the modes came to realise speci® c meanings (functional specialisms) both through the teacher’ s development of practice, and in the lesson itself. For example, at one point in the narrative of the blood circulation the actor (blood) was carried in the teacher’ s speech, the physical location of the action was provided in the model, and the teacher’s manipulation of the model was the representation of the process (movement of the blood). The modes worked together to emphasise the unfolding discourse of `movement and agency’ . The speech
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Table 2. Construction of cycle discourse Mode
Construction of cycle discourse
Speech
Through his speech he introduced the conceptual cycle of process involving blood (e.g. cleaning), and used `coming’ and `going’ verbs to describe the movement of the blood The repetition of cyclical gestures He drew images of cycles (circles), and used textbook images with cyclical representations; the model of the human body which he displayed has a round `cut out’ section
Gesture Posture/body Visual
provided a temporal frame for the narrative, but the model was better able to provide a spatial `map’ of the players and the location of the narrative, the manipulation of the model made it `dynamic’. Each mode was best suited to a particular aspect of the narrative, and in their interaction provided a whole. At other times, the teacher’ s synchronisation of different semiotic modes produced meaning. For example, at another point in the lesson the synchronisation of the teacher’ s speech, his action of tracing the arrows on the text book image of the movement of the blood around the heart, and the text book image itself, worked in combination to produce an abstract directional `map’ of the `process entity’ `blood circulation’ . The synchronisation of modes here served to emphasise the canonical nature of information being given, almost as a `crescendo’ can serve to emphasise an `ending’ in music. The combinations of modes throughout the narrative served to realise discourses such as cyclical movement and abstraction. Cyclical Movement The conception of the movement of the blood as a cycle was established by the teacher’ s multimodal communication throughout the lesson as shown in Table 2. Abstraction Each representational mode enabled the unfolding of a different view of the body. In the process each mode provided a move towards abstraction of `body’ and each removed another layer of the individualit y of what was being represented, changing the representation of the human body to a more general abstracted one. The model `removed’ (did not represent) human individuality and movement. The diagram abstracted it further by `removing’ the context of the process represented visually. In this way the process of the teacher’ s shift from action on the body, to the model, and diagram created a layered effect, a visual continuum of abstraction as shown in Table 3.
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Discourse of science as abstraction Body as individual and whole `Human body’ as generalisable (e.g. gender, individuality) Parts (heart) dislocated/abstracted from body
The abstraction of the blood cycle represented in the text book image articulated the ® nal product of this process of abstraction: from the teacher’ s body as `individual’ and whole, to the dislocated abstraction represented diagramatically. In short, the way in which the modes were orchestrated made meaning: the process entity `blood circulation’ `emerged’ from the interweaving of meanings created by the teacher’ s shifting between the modes. Learning as a Multimodal Event This section offers a brief discussion of learning as a multimodal event (for a fuller discussion see Kress et al., in press). During the lesson the teacher’ s use of different modes repositioned the pupils in relation to the blood circulation, and to the human body. Through the teacher’ s speech about the circular route of the blood going around the body and the image on the white board, the pupils were asked to imagine themselves inside `the body’ . The teacher’ s gesture and his use of his body as a `model’ asked them to imagine themselves placed as observers outside of the body, and then through acting out the pumping action of the heart in his gestures, he `took’ them a layer deeperÐ we `are in’ the heart `seeing the movement of the valves’ . The shift to the model placed the pupils in the role of `students looking in at a dead body’ : the teacher points out and handles the organsÐ like an autopsy, a modern day dissection. The image in the text book required the pupils to imagine the context `the rest of the body’ . The shift in modes and resulting repositioning of the pupils throughout the segment required the pupils to do different types of conceptual work in order to make sense of the different aspects of the circulatory system being discussed. The image required them to imagine the inside of their body as a circuit and the movement of blood around this circuit, to envisage the size and position of organs and the relationship between them in a highly abstract fashion, to think of their organs in a circuit, and of their cells as collected up into one place (like an organ), to transform the relationship between our heart and lungs, from a three dimensional one where the lungs are in front of the heart, to a two dimensional relationship where the lungs were above the heartÐ that is they were required to translate spatial relationships: front becomes up, behind becomes down. The teacher’ s gesture and use of his body as a `model’ required them to imagine what goes on beneath his skinÐ to imagine what is going on inside, to envisage the organs and their movement. The teacher’ s action with the model required the pupils to think something different
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than the speech and image: both the size and position of the organs, and the relationship between them is realised in the model, as is the setting for the action; the teacher’ s action provides the movement and direction. The pupils must work to envisage the agent of this actionÐ the blood. The written homework task (to write a story on the journey of the blood around the body from the point of view of a blood cell) asked the pupils to imaginatively move into the cell itself and to become a blood cell. The texts produced by the students demonstrate the multimodal nature of learning as a process. Although the teacher used a range of semiotic resources during the lesson, the homework task explicitly limited the mode to that of written language. The homework therefore required the pupils to `translate’ the teacher’ s multimodal messages/signs (information from the teacher’ s speech, his use of images, and his manipulation of the model) into a written text (although some read this as enabling them to draw images as well). For us, the issue here is how writing as a modal resource can be used to re-shape the different modes of representation presented by the teacher: in this example we focus on the use of writing genres as a resource. The pupils’ texts varied greatly in generic terms. Our point here is not that the pupils’ texts should have shared the same features, but that the pupils’ texts use generically speci® c conventions which worked to present their experience of learning in different ways. The pupils made decisions in producing their texts in relation to: not only voice (that is, active or passive), tense (past or present), `key players’ , but also the format/presentation, style and the genre of the text. Genre markers we suggest can be seen as one resource available to pupils with which to transform multimodal communication within the science classroom into a monomodal (in this case, written) text. That is, we think that aspects of genre conventions can be viewed as traces or `echoes’ of the multimodal communicative environment from which they emerged. Different genres, like different modes, each have particular constraints and affordances, and each enabled the pupils to focus on different aspects of the blood’ s journey around the body, and to introduce their particular interests. Conclusion: teaching education in a multimodal environment The multimodal analysis of communication in the science classroom presented in this paper raises the questionÐ Is all this special to science? The answer is `No’ because all communication is multimodal. However we recognise that whilst not unique, science education makes some aspects much more salient than other school subjectsÐ especially the combined emphasis on abstraction and analysis; the use of images as knowledge (and not as illustration); the connection with action through experiment, and demonstration; and the over-riding importance of things as against words. Taking a multimodal approach highlights the complexity of classroom interaction and pedagogy. Our aim is to describe, and better understand, the range of meaningmaking resources available in the science classroom which contribute to these processes. In doing so, our aim is to make the full repertoire of communicative
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resources available for re¯ ection in education. In the multimodal environment of the science classroom we have shown that the meanings teachers and pupils make do not reside purely in language, but in the complex interweaving between the linguistic, visual, and actional resources used to communicate. Throughout the series of lessons we suggest that each mode played a different part in the construction of the narrative of blood circulation. Each mode required the pupils to do different types of cognitive work in order to understand. A multimodal approach to learning and teaching raises a number of implications for teacher education. These include: 1. The need to attend consciously to all modes of communication, both in terms of (a) the range of resources available to and selected by teachers, (b) those made available to pupils in the classroom, (c) the evaluation and assessment of learning. 2. The need to develop an `awareness’ via training and re¯ exive practice of how these modes are used in the classroom. This means asking: what modes are used? When are speci® c modes used? Are modes used to attend to different aspects of concepts, phenomena, explanations, etc.? 3. The exploration of what mode may be `best suited’ to a task, and the different cognitive and representational demands speci® c modes may place on pupils. 4. The consideration of the relations between modes in the construction of explanations, etc. For example, does the use of image, action, and speech in a lesson produce con¯ icting messages or does each mode work to reinforce the others? The above points are implicit in teaching, but they usually remain inaccessible and at the level of `intuition’. Our research suggests that there is a need for the `work’ of image, action and other modes to become more explicitly articulated in teacher education and practice, in order for all modes to be available for re¯ ection, re® nement, and improvement as teaching and learning resources. Acknowledgements We would like to thank Stanley Thornes (Publishers), Cheltenham UK for permission to reproduce the image in ® gure 4 from Spotlight Science 8. (1994) Johnson, K., Adamson, S. and Williams, G. Note 1. This paper is based on an ESRC-funded research project titled `The rhetoric of the science classroom: a multimodal approach’ , C. Jewitt, G. Kress, J. Ogborn and C. Tsatsarelis: Institute of Education, University of London.
References BARTHES, R. (1977). Image, music, text. London: Fontana. KRESS, G. & VAN LEEUWEN, T. (1996). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.
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