How students solve problems through coordinating multimodal representations, during collaborative inquiry problem-solving activities in science and mathematics?
Chief investigators:
David CLARKE, Ross CUNNINGTON, Robyn GILLIES, Merrilyn GOOS, Sven SILBURN, Russell TYTLER,
Teaching students to construct, use and interpret representations is critically important in both science and mathematics if they are to become scientifically or mathematically literate and understand how scientists and mathematicians create and use representations in their work. Being scientifically or mathematically literate includes being able to interpret and use texts, tables, diagrams, graphs, models, drawings, portfolios, artifacts, and embodied forms such as gesture, role play, and exhibitions of performance.
There is also evidence emerging that students not only need to be competent at interpreting representations but that learning to construct, evaluate, use, and coordinate multi-modal representations as key elements of classroom discursive practices is key to developing meta-representational competencies necessary for higher order problem solving. This project is designed to investigate how students construct anduse different representations while engaged in various forms of collaborative inquiry, problem-solving activities in science and mathematics.
A variety of sub-projects are anticipated in both domains including the role of dialogic talk, peer and teacher feedback, and collaborative activity in effective representation construction and negotiation.