Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1241 Using a Social Semiotic Perspective to Inform the Teaching and Learning of Physics TOBIAS FREDLUND ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS ISSN 1651-6214 ISBN 978-91-554-9210-6 UPPSALA urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-247771 2015 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in 10132, Lägerhyddsvägen 1, Uppsala, Wednesday, 13 May 2015 at 09:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Professor Emeritus David Wolfe (University of New Mexico). Abstract Fredlund, T. 2015. Using a Social Semiotic Perspective to Inform the Teaching and Learning of Physics. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1241. 178 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9210-6. This thesis examines meaning-making in three different areas of undergraduate physics: the refraction of light; electric circuits; and, electric potential and electric potential energy. In order to do this, a social semiotic perspective was constituted for the thesis to facilitate the analysis of meaning-making in terms of the semiotic resources that are typically used in the teaching and learning of physics. These semiotic resources include, for example, spoken and written language, diagrams, graphs, mathematical equations, gestures, simulations, laboratory equipment and working practices. The empirical context of the thesis is introductory undergraduate physics where interactive engagement was part of the educational setting. This setting presents a rich data source, which is made up of video- and audio recordings and field notes for examining how semiotic resources affect physics teaching and learning. Theory building is an integral part of the analysis in the thesis, which led to the constitution of a new analytical tool – patterns of disciplinary-relevant aspects. Part of this process then resulted in the development of a new construct, disciplinary affordance, which for a discipline such as physics, refers to the inherent potential of a semiotic resource to provide access to disciplinary knowledge. These two aspects, in turn, led to an exploration of new empirical and theoretical links to the Variation Theory of Learning. The implications of this work for the teaching and learning of physics means that new focus is brought to the physics content (object of learning), the semiotic resources that are used to deal with that content, and how the semiotic resources are used to create patterns of variation within and across the disciplinary-relevant aspects. As such, the thesis provides physics teachers with new and powerful ways to analyze the semiotic resources that get used in efforts to optimize the teaching and learning of physics. Keywords: Social semiotics, semiotic resources, physics education research, interactive engagement, disciplinary affordance, disciplinary-relevant aspects, patterns of disciplinary- relevant aspects, the Variation Theory of Learning Tobias Fredlund, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Physics Didactics, 516, Uppsala University, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. © Tobias Fredlund 2015 ISSN 1651-6214 ISBN 978-91-554-9210-6 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-247771 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-247771) To Maria, Emma, Vilma and Linnea List of Papers and supporting work Papers This thesis is based on the following papers, which are referred to in the text by their Roman numerals. I Fredlund, T., Airey, J., Linder, C. (2012) Exploring the role of physics representations. An illustrative example from students sharing knowledge about refraction. European Journal of Physics, 33:657-666. II Fredlund, T., Airey, J., Linder, C. (2013) Att välja lämpliga semiotiska resurser. In Lundqvist, E., Säljö, R., & Östman, L. (Eds.) Scientific literacy : teori och praktik. (pp. 59-70) Malmö, Sweden: Gleerups. III Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J., Linder, A. (2014) Unpacking physics representations: Towards an appreciation of disciplinary affordance. Physics Review Special Topics – Physics Education Research, 10, 020129. IV Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J. (Accepted for publication in the July issue) A social semiotic approach to identifying critical aspects. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 4 (3) V Fredlund, T., Airey, J., Linder, C. (In review) Enhancing the possibilities for learning: variation of disciplinary-relevant aspects in physics representations. (Submitted to European Journal of Physics) VI Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J. (Accepted) Towards addressing transient learning challenges in undergraduate physics: an example from electrostatics. (Submitted to European Journal of Physics) Reprints were made with permission from the respective publishers. Supporting work Fredlund, T. (2010) Multimodality in Students Physics Discussions. Paper presented at the Multimodality and Learning International Conference, London, United Kingdom, July. Fredlund, T. (2010) Exploring Representations in Physics Teaching and Learning. Poster presented at the JURE 2010, Connecting Diverse Perspectives on Learning and Instruction Conference, Frankfurt, Germany, July 19-22. Fredlund, T., Linder, C. (2010) Choosing the proper representation(s) in physics. Presented at the EARLI SIG 2 conference, Tübingen, August 26-28, 2010. Fredlund, T. & Linder, C. (2010) Naturvetarnas ‘språk’: Användandet av figurer, artefakter, ekvationer och ord i studentdiskussioner om fysikaliska fenomen. Poster presented at the ‘NU2010 Dialog för lärande’ Conference, Stockholm, 13-15 October. Fredlund, T. & Linder, C. (2011) Towards understanding affordances of representations: a case study using refraction of light. Poster presented at the Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research Conference, Bar Harbor, Maine, 13-17 June. Fredlund, T., and Linder, C. (2011) Appresentation in physics problem solving. Paper presented at GIREP-EPEC 2011((International Research Group on Physics Teaching - European Physics Education Conference) joint conference, Jyväskylä, Finland, 1-5 August. Fredlund, T., Airey, J. and Linder, C. (2011) Representations in students' explanation of refraction: A case study. A paper presented at GIREP-EPEC 2011 ((International Research Group on Physics Teaching - European Physics Education Conference) joint conference, Jyväskylä, Finland, 1-5 August. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., and Airey, J. (2012) A case study of the role of representations in enabling and constraining the sharing of physics knowledge in peer discussions. Paper presented at the 1st World Conference on Physics Education, Istanbul, Turkey, 1-6 July. Fredlund, T., Airey, J., Linder, C. (2012) Critical aspects of scientific phenomena – to the fore, in the background, or not present in scientific representations. Presented at the EARLI SIG 2 conference, Grenoble, August 28-31, 2012. Fredlund, T., Airey, J. and Linder, C., (2012) Choosing appropriate resources: investigating students’ scientific literacy. Paper presented in the Literacy and didactics: perspectives, practices and consequences II Symposium at the European Conference on Educational Research, University of Cádiz, Spain, 17-21 September. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., (2013) Learning science and the selection of apt representations: an example from physics. Paper presented at the SAARMSTE Conference, University of Western Cape, South Africa, 14-17 January. Fredlund, T., & Linder, C. (2013) Making physics learning possible: exploring a variation perspective on representations. Paper presented at the Third Joint Meeting of the Nordic Physical Societies, Nordic Physics Days, Lund, Sweden, 12-14 June. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Priemer, B., Boczianowski, F., and Pohl, A. (2013) Perceptions and forms of reasoning. Refraction of light: a study of virtual image predictions. Poster presented at the Foundations and Frontiers of Physics Education Research Conference, Bar Harbor, Maine, 17-21 June. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J. (2014) Reverse rankshift : towards an appreciation of the disciplinary affordances of representations. Paper presented at the 5th International 360 Conference. Encompassing the multimodality of knowledge, Aarhus, Denmark, 8-10 May. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J. (2014) Exploring knowledge representation in terms of the enactment of idealized patterns of disciplinary-relevant aspects. Paper presented at the 5th International 360 Conference. Encompassing the multimodality of knowledge, Aarhus, Denmark, 8-10 May. Airey, J., Eriksson, U., Fredlund, T., & Linder, C. (2014) The concept of disciplinary affordance. Paper presented at the 5th International 360 Conference. Encompassing the multimodality of knowledge, Aarhus, Denmark, 8-10 May. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J. (2014) Variation as a method for perceiving the disciplinary affordances of physics representations. Paper presented at IACS-2104, the first Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, Lund, Sweden, 25-27 September. Fredlund, T., Linder, C., Airey, J. (2014) Learning in terms of the semiotic enactment of patterns of disciplinary-relevant aspects. Paper presented at IACS-2104, the first Conference of the International Association for Cognitive Semiotics, Lund, Sweden, 25-27 September. Airey, J., Eriksson, U., Fredlund, T., & Linder, C. (2014) On the disciplinary affordances of semiotic resources. Paper presented at IACS-2104, the first Conference of the International Association for