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An analysis of student-generated drawings in terms of the types of scientific explanations and levels of representations

2022, Chang, Jina, Park, Joonhyeong, Park, Jisun

This study examined the features of student-generated drawings to foster their understanding of sound transmission. In this regard, eighteen student-generated drawings constructed by the fifth and sixth elementary science gifted students were collected and analyzed. The students were asked to draw and explain sound transmission between a tuning fork and our ears. The researchers classified the types of student-generated drawings by focusing on `air particles' and `their interactions', which are invisible, and key ideas of sound transmissions, and then analyzed the features of the students' conceptions, as visually expressed in each type. Consequently, most students focused only on the collisions among air particles, the medium transmitting sound, without conceptualizing the particle vibrations, i.e., the back-and-forth movements of particles. For example, some students drew that the particles themselves vibrate, or the particles literally transmit vibrations as if handing over an object. Finally, the educational implications were discussed in terms of alternative conceptions for elementary and middle school students and how to teach sound transmission.

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Meaning making in science classrooms: Orchestrating multiple modes of representations

2023, Park, Joonhyeong

Students improve their understanding of science through mean making in science classrooms. Considering the multimodality of science and the cognitive benefits of the use of multimodal communication, science educators commonly use multiple representations for teaching and learning science. In this article, I introduce a draw-to-learn approach as a potential pedagogy which can prompt students’ meaning making by translating from verbal mode to visual mode and vice versa and orchestrating multiple representations together. I then discuss how this multimodal representational practice can be meaningful for students in terms of a chain of meaning across modes of representation.

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Integrating artificial intelligence into science lessons: Teachers’ experiences and views

2023, Park, Joonhyeong, Teo, Tang Wee, Teo, Arnold, Huang, David Junsong, Koo, Sengmeng, Chang, Jina

Background
In the midst of digital transformation, schools are transforming their classrooms as they prepare students for a world increasingly automated by new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). During curricular implementation, it has not made sense to teachers to teach AI as a stand-alone subject as it is not a traditional discipline in schools. As such, subject matter teachers may need to take on the responsibility of integrating AI content into discipline-based lessons to help students make connections and see its relevance rather than present AI as separate content. This paper reports on a study that piloted a new lesson package in science classrooms to introduce students to the idea of AI. Specifically, the AI-integrated science lesson package, designed by the research team, provided an extended activity that used the same context as an existing lesson activity. Three science teachers from different schools piloted the lesson package with small groups of students and provided feedback on the materials and implementation.

Findings
The findings revealed the teachers’ perceptions of integrating AI into science lessons in terms of the connection between AI and science, challenges when implementing the AI lesson package and recommendations on improvements. First, the teachers perceived that AI and science have similarities in developing accurate models with quality data and using simplified reasoning, while they thought that AI and science play complementary roles when solving scientific problems. Second, the teachers thought that the biggest challenge in implementing the lesson package was a lack of confidence in content mastery, while the package would be challenging to get buy-in from teachers regarding curriculum adaptation and targeting the appropriate audience. Considering these challenges, they recommended that comprehensive AI resources be provided to teachers, while this package can be employed for science enrichment programs after-school.

Conclusions
The study has implications for curriculum writers who design lesson packages that introduce AI in science classrooms and for science teachers who wish to contribute to the development of AI literacy for teachers and the extension of the range of school science and STEM to students.

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Plan-Draw-valuate (PDE) pattern in students' collaborative drawing: Interaction between visual and verbal modes of representation

2021, Park, Joonhyeong, Tang, Kok Sing, Chang, Jina

The use of group drawing to promote student-generated representation is a common instructional strategy as it combines the benefits of using visual representation and collaborative talk. Although the affordances of group drawing have increasingly been emphasized in science education, few studies have investigated how drawing as a visual mode interacts with group discourse as a verbal mode as well as how that interaction facilitates the development of students' collective ideas. Informed by theories in classroom discourse and multimodality, this paper examines the interaction process between a verbal and visual mode of representation as groups of students engaged in collaborative drawing during guided science inquiry lessons. On the basis of the analysis of data from a science class that adopted group drawing, we found and documented a recurring pattern, Plan-Draw-Evaluate or PDE pattern, in how the interaction between the verbal and visual modes occurred during collaborative drawing. This PDE pattern consisted of a triad of moves that alternate between the two modes and fulfilled various discursive purposes, such as suggesting, requesting, recording, visualizing, elaborating, agreeing, and rejecting. The PDE pattern provided a basic social structure that facilitated the collaboration and progression of students' ideas. With illustrations of PDE patterns and its variations, we argue that the PDE pattern provides an insight into the dynamic organization of interactions involved in group drawing that takes into consideration the multimodal affordances of verbal and visual modes of representation and the progression of ideas developed through collaborative discourse.

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Multimodal genre of science classroom discourse: Mutual contextualization between genre and representation construction

2021, Tang, Kok Sing, Park, Joonhyeong, Chang, Jina

This paper argues that meaning-making with multimodal representations in science learning is always contextualized within a genre and, conversely, what constitutes an ongoing genre also depends on a multimodal coordination of speech, gesture, diagrams, symbols, and material objects. In social semiotics, a genre is a culturally evolved way of doing things with language (including non-verbal representations). Genre provides a useful lens to understand how a community’s cultural norms and practices shape the use of language in various human activities. Despite this understanding, researchers have seldom considered the role of scientific genres (e.g., experimental account, information report, explanation) to understand how students in science classrooms make meanings as they use and construct multimodal representations. This study is based on an enactment of a drawing-to-learn approach in a primary school classroom in Australia, with data generated from classroom videos and students’ artifacts. Using multimodal discourse analysis informed by social semiotics, we analyze how the semantic variations in students’ representations correspond to the recurring genres they were enacting. We found a general pattern in the use and creation of representations across different scientific genres that support the theory of a mutual contextualization between genre and representation construction.

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Features of and representational strategies in instructional videos for primary science classes

2022, Park, Joonhyeong, Chang, Jina, Park, Jisun, Yoon, Hye-Gyoung

Utilisation of instructional videos for science teaching has become more widespread due to the expansion of online teaching and learning environments and growing awareness of benefits of videos, such as enabling use of effective multiple representations. With this in mind, this study aimed to examine features of instructional videos for teaching scientific inquiry, a key element of science education, and learners’ engagement, a crucial issue in instruction in terms of representational strategies used. We analysed 16 instructional videos for science teaching generated by pre-service teachers. We found that the instructional videos tended to focus on posing a question related to a phenomenon and constructing its explanation conceptually rather than conducting investigations and interpreting the data. It was also found that there were alternations between providing relevant and conceptual resources and affording learners opportunities to answer questions verbally and visually to prompt their engagement. Various representational strategies, such as summarising, comparing, highlighting, sequencing, and presenting vivid phenomena, were also employed for better teaching scientific inquiry as a part of learners’ ongoing cognitive activities. Based on the findings, we argue that there is potential for using instructional videos for teaching science, considering representational strategies in terms of scientific inquiry and learners’ engagement.