Focusing on Language and Knowledge in Middle-School Science: What Do Children and Teachers Gain?

Description

This paper presents a small part of an ongoing research and educational development project integrating language and science in Danish middle-school classes. The aim is to make knowledge hidden in the science language visible to all students, especially second-language learners. In this part of the project, we followed a 6th-grade learning about the periodic table of the elements, where students were meant to make connections between the abstract topic and their material world. The paper shows how using the analytical tool semantic waves from The Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) enables the teacher to provide opportunities for all students, including second-language learners, to learn both science and related language features with meaningful progression. In dialogue with a functional model of language from systemic functional linguistics, SFL, semantic gravity is enacted as a tool for revealing differences between students’ participation opportunities in various language-use situations, i.e., science activities. Finally, we will discuss our findings from the perspective of semantic waves, arguing that a student’s understanding of science subjects depends on the teacher's ability to link common-sense knowledge with scientific knowledge. Thus, it is essential to have a waving movement going back and forth between different layers in the teachers' conversation with the students. Accordingly, we aim to create a methodology teachers can use in their preparation that integrates language and helps students access understanding in middleschool science.

Period	28 Aug 2023 → 1 Sept 2023
Event title	THE 15TH CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN SCIENCE EDUCATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION (ESERA): THE 15TH CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN SCIENCE EDUCATION RESEARCH ASSOCIATION
Event type	Conference
Conference number	15
Location	Cappadocia, TurkeyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International