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Constructing scientific knowledge in the classroom : a multimodal analysis of conceptual change and the significance of gestureCallinan, Carol Jane January 2014 (has links)
Constructivism remains one of the most influential views of understanding how children learn science today. Research investigating learning from within this viewpoint has led to the development of a range of theoretical models, most of which aim to explain the underlying processes associated with conceptual change. Such models range in depth and scope with some attributing change to purely cognitive processes while others suggest a role for social factors. Contemporary research has also begun to explore links between the role of practical activity, skills development and language. This study utilises a cross-sectional design in order to investigate the development of children’s ideas and concepts related to two areas of the English National Curriculum for Science: ‘electricity’ and ‘floating and sinking’. A new and innovative multimodal methodology combining practical science activities and traditional / conventional perspectives alongside interview and observational protocols is presented. Multimodal research proposes that knowledge and meaning are transmitted through a range of responses types including language, drawings and gesture. The participants in this study were children aged 7, 11 and 14 years attending four schools in the East Midlands region. Results demonstrate that the children’s ideas could be developed using conceptual challenge tasks. The gestures that the children produced were categorised according to five different forms: referential, representative, expressive, thinking and social, often containing information about their science ideas that was not included in other response types. The results also begin to uncover how meaning is socially constructed and supported. These results form the basis of a critique of methodology intended to re-evaluate and inform debate arising from different models of conceptual change. The potential importance of studying children’s gestures in classroom settings for providing important cues and clues to underlying thoughts that may not be present in verbal or other more conventional responses alone is highlighted.
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ENGLISH IN IRAN: CULTURAL REPRESENETATION IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKSNegin H Goodrich (9037970) 24 July 2020 (has links)
<p>This investigation into the status of English
in Iran and cultural presentations in Iranian English has two areas of
emphasis. The first is a sociolinguistic
profile of English in Iran in which the status, functions, uses and users of
this language are described within in the country’s social and political
contexts. In this part, contributing
factors to the growth of English in three political periods, including the
Qajar dynasty (1796 -1925), the Pahlavi era (1925-1979) and post-Revolutionary
time (1979 – present), are elaborated upon to establish the historical and
political bases for the second area of focus.</p>
<p>The second focus is the cultural content in the
locally developed English textbooks used from 1939 to the present time (2020).
Accordingly, the content of four generations (across five textbook series) of
Iranian high school English textbooks are analyzed based on an evaluation
scheme which the author has developed. This research finds answers to the
questions on the status of culture in the Iranian English textbooks;
distribution of Iranian and non-Iranian cultures; dominance of cultural
elements (products, practices and perspectives) in each English textbooks
series; and the political and ideological influence of each era on the content
of English textbooks.</p>
<p>This investigation finds that the English
textbooks which were developed before the Islamic Revolution (first and second
generations) were highly cultural compared to the post-Revolution materials
(third and fourth generations). Also, non-Iranian cultural components
(particularly the American and British cultures) were more represented in the
English textbooks of the Pahlavi period, whereas Western cultures were all
eliminated in the post-Revolution textbooks, replaced by the
Islamic/Revolutionary cultures. Additionally, cultural perspectives outnumbered
cultural products and practices in the first and second generations of English
textbooks (Pahlavi era) whereas cultural products dominated the post-Revolutionary
English materials. This study finds that political and ideological hegemony of
each era have directly influenced the textual and illustrative content of
locally developed English textbooks in Iran.<a> </a></p>
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