Abstract
Visualization plays an important role in the conceptualization of electromagnetic induction (EMI). The ability to visualize what goes on in an electromagnetic induction phenomenon using culturally consistent semiotic resources is a crucial determinant to successful problem-solving. Understanding how students make sense of an electromagnetic induction phenomenon with semiotic resources should thus be an important aspect in studies of students’ conception of electromagnetic induction. In this paper, I propose the use of social semiotics as an alternative lens to cognitive perspectives in understanding students’ conception of electromagnetic induction. In particular, a multimodal framework, derived from systemic functional linguistics, is applied to texts produced by two students’ meaning-making of a problem on electromagnetic induction. It was found that while the two students solved the problem successfully, their sense making of the phenomenon with semiotic resources was different. The choice and use of semiotic resources were indicative of how they conceived the idea of electromagnetic induction. Thus, this paper demonstrates that a semiotic analysis framework is potentially useful for understanding students’ conception of EMI.
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Yeo, J. (2014). Understanding Students’ Conceptions of Electromagnetic Induction: A Semiotic Analysis. In: Bruguière, C., Tiberghien, A., Clément, P. (eds) Topics and Trends in Current Science Education. Contributions from Science Education Research, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7281-6_21
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7281-6_21
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