The Role of Hybridization in Bridging Out-of-School and Scientific Discourses

• In Event: Cognitive Process and Science Learning

Abstract

This paper reports on findings from a design-based research intended to help high school physics students connect their out-of-school discourses to a scientific discourse. In the ensuing convergence of multiple discourses within this “third space”, we observed some degree of hybridization where the students mixed various voices from different discourses as they learned to speak and act like a physicist. Informed by Bakhtin’s view of hybridization, we carried out a micro-genetic analysis in order to understand the nature and process of hybridization at a discursive level. In addition to showing illustrations of hybridization in practice, we assert that hybridization plays a crucial dialogic role in helping students navigate across various discourses in a third space.

Authors

• Kok-Sing Tang, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University

• Natasha Anne Rappa, National Institute of Education - Nanyang Technological University