Effects of Multimodal Representations and Discourse on Students' Task Engagement and Language During Cooperative Science

• In Event: New Developments in Cooperative Learning

Abstract

The study sought to determine the effects of teacher-introduced multimodal representations and discourse on students’ task engagement and scientific language during cooperative, science. Eight Year 6 teachers in two conditions who taught two units of science participated in the study. The results show that the very effective teachers spent significantly more time engaged in using embodied representations to illustrate points and significantly more time engaged in interrogating students’ understandings and thinking. In turn, the students in these teachers’ classes spent significantly more time on-task and used significantly more relevant scientific language to explain the phenomena they were investigating than their peers in the effective teachers’ classes; behaviours and language that are associated with successful learning in science.

Author

• Robyn Margaret Gillies, The University of Queensland