Productive Communication: A Multimodal, Embodied Model for Collaboration in the Engineering Design Process

• In Event: Intersections of Equity, Engineering, and Literacy: Exploring Possible Presents, Building Possible Futures

Abstract

The Developing Vital Engineering and Literacy Oriented Practices in STEM for Elementary Teachers and Children (DeVELOP STEM ETC) project focuses on the intersection of developing elementary aged students’ (grades 3-4; ages 7-10) habits of mind, specifically collaboration and communication, to help underrepresented populations in engineering fields (i.e., ethnic and racial minorities, English Language Learners, children living in poverty, and females ) become familiar with STEM fields by actively engaging in problem solving using the Engineering Design Process (EDP). Essential to being an engineer is the development of communicative skills. Engineers who work in design teams must actively listen to others and respond in productive ways. Knowing this, we focus on language-in-use (e.g., communicating like an engineer) with the goal of providing students with access to the privileged disciplinary discourses and more equitable opportunities for them to develop a sense of agency and identity as an engineer. One of the guiding tenets of the engineering club was that key to building an engineering identity and practices was engaging students in the act of problem-solving through enacting the EDP.

Project Context. The afterschool engineering club was established as a collaborative project by teachers from Legacy Elementary School and researchers from a nearby university in literacy education and engineering. Legacy Elementary is located in the northeastern United States, serving culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse Pre-K - 5 students. Participants included 12 third-grade students (Asian 50%, Black 25%, White 17%, Hispanic/Latino 8%; 25% female) and four teachers (library media specialist, art, science, fourth-grade teacher).

Engineering club spanned a total of eight weeks, meeting two days per week after school for approximately one hour. Five project-based engineering problems were posed to the students, who were given time to engage in the EDP. Engineering club was open to any elementary student in third grade regardless of academic achievements, behavioral actions or language proficiency. The district provided busing so children of all economic levels could participate.

Method. A case study (Merriam, 1988) research design was used. Data include: audio transcripts (talk), video and episode transcriptions (action, materials-in-use) and corresponding, and researcher field notes (talk/action/materials-in-use). We identified focal episodes where students used multiple modes of communication to design solutions to the posed problem. Multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004) was used to analyze the verbal, nonverbal, material objects, and environment while students were interacting during the EDP.

Results. One outcome was the development of a communicative model that privileges multimodal communication called Productive Communication (Authors, 2016). This model draws attention to the ways that children continuously use gesture, touch, images, sound, use of artifacts and other modalities to help communicate fully with their design team members, in addition to speaking, hearing, reading, and writing words in the context of an elementary afterschool engineering club. All of these multimodal dimensions of communication are important, especially for students learning English or students who lack the necessary vocabulary. We will describe the components of our Productive Communication model and illustrate its affordances and limitations for underrepresented populations in engineering.

Authors

• Lynn Shanahan, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Mary B. McVee, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Katarina Nicole Silvestri, University at Buffalo - SUNY