"Languages" of Science: Computational Modeling for Reasoning and Expression With Emerging Bilingual Students in Middle School

• In Event: A New Generation of Goals for Scientific Modeling: Strategies and Lessons Learned for Reach and Impact

Abstract

Purpose/Significance. Although research on scientific modeling and translanguaging emerge from different domains, this study argues that critical similarities bridge these seemingly disparate practices. This project frames computational modeling as a “language” in science, using StarLogo Nova as a multimodal tool to support science learning with emerging bilingual students and to foreground the role of negotiated multimodal representations in science for all students. Authentically engaging in modeling practices by creating, negotiating, and evaluating representations prepares students for potential futures as STEM professionals. Moreover, in a “post-truth” era, it is becoming increasingly important for students as citizens to be able to decompose representations to critically evaluate the ideas embedded within them (Wells, Holme, & Scott, 2019).

Theoretical Framework. Translanguaging theory argues that languages are fluid and dynamic, characterizing an individual’s semiotic repertoire as a single system of resources for communicating and meaning-making that includes languages, registers of speech, and gestures (Blackledge & Creese, 2017; García, 2009; Pennycook, 2010; vanLier, 2002). We conjecture that translanguaging practices can be leveraged to foreground the negotiated and multimodal nature of discourse in science by framing modes and models as languages in conversation. Computational models are a rich resource for this task because they include unique visual and dynamic modes (Authors, in press).

In a classroom design study, in addition to valuing emerging bilingual students’ full linguistic repertoires, we frame models and the modes they comprise as languages in conversation. We ask:
1. How does promoting translanguaging in scientific modeling activities foreground the negotiated nature of discourse in science?
2. How does framing modes and models as languages in conversation foreground the role of representations in shaping understanding and inquiry in science?

Methods. We address these questions with data from a design study conducted in a 6th grade STEM classroom. Within a 9-week NGSS-aligned ecology unit, the design aims to provide students with opportunities to reason and express ideas across multimodal representations, including computational models. We use students’ models, classroom videos, and interviews to understand how leveraging translanguaging shapes students’ opportunities for learning, engagement in modeling practices, and experiences in this context.

Findings/Conclusions. Our data suggest that promoting and leveraging translanguaging shapes the way that students engage in computational modeling in this classroom by foregrounding the negotiated and multimodal nature of scientific discourse. First, encouraging students to construct multilingual representations creates opportunities for students to negotiate the terms and languages they use, in some cases leading students to create or appropriate new terms to describe the phenomena they encounter. Second, framing modes as languages in conversation makes translanguaging practices accessible to both emerging bilingual students and monolingual students, as students identify modes, compare the content foregrounded by modes and models, and consider the affordances of their representations for expression and inquiry. We find that putting models into conversation in this way changes how students engage in science, shaping what they understand to be salient in their models, as well as their questions and lines of inquiry.

Authors

• Ashlyn Pierson, The Ohio State University

• Doug Clark, University of Calgary

• Corey Brady, Vanderbilt University