Designing Learning with Embodied Teaching: Perspectives from Multimodality / Edition 1

by Fei Victor Lim

Overview

Teaching and learning involve more than just language. The teachers' use of gestures, the classroom spaces they occupy and the movements they make, as well as the tools they use, work together with language as a multimodal ensemble of meanings. Embodied teaching is about applying the understandings from multimodal communication to the classroom. It is about helping teachers recognise that the moves they make and the tools they use in the classroom are part of their pedagogy and contribute to the design of the students’ learning experience.

In response to the changing profile and needs of learners in this digital age, pedagogic shifts are required. A shift is the evolving role of teachers from authority of knowledge to designers of learning. This book discusses how, using examples drawn from case studies, teachers can use corporeal resources and (digital) tools to design learning experiences for their students. It advances the argument that the study of the teachers' use of language, gestures, positioning, and movement in the classroom, from a multimodal perspective, can be productive.

This book is intended for educational researchers and teacher practitioners, as well as curriculum specialists and policy makers. The central proposition is that as teachers develop a semiotic awareness of how their use of various meaning-making resources express their unique pedagogy they can use these multimodal resources aptly and fluently to design meaningful learning experiences. This book also presents a case for further research in educational semiotics to understand the embodied ways of meaning-making in the pedagogic context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367373368
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/28/2020
Series:	Routledge Studies in Multimodality
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Fei Victor Lim is Assistant Professor at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has published and been cited for his work in multimodal discourse analysis, designs for learning through classroom orchestration, and multimodal literacy. He serves on the editorial team of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Computers and Composition, and Designs for Learning. He is also Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator of several research grants. He was previously Lead Specialist and Deputy Director, Technologies for Learning, at the Singapore Ministry of Education, where he has experience in translational research, policy formulation, and programme development, with a focus on how educational technology can improve teaching and learning.

Table of Contents

List of figures viii

List of tables ix

Foreword Staffan Selander x

Acknowledgements xii

1 Embodied teaching 1

Introduction 1

Educational semiotics 2

Teachers and teaching 3

Pedagogic discourse 4

Social semiotics lens on teaching and learning 7

Systemic Functional Multimodal Discourse Analysis (SFMDA) 9

From embodied teaching to designing learning 12

2 Multimodal pedagogic discourse 19

Discourses in the classroom 19

Curriculum genre theory 21

Lesson microgenres 22

Analysis of two lessons 23

Lesson initiation 24

Lesson progress 26

Lesson diversion 29

Lesson closure 31

Visual analysis of lesson microgenres 33

Designing learning with lesson microgenres 38

3 Spatial pedagogy 42

Semiotics of space 42

A pedagogy of space 44

Spaces in the classroom 46

Authoritative Space 46

Supervisory Space 47

Interactional Space 48

Personal Space 49

A study on the spatial pedagogy of two teachers 50

Coding and visualisation 50

Analysis of the teachers' positioning 51

Analysis of the teachers' movement 54

Discussion on the teachers' spatial pedagogy 55

Applications of spatial pedagogy 55

Space exploration 58

4 Pedagogic gestures 63

Performing teaching 63

Gesture studies 64

Gestures in the classroom 66

A systemic functional approach to gesture 67

A typology of gesture 67

A diachronic view on gesture 69

Metafunctional meanings in gesture 69

The forms of gesture 70

The functions of gesture 72

Ideational meanings in performative gestures 72

Ideational meanings in Communicative Gestures (speech independent or speech correspondent) 74

Ideational meanings in Communicative Gestures (speech dependent) 75

Interpersonal meanings in gestures 77

Textual meanings in gestures 79

Towards a description of pedagogic gestures 80

5 Semiotic technologies 86

Semiotic technologies for learning 86

Popular digital semiotic technologies 88

Value of PowerPoint 89

Cost in PowerPoint 90

Making meaning with PowerPoint 91

New digital semiotic technologies 92

Value of WiRead 92

Cost in WiRead 96

Making meaning with WiRead 97

Personal computing devices in the classroom 97

Artificial intelligence in the classroom 98

Educational apps in the classroom 98

Traditional semiotic technologies 100

Representing knowledge with the whiteboard 101

Enacting pedagogic relations with the whiteboard 103

Organising learning with the whiteboard 104

Designing learning with semiotic technologies 104

6 Multimodal classroom orchestration 108

Orchestrating teaching and learning 108

Intersemiosis 110

Intersemiosis in the classroom 110

Contextualising relations 112

The pedagogies of Lee and Mei 113

Lesson microgenres analysis 113

Spatial analysis 115

Linguistic analysis 116

Gesture analysis 118

Semiotic technologies 119

Semiotic cohesion 120

Structured informality 122

7 Designing learning 127

Changing learners 127

Defining learning 130

Teachers as designers of learning 131

Designing learning with embodied teaching 134

Conclusion 139

Index 143

Editorial Reviews

"A book that brings the profound relevance of what has long been overlooked into clear focus."
Gunther Kress (1940–2019), Professor of Semiotics and Education, University College London, UK

"In this volume, Lim demonstrates the power of a systemic view on multimodality to not only examine embodied teaching, but to show semiotic resources can be best utilized in concert for effective pedagogy."
Thomas Martin Amundrud, Associate Professor, English Education, Nara University of Education, Japan

"Lim has produced a book that any ELT teacher, curriculum specialist, or educational researcher would be well served to include in his or her library as a reference and practical guide or as a key text on embodied teaching."
Sheida Mezban, review in Multimodal Communication

"[This book] would be a useful starting point and source of reference for teachers who are looking to deepen their understanding of multimodal communication and digital communicative technologies within the context of teaching and learning [...] a useful text for groups of teachers collaborating in teams for professional development in this area."
Dr. Jonathon Adams, English Language Institute of Ingapore (ELIS), MOE

"This book greatly contributes to our knowledge about classroom teaching, teacher training, and policymaking. We believe it will also be a fine reference book in many research areas related to teaching, such as educational semiotics, multimodality, and particularly systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis."
Xiaolan Wei and Xueyan Yang, review in Language and Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2021.1889580

"[This book] provides both research insights and practical tips for literacy educators to engage 21st century students in the language lessons."
Dr Willy Renandya, Principal Lecturer, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

"A book that brings the profound relevance of what has long been overlooked into clear focus."—-Gunther Kress (1940–2019), Professor of Semiotics and Education, University College London, UK

"In this volume, Lim demonstrates the power of a systemic view on multimodality to not only examine embodied teaching, but to show semiotic resources can be best utilized in concert for effective pedagogy."—-Thomas Martin Amundrud, Associate Professor, English Education, Nara University of Education, Japan

"Lim has produced a book that any ELT teacher, curriculum specialist, or educational researcher would be well served to include in his or her library as a reference and practical guide or as a key text on embodied teaching."—-Sheida Marzban, PhD Candidate, University of Pannonia, Hungary, review in Multimodal Communication

"[This book] would be a useful starting point and source of reference for teachers who are looking to deepen their understanding of multimodal communication and digital communicative technologies within the context of teaching and learning [...] a useful text for groups of teachers collaborating in teams for professional development in this area."—-Dr. Jonathon Adams, Senior Specialist, English Language Institute of Singapore (ELIS), Ministry of Education, review in ELIS Book Recommendation

"This book greatly contributes to our knowledge about classroom teaching, teacher training, and policymaking. We believe it will also be a fine reference book in many research areas related to teaching, such as educational semiotics, multimodality, and particularly systemic functional multimodal discourse analysis."—-Xiaolan Wei and Professor Xueyan Yang, Fudan University, China, review in Language and Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2021.1889580

"[This book] provides both research insights and practical tips for literacy educators to engage 21st century students in the language lessons."—-Dr Willy Renandya, Principal Lecturer, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, review in Teachers Voices: Professional Development, https://www.facebook.com/groups/teachervoices/permalink/4379980992065899

"This book demonstrates the author’s academic interests and extensive knowledge in educational semiotics, embodied teaching, and multimodal resources… a useful resource for educational researchers, policymakers, administrator and curriculum specialists to design learning suitable to students."—-Dr Chen Wang (2021), Department of Foreign Languages, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, China, review in Innovations in Education and Teaching International, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14703297.2021.1918464

"This book is of great theoretical and practical significance for pedagogic discourse research, pedagogic method innovation, and educational policymaking. On the one hand, it not only benefits educational researchers and practitioners but makes excellent contributions to multimodal discourse analysis theory and multimodal discourse research methodology…On the other hand, this study has implications for administrators and curriculum specialists as it can be helpful in implementing a pedagogic shift to teachers’ roles as designers of learning; teachers can use this study to reflect on teaching as designing learning through semiotic orchestration of embodied resources." —- Guoqiang Liu,Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, review in Discourse Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/14614456221121187

From the Publisher