Becoming A Legitimate Knower – Surfing Semantic Waves During In-School Tutoring Sessions

Author(s):

Pernilla Andersson Varga(presenting / submitting)Anna Maria Hipkiss(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2016

Network:

01. Continuing Professional Development: Learning for Individuals, Leaders, and Organisations

Format:

Paper

Session Information

01 SES 10 A, Professional Learning and the Development of Knowledge (Part 1)

Paper Session to be continued in 01 SES 10 B

Time:

2016-08-25

15:30-17:00

Room:

OB-Theatre F

Chair:

May Britt Postholm

Contribution

Objectives

Since 2013, the Centre for School Development in Gothenburg has run the literacy programme Reading 2 Learn (R2L) as an in-service education training (inset) in struggling secondary schools with a high number of underachievers. The purpose is to develop the teaching to more effectively meet the literacy requirements of all subjects. The inset is in alignment with Timperley’s key principles for professional development (Timperley, 2011). During the inset – which consists of both workshops and in-school tutoring sessions – teachers are trained to use a number of explicit strategies to strengthen students’ ability to read, understand and produce genre specific texts.

R2L is described as the third phase of genre based literacy programmes developed in the Sydney School and has materialized in a comprehensive methodology and training program (Rose & Martin, 2012). R2L is applied globally, and currently the programme is being implemented in a number of European countries such as Sweden, Finland, Scotland, Portugal and Spain. The overall purpose of R2L is to democratize the outcomes of education systems. A characteristic of the programme is that teachers learn to deconstruct learning tasks involved in reading and writing and demonstrate them in carefully designed sequences of activities. The purpose of one activity, elaboration, is to extend students’ higher order thinking. Since a cornerstone of the programme is teaching through language and about language, teachers’ development of a metalanguage is a fundamental part of the inset/literacy programme.

Research question

This paper presents a study of in-school tutoring sessions between experts and novices.

What role does metalanguage play when experts and novices realize their knowledge?
What opportunities are there for novices to become legitimate knowers?

Theoretical framework

R2L draws on Bernstein’s theories of the pedagogic device (1996), in particular how knowledge is recontextualized in vertical and horizontal discourse. Horizontal discourse is described as local and context dependent. Knowledge in the horizontal discourse is governed by distributive rules that focus on social relations and practices. Vertical discourse, on the other hand, consists of two variants; one similar to discourse in sciences and one similar to discourse in social sciences and humanities. Within the two variants, knowledge circulates differently depending on the distributive rules that govern the discourse (Bernstein, 1996).

Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) expands on the theories of Bernstein. Within LCT, legitimate knowledge (Maton, 2014), the knowledge that is valued in a pedagogic field, is accompanied by a theory of how knowers become legitimate in pedagogic fields (Maton, 2014). This paper focuses on the dimension of semantics and how semantic waves (movement between degrees of semantic density and semantic gravity) can be part of building legitimate knowledge and legitimate knowers. According to LCT, vertical discourse is realized by stronger semantic density and weaker semantic gravity, i.e. decontextualized language. Horizontal discourse involves weaker semantic density and stronger semantic gravity, i.e. context-dependent language. In educational settings, the role of the expert is to move between stronger density and gravity, as in wave-like motions in order to facilitate higher–order thinking and use of metalanguage, i.e. vertical discourse, for novices.

Method

The data consists of four recorded and transcribed in-school tutoring sessions led by one teacher educator (expert) and teachers (novices), two attending the R2L inset for the first year and two attending for a second year. For this paper, in-school tutoring sessions were analysed using semantic gravity and semantic density as illustrated in the four fields of The Semantic Plane (Maton, 2014:131). Abstract phenomena expressed through specific and technical language equal strong semantic density (SD+) and weak semantic gravity (SG-). Everyday phenomena expressed through specific and technical language equal strong semantic density (SD+) and strong semantic gravity (SG+). Abstract phenomena expressed through everyday language equal weak semantic density (SD-) and weak semantic gravity (SG+). Everyday phenomena expressed through everyday language equal weak semantic density (SD-) and strong semantic gravity (SG+). Communication centering around highly specific contents and abstractions of the R2L pedagogy were analysed for this presentation. Communication relating to Map of genres in school and The nine sets of learning activities in Reading to Learn (Rose & Martin, 2012) were selected as starting points for analyses as useful representations of strong semantic density (SD+) and weak semantic gravity (SG+). These abstract illustrations of the R2L pedagogy have been deemed beneficial starting points for studying the metalanguage used and the knowledge expressed during in-school tutoring sessions.

Expected Outcomes

Expected outcomes/results Based on previous research on classroom teaching (Macnaught et al. , 2013; Matruglio et al. 2013; Meidell Sigsgaard, 2013 & 2014) this study of in-school tutoring sessions tests the following hypotheses in a different educational setting: • We assume that communication between novices in year 1 and experts has stronger semantic gravity (SG+) and weaker semantic density (SD-) as they need to develop an understanding of the pedagogy and the metalanguage. • We assume that communication between novices in year 2 and experts has weaker semantic gravity (SG-) and stronger semantic density (SD+) and as they by this time ought to be familiar with the pedagogy and more used to using metalanguage. • We further assume that the experts will create semantic waves between communication realizing stronger semantic gravity (SG+) and weaker semantic density (SD-), and communication realizing stronger semantic gravity (SG+) and stronger semantic density (SD+). • Final assumption; experts will surf greater semantic waves in the beginning of the inset with novices in year 1 and only surf ripples when tutoring in year 2.

References

Bernstein, B. 1996. Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity. Theory, Research, Critique. London: Taylor & Francis. Macnaught, L., Maton, K. & Martin, R. J. 2013. Jointly Constructing Semantic Waves: Implications for Teacher Training. Linguistics and Education. Vol. 24 (1). S. 50–63. Maton, K. 2013. Making Semantic Waves: A Key to Cumulative Knowledge-Building. Linguistics and Education. Vol. 24 (1). S. 8–22. Maton, K. 2014. Knowledge and knowers. Towards a realist sociology of education. London: Routledge. Matruglio, E., Maton, K. & Martin, R. J. 2013. Time Travel: The role of Temporality in Enabling Semantic Waves in Secondary School Teaching. Linguistics and Education. Vol. 24 (1). S. 38–49. Rose, D. & Martin, J.R. (2012). Learning to write, reading to learn: genre, knowledge and pedagogy in the Sydney school. Sheffield: Equinox. Meidell Sigsgaard, A-V. 2013. Who knows what? The Teaching of Knowledge and Knowers in a Fifth Grade Danish as a Second Language Classroom. Diss. University of Aarhus. Meidell Sigsgaard, A-V. 2014. Demokrati og semantiske bølger i andetsprogsundervisningen. Viden om Literacy nr. 18, september 2015. Timperley, H. (2011). Realizing the power of professional learning. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Author Information

Pernilla Andersson Varga (presenting / submitting)

Centre for School Developemant

Gothenburg

Anna Maria Hipkiss (presenting)

University of Gothenburg

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