Case study: coordinating among multiple semiotic resources to solve complex physics problems

Abstract

This work examines student meaning-making in undergraduate physics problem solving. We use a social semiotic perspective to sketch a theoretical framework. The social semiotic approach focuses on all types of meaning-making practices that are accomplished through different semiotic modes including visual, verbal (or aural), written and gestural modes as well as language, text, algebra, diagrams, sketches, graphs, body movements, signs, and gestures. We use the theoretical framework to investigate how semiotic resources might be combined to solve physics problems. Data for this study are drawn from an upper-division Electromagnetism I course and a student (‘Larry’) who is engaged in an individual oral exam. We identify the semiotic and conceptual resources that Larry uses. We use a resource graph representation to show Larry’s coordination of resources in his problem-solving activity. Larry’s case exemplifies coordination between multiple semiotic resources with different disciplinary affordances to build up compound representations. Our analysis of this case illustrates a novel way of thinking about what it means to solve physics problems using semiotic resources.