Expanding the scholarship of teaching and learning::multimodality and semiotics of teaching-learning interactions in an undergraduate Accounting programme

Abstract

This conceptual and methodological study investigated the dynamics of teaching-learning interactions to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning holistically. It is situated in a higher education classroom environment for Accounting undergraduate students at a UK university. The purpose of the study was to provide practical information for tutors’ reflections in developing their approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) for future development of signature pedagogy in a challenge to its status quo. Acknowledging the multimodal nature of communication within the structural-agentic processes in teaching-learning interactions, the study combined selected perspectives from Symbolic Interactionism, Edusemiotics, and Multimodality to provide a communication “turn” for SoTL in recognition of a conceptual and methodological gap. A novel multimodal and edusemiotic analytical tool, Inquiry Graphics, was used for the first time in an Accounting study to analyse the fine level detail of video recordings of classroom teaching-learning interactions. This provides a rich landscape of insights for tutors’ understanding of the multimodal nature of communication, involving human and non-human objects, in developing their pedagogical practices. Data were also obtained from staff and student interviews and surveys about their interactions. Key themes emerged from the analysis regarding identity interactions, nonverbal mediations, and the form of teaching-learning engagements observed. Particular insights for tutor reflection on pedagogical practices were identified around physical infrastructures in classrooms, dialogic interactions and nonverbal communication that can take a future development within the field of socio-materiality of teaching-learning. The study further commented on the implications of using the IG analytical approach for studying teaching-learning interactions in situ and via video analysis. The thesis makes a contribution to knowledge by expanding the SoTL approach with the perspectives of multimodal, symbolic and edusemiotic teaching-learning interactions. It can inform scholars and practitioners interested in the above mentioned concepts, method and analysis.