Drawing one (lesson content)

Findings from the pupils’ drawings in the two case study classrooms with regard to pupils’ perceptions of the lesson content differed extensively, although the lesson content was identical. For example, the ideational components of all of the drawings in the classroom of CST1 (Clara) consisted of classroom tools for learning reflecting the teaching strategies in use during the lesson. The majority of the drawings also portrayed the teacher. A typical drawing of Clara’s pupils’ perceptions of lesson content is shown in Figure 5.8. Applying Kress and van Leeuwen’s visual grammar methods for analysis (2006) (see Section 3.5.2.2 and Table 4.3) to the drawing, ideational features consist of two main objects: the teacher and the green blackboard (it must be pointed out that although the term blackboard is used in classrooms, blackboards can actually be and were in both case study classrooms green). Additional objects are the oversized pen, teacher’s desk and two overhead lights. Together they create the Carrier, i.e. the context, which is the classroom (school context). They are equally arranged from left to right on the paper. On the left side of the paper – the Given (in visual grammar) – is the teacher who is the vessel of knowledge and hence the known. Objects used by the teacher are also portrayed: pen, desk and a bottle of glue on the desk. Together they indicate the teacher’s ‘space’ and represent the knowledgeable area of the classroom. On the right – the New – is the blackboard where (new) learning takes place. The blackboard does not belong to the teacher alone; it is a shared tool which is used to communicate knowledge from the teacher (depicted on the left – from the Given) for learning (New knowledge – depicted on the right). Narrative features of the drawing can be read in the vectors of the teacher’s body position with arms akimbo. This open position portrays Clara’s freedom in the classroom.In visual grammar, lower positioning of images is interpreted as the ‘Real’ with regard to actual real-life facts (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006). Therefore the downward direction of Clara’s arms to the ‘Real’ is interpreted as a fact regarding her status as teacher and the freedom of teaching control she has over the

areas of a drawing Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) interpret these as the ‘Ideal’. The Ideal in a classroom is successful teaching and learning. In the example drawing (Figure 5.8) Clara is holding a pen in her right hand and the direction of the pen is upwards to the Ideal (learning). Therefore, the narrative features read through the vectors in the drawing tell us that the pupil perceives Clara to have freedom and control over the classroom, and

knowledge (the ‘Real’) for learning (the ‘Ideal’). There are no visual features in this child’s drawing.

Interpersonal meaning in drawings is constructed by the gaze of both the internal (drawing components) and the external viewers (Kress and van Leeuwen, 2006). In this drawing example (Figure 5.8) the teacher is the largest object standing at the front of the classroom facing the pupils. The gaze of the teacher demands attention from the internal viewers (pupils) and the external viewers (real-world viewers). Although the pupils (internal viewers) are absent in the drawing, the real-world viewer is aware of their presence. The dominance of the teacher, teacher control of the classroom tools and the absence of the learners in the drawing indicates the passive role learners take in the classroom.The interpretation is supported by the distance between the objects portrayed in the drawing. The lack of distance between the teacher and desk show how pupil perceptions of the teacher are interwoven with objects ‘belonging’ to the teacher, i.e. desk, glue, pen, power and importantly knowledge.In fact the desk itself appears to form part of the teacher, although she is standing behind the desk. It is from here – ‘Given’ (left side of the drawing) – that she divulges knowledge to the pupils. Observation findings of all the lessons support this interpretation.The teacher rarely moved away from her desk during teaching, only sometimes to write on the blackboard. Distance between the blackboard and the teacher is size-related in the drawing. The central position of the blackboard on the right side of the drawing shows that the pupil believes that the blackboard is an important tool for learning (the New – knowledge). A salient textual feature of the drawing is the

oversized pen in the teacher’s right hand. The knowledgeable teacher can use the pen in many ways, for example to write explanations, correct, mark work and praise. Finally, the position of the lights at the top of the paper individually placed almost exactly above the teacher’s (the ‘Given’ – knowledgeable) head and the blackboard (enlightened/the ‘New’ – knowledge) are in accordance with Kress and van Leeuwen’s suggestion of the ‘Ideal’ (2006). Together they are powerful representations of the importance of the teacher in the learning process. The drawing is colourful and the colours of the teacher’s clothes

represent their true colours. Kress and van Leeuwen (2006) discuss how colour also has semiotic functions; for example, ideational functions can distinguish places, signatures of firms, and people.

For this drawing interpersonal meaning was denoted through the use of the colour red for the nib of the blue pen in the teacher’s hand and for Clara’s red cheeks. Although the use of colours is not universal, they do convey meaning. Red in the Western world is a dynamic powerful colour and used to signify extreme situations, for example sign warnings, love and fire. Clara’s red cheeks are interpreted as the pupil’s perception of Clara’s temperament during teaching. The red (dynamic colour) nib of the pen conveys power: it is also the colour many teachers use when mistakes have been made by their pupils. It draws attention to the mistakes. In contrast the colour green is often identified as the colour of calm, hope and healing. For example, many hospitals walls are painted green. Therefore, the textual meaning in the green of the blackboard was interpreted as the

‘healing element’ in the classroom, where (learning) problems can be resolved (hopefully) through teacher explanations and instruction. The summarised findings of the ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning in the drawing were analysed against the framework of Vygotsky’s social constructivist general learning theory (1978) with the adoption of CLT methods for FL learning. The analysis revealed that both teaching approaches were not represented in this pupil’s drawing. The interpretation of this pupil’s perceptions of the

lesson content was aligned to a behaviourist (Skinner, 1953) teaching approach. Teacher- led instruction is the dominant feature of ‘behaviourism’ and is characteristic of

psycholinguistic theory involving an instructional FL teaching approach – the pupil as an empty vessel waiting to be filled with knowledge by the more knowledgeable teacher. Figure 5.8 shows the pupil’s drawing and Table 5.6 shows the summarised interpretation of the drawing.

Table 5.6 Summarised visual grammar analysis findings of the drawing from pupil two

(shown in Figure 5.8) in Clara’s classroom

Table 5.6 was then analysed through the lens of general learning theories and FL

Functional

meaning