Multiliteracies and Learning by Design

The key elements of scientific literacy proposed by this study are also influenced by the Multiliteracies and Learning by Design frameworks. Cope and Kalantzis, along with the New London Group, propose that traditional ideas of literacy pedagogy need to be extended in order to incorporate the increasing cultural, linguistic and globalised societies in which our learners now live (Cazden, et al., 1996; Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).

The Multiliteracies approach to pedagogy proposed by New London Group in 1996 will “enable students to achieve the … twin goals for literacy learning: creating

access to the evolving language of work, power, and community, and fostering the critical engagement necessary for them to design their social futures and achieve success through fulfilling employment” (Cazden, et al., 1996, p. 60). Through the

pedagogy of Multiliteracies, both teachers and students will be able to recognise that literacy is much broader than the study of language alone. It is dependent on culture and context, and can be remade by language use to suits various purposes (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).

According to the Multiliteracies approach, teachers should concentrate on teaching open-ended and flexible functional grammar in context. This can assist learners to describe the differences between cultural, regional, technical and context-specific language, as well as understand the multimodal ways in which communication happens. For Science classrooms, this could include examining the multimodal ways in which scientist communicate new discoveries in their field and how the interact with current scientific understanding. Using this Multiliteracies approach ensures both teachers and learners can actively participate in social change,

designing their social future through the way they communicate (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).

The key elements for developing scientific literacy that were influenced by this framework include:

Element 1: Scientific knowledge in its multiple representations: Students

should know enough scientific content and knowledge to distinguish science from non-science, so that they can critically analyse ‘science’ as it is

Element 2: Social relevance: Students need scientific knowledge to

intelligently participate in science-based social issues, adapt to a rapidly changing world, function as responsible and informed citizens, and have societal usefulness (DeBoer, 2000; Dillon, 2009; Holbrook, 2010; Holbrook & Rannikmae, 2009; Norris & Phillips, 2003).

These key elements were chosen because if educators can embrace the

Multiliteracies approach to pedagogy, then Cope & Kalantzis (2000) propose that

pedagogy and curriculum can now be by Design. Educators should discuss and debate what the design of their pedagogy and curriculum will look like, so that learners can design their social futures. This should include discussion on how to create responsible and informed citizens, how to intentionally teach comprehension and evaluation, and what local social issues can be included so that students can directly connect to the society in which they live. “Teachers… are seen as designers

of learning processes and environments… Further, some have argued that education research should be a design science, studying how different curricular, pedagogical, and classroom designs motivate and achieve different sorts of learning. The notion of design connects powerfully to the sort of creative intelligence the best

practitioners need in order to be able continually to redesign their activities in the very act of practice” (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000, p. 20).

To support this discussion on what the design of pedagogy and curriculum should look like, the framework of Multiliteracies proposes four integrated factors of literacy learning. These factors are neither hierarchical, nor independent of each other. This pedagogical approach allows for the simultaneous learning of different design factors, and the repeated reviewing of these factors throughout a learner’s journey.

The first integrated factor is Situated Practice, which explores the world of the learners’ Designed and Designing experiences. It builds ideas that learning should be process driven, and immersed in the learner’s society and experiences. Secondly, Overt Instruction allows students to shape an explicit metalanguage of Design that is specific and explicit to them. This factor incorporates pedagogies which explicitly teach rules and conventions of functional grammar (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).

The third integrated factor of Multiliteracies is Critical Framing. Here, learners are taught to relate meaning of language to their social context and purposes. This factor builds on critique and contextualisation pedagogies. Finally, Transformed Practice allows students to transfer and then re-create Designs of meaning from one context to another. For Transformed Practice to occur, pedagogies that relate theory to practice and focus on the transfer of understanding from one context to another must be utilised (Cope & Kalantzis, 2000).

Yelland, Cope and Kalantzis (2008) have utilised the insights of the Multiliteracies framework described above to develop a pedagogy based on knowing in action, termed Learning by Design. This new framework builds on the four integrated factors above, and creates four fundamental ways of knowing: Experiencing;

Conceptualising; Analysing; and Applying. These four fundamental ways of knowing, in addition to the insights provided by the Multiliteracies framework, are used to inform the key elements for developing scientific literacy proposed by this study, to help determine to what extent scientific literacy is a focus in the Australian

Curriculum: Science document.

In addition to Multiliteracies, Learning by Design has been included because it can provide educators with a framework to use when moving from curriculum

documents to pedagogy and classroom learning experiences. Therefore, this framework will be used to determine if the integration of Experiencing,

Conceptualising, Analysing and Applying is being promoted at the semantic level.