Welcome to the Science Education Seminar Series! This event is part of the master course NATDID4002 Naturfagene, forskning og samfunn. The seminar is open for all. To register, please fill out the registration form (nettskjema.uio.no).
About the seminar
Speaker: Associate Professor Sara Salloum (University of Balamand, Lebanon).
Abstract
A sociocultural perspective considers science textbooks as ‘cultural supportive tools’ with significant cultural missions. By juxtaposing symbolic, mathematical, and visual-graphical text, textbooks present the intertexts deployed by the scientific community to convey conceptual understandings in a way that no one form can. Intertextuality entails two aspects: bridging everyday knowledge with science knowledge, and intertextual links among the different modalities and representations. The aim of this research is to develop and utilize an analytic framework for analyzing how intertextual relationships in science textbooks support diverse students’ learning.
The framework was utilized to discern levels of intertextuality, types of content, and quality of scaffolds in a selection from grade 8 life and physical science textbooks. Intertextuality as the ensemble of different forms of text that ‘complement’ each other for conceptual learning was evident. However, these forms and representations were not explicitly connected to develop students’ competence in navigating the various modalities. Moreover, the science text displayed limited opportunities for eliciting events in students’ lives and for leveraging students’ knowledge to develop scientific explanations and disciplinary language. Findings are discussed in relation to the textbooks’ affordances for providing ‘hybrid spaces’ for students to coordinate and synthesize multiple representations and modalities for deep understandings.
About the speaker
Sara Salloum (balamand.edu.lb) is an Associate Professor of Education at the Department of Education at the University of Balamand, Lebanon. She completed her Ph.D. in Science Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before working at UoB, Dr. Salloum has worked at Long Island University- Brooklyn, NY. Her research interests are science education in multilingual settings, teachers’ development and pedagogical growth towards equitable and responsive education of diverse students.
Salloum is an active member of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST). She us currently a member and secretary of Ethics and Equity Committee, and has served as a strand co-coordinator, member of ‘Outstanding Paper Award’ committee, and proposal reviewer. She is an elected board member of the Lebanese Association for Educational Studies (LAES).
Dr. Salloum has published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, International Journal of Science Education, International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, Cultural Studies in Science Education, Research in Science Education, Assessing Writing and Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development. She also co-edited a special issue in the International Journal of Science Education on “Science Teaching and Learning in Multilingual Settings.” .
Contact
Nani Teig, Associate Professor and course coordinator of NATDID4002 Naturfagene, forskning og samfunn.