Designing an analytical framework to investigate students’ multimodal representations of scientific practices and methods

The aim of this paper is to present an analytical framework which characterizes students’ multimodal representations of nature of scientific practices (NoSP) and scientific methods (NoSM). Previous analytical frameworks primarily focused on students’ linguistic representation of NoSP/NoSM. Linguistic frameworks are limited as they can only uncover part of students’ understanding, as students might represent NoSP/NoSM through diverse modes such as drawings. An analytical framework was designed to investigate secondary students’ multimodal representations of NoSP/NoSM. To explore the utility of the analytical framework, we administered it to 40 7th grade students and examined their responses before and after engaging in explicit-reflective instruction focusing on nature of science (NOS). The approach yielded a total of 400 multimodal representations. Drawing on Lemke's (1998) three types of representational meaning, the analytical framework was used to describe and categorise collectively a wide range of ideas about scientific practices and methods across domain-general and domain-specific contexts of science. Students’ ideas changed after students engaged in NOS instruction that involved iterative compositions of multimodal representations of NoSP/NoSM. The framework affords the possibility for a detailed examination of shifts in semiotic resources for meaning-making of NoSP/NoSM. Implications for science curriculum and assessment are discussed. Copyright © 2025 The Author(s).