Making 'waves' in physics class: a qualitative study of teacher-student dialogue in post-16 Chinese students' lessons on forces, mechanics, electricity and magnetism

Abstract

Based on theoretical research, this research constructs a theoretical framework for the semantic waves and semantic contexts of physics classroom discourse between post-16 students and their teachers. According to the theoretical framework, this research depicts the semantic waves of seventeen physics open classes and analyses the relationship between semantic waves and semantic contexts.
This study used qualitative data collection and analysis methods. It collected teachers’ open class video materials, textbooks, curriculum standards and corresponding teaching design text materials, and conducted multiple semi-structured interviews with related teachers. The scope of the sample is concentrated on three topics of electromagnetics (magnetic phenomena and magnetic field, force in the magnetic field and electric field) in the first grade of upper-secondary school in China. This study found that teachers consider many factors when designing teaching, including three major aspects: teaching materials, students and teaching techniques. The teaching objectives, teaching content and teaching sequence contained in the textbook and curriculum standard are what teachers would follow when designing teaching. Regarding the students, teachers pay more attention to their existing knowledge, designing the review and extension of knowledge on this basis. The samples are teaching videos. For preparing the videos, teachers pay attention to the design of teaching techniques, including activities, experiments and props. In addition, teachers rehearse repeatedly to achieve smooth teaching. This repeated deliberation illustrates the use of teaching language to connect and express the design. The classroom teaching finally presented by each teacher depicts its unique semantic waves. Differences occur in the teacher’s consideration of the students' status and the topic of teaching. However, these semantic waves also have similarities. From these seventeen lessons, four forms of semantic waves are found: small fluctuations, large fluctuations, flat lines and blanks. Furthermore, these waveforms have corresponding relationships with their semantic contexts. The semantic contexts have corresponding theoretical semantic waves and change with the actual situation of teaching. Interaction between the semantic contexts superimposed on each other to form the semantic waves of the teaching discourse of the whole class.