English is an already crowded curriculum and the incursion of multimodal literature puts it under increased pressure. How do teachers and students learn to understand and deploy tools of analysis that shed light on verbiage and images without becoming entangled in a complex and crowded analytical language? Is it possible to develop a metalanguage…

Recent research findings indicate that using multiple metaphors in multimodal learning experiences are effective teaching approaches in early years mathematics. Using a social semiotic lens this paper reports on eight early years teachers' perceptions of this approach whilst engaging in a small collaborative professional learning group. This group…

Reflection is not a new concept in the teaching of higher education and is often an important component of many disciplinary courses. Despite this, past research shows that while there are examples of rich reflective strategies used in some areas of higher education, most approaches to, and conceptualisations of, reflective learning and assessment…

The twenty-first century has seen the rapid emergence of wireless broadband and mobile communications devices which are inexorably changing the way people communicate, collaborate, create and transfer knowledge. Yet many higher education campus learning environments were designed and built in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries prior to…

Two classrooms of diverse 5-year-old children were set the task of exploring ways of realising music invention through the semiotic import of composing resources. In both a rural and an inner-urban setting in Australia, children demonstrated syncretism in bilingual practices in communication. Visual multimodal analysis demonstrated how children…

This paper draws from research conducted as part of an Australian Research Council funded Linkage Project "Teaching effective 3D authoring in the middle years: multimedia grammatical design and multimedia authoring pedagogy", which is a collaboration between the University of New England, the University of Tasmania and the Australian…

The purpose of the study reported on here was to explore ways in which the interactive whiteboard (IWB) can support students' understanding of texts. A Year 3 and a Year 4 primary school class in New South Wales, Australia, is the focus of the research. A qualitative case study was carried out using multimodal analysis focusing on the use of an…

This paper investigates the impact of web based lecture recordings on learning and attendance at lectures. Student opinions regarding the perceived value of the recordings were evaluated in the context of usage patterns and final marks, and compared with attendance data and student perceptions regarding the usefulness of lectures. The availability…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve educator knowledge of the antecedents and consequences of blended learning in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal case study approach is adopted. Three case studies each involve tracking a student evaluations of teaching (SET) measure (willingness to recommend) and grade…

As part of a long-term research study to enhance science learning, this paper reports on an exploratory study aimed at identifying initial beliefs and practices of a group of teachers and students (Years 4-6) in Australia when the students engaged with multiple representations of the same science concepts. There is growing recognition in science…

Purpose: Aims to investigate reactions to online delivery, student perceptions of the rates and depth of participation, and levels of engagement with the learning process in a Western Australian University. Design/methodology/approach: The sample for this study comprised 108 students who were enrolled in both undergraduate and postgraduate…