Student work and the multimodal challenge

A mixed methods study of students' productive work in L1, science and mathematics

Abstract

Students' productive work constitutes an essential part of the various learning activities students are involved in while in school. However, empirical research on students' productive work in schools is quite sparse, and thus, we only know little about what kind of products the students make in different subjects, and how they relate to learning. This article presents a mixed methods study on students' productive work in the subjects L1, science and mathematics in primary and lower secondary school in Denmark. The article focus in particular on multimodality as an aspect of students' productive work since this aspect encapsulates a number of the main findings of the study. By combining a quantitative scoring of a large sample of tasks and student products (n = 451) and qualitative classroom studies in L1, science and mathematics, the mixed methods study provides a picture of the practices related to students' productive work in Danish schools. This picture shows, on the one hand, that there is obvious potential related to students' multimodal productive work, and, on the other hand, that this potential is difficult to fulfil due to a number of barriers indicating the prominence of conventional approaches to students' productive work in Danish classrooms.