This article is based on multimodal perspectives and contributes to research on how children deal with a multimodal illustration of scientific concepts used in emergent science (i.e., early years science) education. It presents a study of a group of 14 preschoolers observed when dealing with the concept of stability, as illustrated in a pedagogical drama during a visit to a science centre and follow-up sessions in the preschool. The results indicate the importance of educators paying attention to the balance between cohesion and tension among elements in multimodal illustrations (such as verbal language, images, gestures, etc.), when designing and presenting learning activities in emergent science education. Furthermore, it cannot be taken for granted that children by themselves are able to bridge gaps between modes. Educators should therefore be prepared to provide well-reasoned guidance for children's linking between everyday and scientific concepts.

Even though water is a frequently addressed theme in preschool education and illustrations of different kinds are typically used to explain pre-science concepts, there is a remarkable shortage of studies in this part of the educational research field. The present article deals with 4–6-year-olds making meanings about the water circle from a board and dice game. Video-recorded sessions with small groups of children have been used and analysed from socio-semiotic and cultural historical perspectives. The results show that even though the children referred to and made intended meaning of several of the illustrated water phenomena, it seemed difficult for them to come to grips with the water circle as such. In particular this seems to be a result of the fact that the concept of evaporation was a stumbling block that was too abstract to overcome.

Teaching and learning situations nowadays typically build on richly illustrated material or multimodal presentations. Under these circumstances, the transparency of images and models used for explaining various phenomena becomes central. The present study deals with 20 Swedish children, 9–12 years old, discussing an illustration meant to show the cause of the different appearances of the Moon in the sky. The students’ task was to place eight numbered moon phases in the lunar orbit in the image. The illustration in question was chosen (a) because it was of a kind frequently used to explain the lunar phases and (b) because the phenomenon is known to be difficult to understand for students of all ages. The analysis leans on historical and sociocultural approaches as well as on multimodal semiotics. The results show that a majority of students were able to make sense of the most central features of the illustration but that very few spontaneously reasoned in a way that could be interpreted as the intended meaning-making of the cause of the lunar phases. The results also indicate that the simultaneous adoption of two perspectives necessary for understanding the phenomenon was a stumbling block for most of the students.

The research presented in this chapter explores, using examples from an earlier version of the Swedish Scholastic Aptitude Test [the SweSAT], the possible environmental influence on cognitive test performance with respect to the effects of differences in earlier education. Relatively large differences in results between students having attended different tracks of study in upper secondary school have been noticed in the SweSAT. Obviously, this may be due to initial differences when entering these tracks. However, it may also be assumed that different tracks followed in the upper secondary schooling may influence abilities measured by the SweSAT in a different manner. The present study tentatively proposes the effects of track of study both on the observed results in a set of sub-tests and on certain ability factors previously proposed to lie behind performance on the test, after control for marks, at the end of lower secondary education.

Explanatory pictures and models are frequently used in teaching and learning situations. However, it seems to be simply assumed that they are always beneficial. In this article results from an investigation with 16 Swedish pupils aged 7–9 year are presented based on an analysis that has examined how well this assumption holds up. Concepts from multi-modal theory have been used to investigate how young learners deal with illustrations and text from an early reader booklet about composting domestic refuse. The analysis suggests that expectations that illustrationsfacilitate the meaning-making of young pupils may be exaggerated. Although the booklet claimed to provide interactive support between image and text most of the examples show pupils ignoring pictures or misinterpreting vital information about composting in both the verbal and non-verbal material. The illustrations did not compensate for the most crucial deficiencies in the written text. 

The present study explored data from a survey of students’ performance in English at theend of compulsory school in 6 European countries. The aim was to gain deeperknowledge of the internal structure of the test and to discuss similarities anddifferences between the different settings regarding patterns in language proficiency.The analyses, conducted by a factor analytic approach and 2-level structural equationmodelling (SEM) techniques, indicated an overall English achievement factor at bothstudent and school levels. Furthermore, an effect of format differences at the studentlevel, constituted by a factor related to tasks demanding constructed response, wasfound. Three correlated modality factors related to listening, linguistic, and readingskills were identified but not further elaborated on as they improved the model onlymodestly. Considerable differences in between-school variation were found in thedifferent settings. The results are discussed in relation to the instrument, studentachievements, and the state of English in the participating countries.

Data from a Swedish PISA-sample were used (1) to identify a digital reading factor, (2) toinvestigate gender differences in this factor (if found), and (3) to explore how computergame playing might relate to digital reading performance and gender. The analyses wereconducted with structural equation modeling techniques. In addition to an overall readingfactor, the hypothesized digital reading factor was identified. When the overall readingperformance was taken into account, a relative difference in favor of the boys fordigital reading was indicated. This effect was mediated by a game-playing factorcomprising the amount of time spent on playing computer games. Thus, the boys’better performance in digital reading was explained by the computer game-playing factor.

This article is part of a larger project focusing upon explanatory illustrations thatchildren encounter in pre- and primary school education. The research questionsconcerned (a) how preschool children make sense of iconic symbols when placingitems of refuse on illustrations of refuse bins in a sorting task and (b) whatstumbling blocks they encounter when interpreting these symbols. Video datawere collected with 30 children between four and five years of age. From thechildren’s verbal and non-verbal interactions, four different categories of sensemakingwere constructed: by material, by object type, by appearance and byfunction. Three stumbling blocks were identified. The first had to do with givingthe symbols a different logical meaning to the intended one; the second relatedto what materials the different refuse items were made of; the third was beingable to stick to one correct way of interpreting each symbol.