Cosmos visualized: Development of a qualitative framework for analyzing representations in cosmology education

Abstract

Our aesthetic response to the Universe, and the complexity of concepts through which we understand it, are inherently bound together in how we meaningfully interpret its nature. Over millennia the abstracted and intangible concepts of science have been developed and communicated through a rich array of representations across a variety of modes. The interpretation of such representations is a complex multidimensional and multimodal endeavor. This is particularly an issue in education where novices can struggle to engage with unfamiliar canonical representations. Learning in a discipline can be characterized as a process of developing disciplinary discernment in apprehending and using these representational systems. Using representations concerning the geometry of the Universe, evolution of the Universe, and cosmological expansion as examples, this paper provides an in-depth overview of the various multimodal representations through which concepts in cosmology are understood and communicated. In so doing this work unpacks the salient features of these representations in order to develop an underlying framework which we call the anatomy of representations (AOR). This study, in reviewing and analyzing representations in cosmology, explores this landscape of cosmology representations. This will allow for the characterization of how semiotic resources are mobilized, changed, and connections are made between various representational modes and levels, and an exploration of the landscape of cosmology and cosmology education. The AOR framework is intended as a guide for educators, including textbook authors, to support the development and interpretation of representations.