A multidisciplinary model for the discourse analysis in chemistry classes

Abstract

In this article, we present a multidisciplinary analysis model to investigate discursive interactions in Chemistry classes. We use Basil Bernstein's sociolinguistic theory, whose concepts allow relating the microcontext of interactions in the classroom with the broader social context, the types of initiation proposed by Hugh Mehan from interactional ethnography, and notion of communicative approach of Mortimer and Scott, which makes to characterize the genres of classroom discourse. The union of these different perspectives constitutes our model, in which we relate the analysis of the degrees of framing and classification with the types of initiation and communicative approach, to explore the intersection between the interactional and epistemic dimensions of discourse. We used the model in the exploratory study of pedagogical practices of four Chemistry teachers, who teach in different schools. Through this analysis and its results, we were able to characterize the relationships between the different dimensions of the pedagogical discourse of chemical knowledge, which suggest both the communicative approach and the types of initiation are guided by the degree of classification presented between the different types of knowledge.