The Affordances of Visual Modes in Pedagogy on the Physics of Motion in Physiotherapy Education

Abstract

The concept of angular motion is foundational knowledge in physiotherapy, applied for example in measuring joint range of motion. Yet research points to university students’ poor understanding of the concept. Visuals are commonly promoted as valuable for creating opportunities for meaningful learning of the physics of motion. In this chapter we report on a lecturer’s use of the affordances of visual modes—images, gestures and objects—in pedagogy on angular motion in the first year of a professional physiotherapy degree programme at a South African university. Using a multimodal social semiotic perspective that positions multimodal language as contextualised, motivated and central to meaning-making, we analysed recorded lectures and an interview with the lecturer. We show that, in organising her pedagogy, the lecturer used affordances of the image mode to create static images representing the spatial arrangement of multiple concepts and their relations simultaneously. This mode was the central site used to promote conceptually meaningful problem-solving, but was strengthened by her use of the affordances of gesture and an object to communicate motion. The lecturer strategically integrated the modes of verbal speech and written text into the visual complex, supporting the development of conceptual meaning and the acquisition of the language modes employed for problem-solving procedures. Her choices were motivated by a deep, contextual understanding of the role of physics in physiotherapy and of the diverse knowledge, language experiences and resources of first-year students. Our findings regarding the affordances of visual modes can inform collaborative education development within the health sciences.