The Meaning of Action in Learning and Teaching

Abstract

Action is a highly theorised aspect of social life. Nonetheless, it remains a relatively neglected source of data within educational research. This article attempts to highlight the significance of the analysis of organised action within educational research. It describes and demonstrates an analytical approach to action applicable to the classroom developed from approaches to the analysis of bodily communication and action in drama education and from new approaches to rhetoric. These approaches draw on social semiotic theories of making meaning in order to describe the complex relationship between the semiotics of social action and the situated experience of learning in the classroom. This article describes how action realises meanings and shapes classroom interaction through the application of the schema to video data from a science lesson on energy with Year 9 pupils (14 years old). Finally, it draws attention to the research and pedagogical implications of a focus on action in the science classroom and in education more generally.