“I expect boredom”: Students' experiences and expectations of multiliteracies learning

Abstract

Multiliteracies has been incorporated in the curriculum of many education systems around the world. Beyond the broadening of focus in literacy to include multimodal meaning‐making, multiliteracies pedagogies are also associated with certain pedagogical shifts, such as a focus on bridging the students' out‐of‐school literacy practices with what and how they are learning in school. This often involves appropriating social media as well as introducing popular culture topics in the classroom. This article discusses the students' perspectives of these ideas to inform the teacher's design of multiliteracies learning. Drawing on data collected through surveys and focus group discussions from a multi‐phased research project on multiliteracies in Singapore, we reflect on the students' expressions of their experiences and expectations on multiliteracies learning. In particular, we surface an instrumental view of learning where concerns over examinations and future career prospects cloud the students' learning. We also identify a desire among the students to keep their worlds of home and schools separate. While the discussion of the students' perspectives is anchored in the context of Singapore, the implications contribute to the global discourse among curriculum planners, educational researchers and teacher practitioners who are interested in improving the design of multiliteracies learning in their contexts.

A Metalanguage for Learning: Rebalancing the Cognitive with the Socio-Material

“…Lim and Tan (2017, 181) discuss the importance of a "translational process" from theoretical frameworks to a pedagogic metalanguage and describe the iterative work with teachers to "judiciously identify the necessary descriptions and choice of descriptors that are aligned to what they are already using to teach similar concepts in English language learning". The translational research (Woolf 2008) in developing a pedagogic metalanguage needs to take account of the range of teachers' abilities, readiness and motivation to engage with new knowledge (Albright and Kramer-Dahl 2009;Teo 2014;Macken-Horarik and Horarik 2019;Lim et al, 2021b). It should also be explicitly aligned with other aspects of the literacy curriculum to show clear connection and coherence across the curriculum.…”

“From the beginning, I think it was a stretch” – teachers’ perceptions and practices in teaching multiliteracies

“…These motivations behind the valuing of multiliteracies are disquietingly pragmatic in their dominant focus on the economic proposition. Notwithstanding, neoliberal ideologies have been regularly been observed in the normative discourse of schooling in Singapore (Gopinathan, 2007; Sharpe and Gopinathan, 2002) and are often implicitly espoused by teachers, as reported in this study, and are worryingly perpetuated by students themselves (Lim et al ., 2021a).…”

“…As such, the teachers reflected that they have "been teaching students how to look at a multimodal text" (AM10) and that "if they can analyse the images and the visual texts more effectively, it will definitely help them in answering the questions [in the exams] more accurately as well" (BF6). The teachers' perception of the importance of teaching multiliteracies was clearly shaped by practical considerations which led them to interpret multiliteracies simply as viewing and representing with multimodal texts (Lim et al, 2020;Lim et al, 2021a). In a sense, such an utilitarian stance is unsurprising given that the Singapore education system has been described as encouraging a pragmatic approach towards teaching and learning (Gopinathan, 2007;Sharpe and Gopinathan, 2002).…”

Struggling with Digital Pandemic: Students’ Narratives about Adapting to Online Learning at Home during the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…This causes them to feel mentally detached even to appreciate and be engaged in their online learning, especially with the existence of other disruptions at home (Kim & Frick, 2011). This spatial disconnection can result in increased boredom with learning, reduced learning efficiency (LaPointe & Reisetter, 2008), detachment from reality (Lim et al 2021), inability to assimilate knowledge (Baran & AlZoubi, 2020), and devalued determination in the learning process (Appadurai, 2020). Thus, this article contributes to a better understanding of how online learning has transformed rigid spatial structures and compromised students' insight capabilities to acquire knowledge.…”