John Airey: Teaching and Learning in University Physics and Astronomy: A Social Semiotic Approach

Tuesday 20 Jan 2026, 13:15 → 14:00 Europe/Stockholm

FB54 (AlbaNova Main Building)

Over many centuries, science has created and refined increasingly specialized representational systems that enable disciplinary experts to reason about the natural world. Today, university physics and astronomy rely on a large number of highly-developed representational systems such as mathematics, graphs, diagrams, computational code, experimental procedures, verbal and written language, etc. For students, coming to understand the disciplinary meaning of these specialized representational systems and how they are coordinated is a recurring challenge. Drawing on a social semiotic perspective, this presentation examines how contemporary representational practices have developed historically, being shaped and reshaped over time, before examining the potential consequences of this process for teaching and learning physics and astronomy today. I identify four problematic areas for undergraduate teaching and learning and discuss how these issues may be addressed.

About the speaker:

John Airey is Professor of University Science Education at Stockholm University, Sweden and Reader in Physics Education at Uppsala University. John’s research interests focus on physics learning and its relationship to language and other semiotic resources. He is PI for the four-year Swedish Research Council Project (2022-03125) Making the Invisible Visible. The role of representations in teaching and learning university physics and chemistry. John’s teaching consists of courses for university science lecturers and PhD supervisors.