Research

Centre for Multimodal Research Reseach Themes

  • Multimodal Literacy and writing
  • The Pedagogic Design and USe of Multimodal Learning resources
  • Social semiotics and Multimodal theory and methods
  • Multimodal Discourse across the Curriculum
  • Learing theory
  • The body and gesture in representation and communication space
  • Visual research methods
  • Technology mediated learning and teaching
  • The effects of representation on learning
  • Drawing
  • Identities
  • Museum studies
  • Children's text making

The Visual in Learning and Creativity
Carey Jewitt has published a literature review report on 'the visual in learning and creativity' for Creative Partnerships, Arts Council England. The report is available online.

The Museum Project
Gunther Kress and Sophia Diamantopoulou.

Gains and Losses: Changes in Representation, Knowledge and Pedagogy in Learning Resources
Jeff Bezemer and Gunther Kress (project leader)
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 2007-2009.
In this project we aim to provide a social semiotic account of changes in representation in school textbooks and electronic learning resources and its implications for learning.
It explores such questions as:
What exactly is it that has changed in the graphic designs of learning resources for secondary school students over the last century?
What shifts in the use of image, writing, layout, colour, and other modes of graphic representation can be observed?
Is image indeed becoming central in all learning resources?
What is it that may have been gained and what may have been lost in potentials for learning as a result of these changes?
Are the changes in graphic designs leading to intended or unintended changes in what and how students can and will learn, or to changes in their control over what and how they learn?

Researcher Development Initiative Programme
With King's College London and Oxford University CMR runs the ESRC-funded Researcher Development Initiative on Ethnography, Language and Communication. For more details see the RDI website.

Shapes of representation, shapes of knowledge: from object to visualizer to page
Diana Mavers (206-2007) Project funded by the Institute of Education - Centre for Excellence in Work-based Learning for Education Professionals (WLE). Project information

The construction of the Subject English in Secondary Schools in London, Johannesburg and Delhi
This project is an ongoing collaboration between scholars based at the IOE, Witwatersrand University (Johannesburg) and Delhi University who are researching the multimodal production of subject English in secondary schools in Delhi, Johannesburg and London.
The project is to establish a network and collaborate on exploratory research. It investigates the ways in which school English is constructed through government and school policies and classroom practices through a program of on-going case-study research.
Our interest is how taking a multimodal perspective we can examine:
(1) what social forces are at work to produce particular forms of curriculum and pedagogy in diverse educational sites in relation to subject English in London, Johannesburg and Delhi, and
(2) what systems of resources and constraints operate across English classrooms in London, Johannesburg and Delhi? This work is supported by an Association of Commonwealth Universities International Collaboration Award.

Supporting Teachers' Professional Development: A Comparative Analysis of Work-Located and Work-Related Discussions of Video Recorded Practices
Funded by the Centre for Excellence in Work-based Learning for Education Professionals (WLE), 2006-2007.
This study seeks to explore teachers' work-based discussions around video recordings of their own practices. It looks into the different ways in which these discussions develop in a 'work-located' and face-to-face context as opposed to a 'work-related' and online context.
The video-recorded face-to-face discussions and online email discussions will be analyzed from a multimodal perspective. All participants involved will be interviewed about their learning experiences in the two contexts.

Digital Design, Representation, Communication and Interaction: Screens and the Social Landscape (2005)
Carey Jewitt, Gunther Kress, Teal Triggs.
AHRC/EPSRC Designing for the 21st Century Research Cluster.
This project is aimed to establish communication and research networks among professionals and academics working in the broad disciplines of fine art and design, computer science, digital technology, sociology, psychology, and cultural studies through focusing on the 'screen' as a common reference point.

The Production of School English (2000-2003)
Gunther Kress, Carey Jewitt, Ken Jones, Jill Bourne, Anton Franks, John Hardcastle, Euan Reid. ESRC funded research project. The project explores the relationship between 'official' versions of English (eg. the National Curriculum, school policies) and 'actual' versions of English as realized through teacher and student practices in the classroom. We understand this realization as multimodal, that is happening through a range of communicative modes.

Biliteracies
Charmian Kenner and Gunther Kress. ESRC funded.This project investigates what sense young children make of different writing systems. The children are from Chinese, Arabic, and Latin American Spanish backgrounds, attend English primary schools, and Saturday Schools in their home language.