The Complementary Roles of Visual and Written Representations Within Figures in Science Textbooks

Figures play a common, but highly crucial role in providing explanatory or contextual images of objects, phenomena, and processes for learning science. Although many studies have investigated the types and distribution of these visual representations in science textbooks, there has been a lack of understanding of how one mode of representation complements the meanings of other modes within figures from the perspective of social semiotics. To address this gap particularly in different instructional contexts, we thus adopted a comparative design to examine the roles of visual and written representations (i.e., captions and labels) within figures from current lower secondary (Grades 7 and 8) science textbooks from Singapore and South Korea. Using an analytic framework that we developed, we analysed 335 figures from science textbooks in these two regions with a focus on physics topics. We found that the primary role of visual components in figures from Singapore was to show realistic phenomena or examples whereas among Korean science textbooks visuals of figures were used to juxtapose phenomena and their visualised scientific models together. In both regions, the most dominant role of written components within figures was to connect scientific phenomena with their relevant terms and concepts. Another important role was to label scientific phenomena using everyday language, but not with targeted terms. Extending from these results, we discuss the complementary roles of visual and written representations within figures in science textbooks in terms of providing additional vital resources for the learning of science.