Sindhu Mathai

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Associate) at Azim Premji University

Graphical literacy or graphicacy is a critical component of scientific literacy. Graphs are used to integrate and represent complex sets of information requiring abstraction from perceptual experience. They form essential parts of the Mathematics and Science curriculum across school curricular stages. A key to developing meaningful pedagogic practi...

This is a blog post on a University of Jyväskylä / Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning (GINTL) small grant enabled visit to the Finnish Institute for Educational Research’s Innovative Learning Environment (ILE) research group in January 2024. Retrieved on 12th March 2024 from: https://gintl.org/blog-posts/experiences-and-landscapes...

This poem was written while reflecting on the background sounds I heard, while post-graduate students made online presentations as part of two courses I taught during the COVID 19 pandemic in mid-2020. Retrieved from: https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/faculty-perspective/the-backgrounds-of-our-lives

Schools are linked to their surrounding environment and communities but the relationships can vary. Can we try to understand these relationships using spatial mapping?

Sindhu Mathai on how a powerful theatre performance based on a literary classic provides contexts for difficult, meaningful discussions. This is an article published in the Azim Premji University website. https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/faculty-perspective/the-atticus-finch-challenge

Article published in 'Voices of Teachers and Teacher Educators': https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/publication/journalsandperiodicals/vtte/Dec_Issue-2021.pdf The National Education Policy (2020) calls upon schools to develop caring, inclusive communities. Looking inward and confronting our thoughts and biases is an important step in this journey. While rea...

Drawing upon ‘theory’ is central to educational research and takes the form of conceptual and analytical frameworks in the research process. It is also implicit in the many decisions that are taken by researchers in framing research questions, determining methodological approaches, engagement with fieldwork and adoption of writing styles. Disciplin...

The article engages with the need to make school level science more inclusive and egalitarian and listen to the aspirations of children from diverse backgrounds. https://www.thenewleam.com/2020/09/critical-reflections-on-making-school-level-science-inclusive-and-inviting-for-all/

There has been sustained debate for several decades, on the complex relationships between gender and science. Feminist scholars have critiqued the practices of science as being hegemonic. They trace the history of dominant practices to movements such as logical positivism. The justification for such a methodology drew from the premise that it led t...

The paper attempts to describe the funds of knowledge brought by middle school children while learning science in an informal setting. These play important roles in the development of ‘science-related capabilities’. The conceptual framework draws from the model developed by Gokpinar and Reiss (2016), which synthesises key concepts: habitus, capital...

This paper explores the construction of hybrid spaces through the observation of middle school children engaged in short science projects in an informal science learning programme. Hybrid spaces are not just physical structures, but refer to contexts, relationships and knowledges developed by children as their social worlds and identities merge wit...

There has been a long tradition of producing depictive diagrams which closely resemble the objects they represent in the teaching and learning of concepts in biology. There is also a perceived need to make diagrams accessible to students who may not be skilled at drawing. While this is an important pedagogical stance, the history of documentation o...

This paper is an attempt to deconstruct ongoing theory-practice debates in the discipline of education. Previous literature referring to such debates is often situated in other disciplines and has different origins and contextual meanings. They also present a tortured narrative: on the one hand arguing for 'praxis' and on the other affirming clear...

We investigated how middle school students use visual and verbal forms of thinking, reasoning and communication to express understanding of the human body. We probed students' understanding of structure, function and the relationships between them in the context of three human body systems: the digestive, the respiratory and the circulatory. Studen...

This paper explores the role of diagrams and text in middle school students’ understanding and visualisation of human body systems. We develop a common framework based on structure and function to assess students’ responses across diagram and verbal modes. Visualisation is defined in terms of understanding transformations on structure and relating...

In this paper, an attempt has been made to integrate insights from three sources of research literature pertaining to the nature and use of visual images: history of science, cognitive science (both top-down and bottom-up approaches) and pedagogical practices. Children should be made familiar with the use of visual resources and visual thinking fro...

In this study, students’ expression of understanding of structure and function in three systems of the body through visual (drawn) and verbal (written and spoken) modes was probed. Those with good comprehension had high scores in both modes. Pedagogical practices must emphasise explicit use of drawings and words to link structure and function conce...