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Research seminar, February 17 2026

Programme

12:00-13:00 FNUG Informal Lunch Get-together – drop by and say hi!  






13:00-13:45

Learning physics or astronomy at higher education - like learning a new challenging multimodal visual language

Presentation by Urban Eriksson, Professor, and Ebba Koerfer, PhD student, Department of Physics and Astronomy: Physics Education, Uppsala University. 

In this presentation, Urban Eriksson and Ebba Koerfer will introduce their research on disciplinary languages in physics and astronomy, focusing on how students navigate the many semiotic resources involved in learning these subjects. They will outline social semiotics as their central theoretical lens and show how different representations — such as graphs, gestures, mathematics, and simulations — form the basis for meaning‑making in the disciplines.

Building on recent studies of university teachers’ conceptions of mathematics in STEM, they will present insights into the role of mathematics as a semiotic system and connect these to findings from mathematics‑intensive physics courses. The session will conclude with an open discussion on how teacher‑reflected epistemologies shape STEM education and influence the relationship between mathematics and the other STEM disciplines.

13:45-14:00

Break

14:00-14:45

Questions and open discussion

14:50-15:00  Wrap up, Final Remarks, See you next time
Urban Eriksson

Professor at Department of Physics and Astronomy; Physics Education Research.

READ MORE ABOUT URBAN ERIKSSON HERE

Ebba Koerfer

PhD student at Department of Physics and Astronomy; Physics Education Research

READ MORE ABOUT EBBA KOERFER HERE

Last Updated 18.02.2026