Discourse Analysis in University Physics Class. Implications for Improvement of Educational Practice

This study aims at identifying rhetorical and argumentative characteristics in the discourse of experienced university lecturers in physics-related subjects, and is based on their explanations during not special classes of physics. It was carried out within the project: “Discourse analysis in University Physics Classes. Implications for Improvement of Educational Practice” at the School of Engineering at the University of Carabobo, Venezuela. It is a qualitative research. The analyses in this research involve the application of several theoretical approaches in the field of rhetoric, communication, and of the discourse analysis. The theoretical frame is structured on The Theory of the Argumentation by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca. And because educational discourse incorporates verbal and non verbal language with the purpose of constructing meaning, contributions by other authors on the multimodal vision of the communication and on explanations in science&s;s classes are superposed to this theoretical frame of Perelman.