ABSTRACT

This chapter argues that the relevance of metalanguage as a tool for compensatory education in visual scientific meaning-making functions and norm boundaries. Naturalistic visual representations are common in biology education. The stars are visually represented as the gas clouds they are factually described as in the written part, but bigger and more intense than what would normally be observed in such a pink sky, which adds to the artistic representation. Visual representations of the first type function according to the scientific epistemic values of objectivity, rationality, and logic. Norms are boundaries for accepted behaviours based on values, that is, ideas regarding what counts as valuable or desirable within a given social group. On-factual, imaginative content formation already is established within some branches of science. Knowing the norms of science is a crucial part of scientific literacy. The rather few empirical studies conducted on aesthetics in science education in the early school years are primarily observational studies of classroom interaction.