The multimodal interactional work of Having Wonderful Ideas

Learning physics is socially organized through interactions with peers and more competent others. Instructors\u27 and peers\u27 assessment of and responsiveness to learners\u27 ideas in the moment is critical for the collaborative construction of knowledge in physics. However, we still know little about how instructors and learners negotiate the value and productiveness of ideas. While to an outsider, some of the ideas physics learners discuss do not seem immediately valuable or productive for the problem being solved, Duckworth encourages us to pursue an \u27insider\u27s view\u27 on how a learner experiences their ideas. Building on Duckworth, I pursue an \u27insider\u27s view\u27 to better understand how peers and teachers experience each other\u27s ideas. In particular, I examine the interactional methods and resources participants use to express ideas and to mark their own or others\u27 ideas as wonderful or not-so-wonderful. I demonstrate how participants rely on a variety of multimodal communicational tools, including speech, words, gestures, and whiteboard inscriptions to negotiate wonderfulness, extending our current understanding of how peers and instructors are responsive to physics ideas in the moment