In this presentation, we rely on the Joint Action Theory in Didactics (Sensevy, In Press) to present a theoretical approach of the issue of semiosis, i.e. the way the signs are built and deciphered in the meaning-making process. Our research question is: how the semiotic process unfolds in the didactic action? Our objective consists of elaborating on this question within the theoretical framework of the Joint Action Theory in Didactics. in order  to build a comprehensive approach of the semiosis process in didactic action

We first present the general features of this framework, in focusing on the notion of didactic game, didactic contract (that one can see as a current strategic system on which the students rely in order to solve the problem the teacher give them), and didactic milieu (that one can see as the structure of the problem the students have to solve). We describe how the teacher’s work can be considered as en equilibration work between the didactic contract and the didactic milieu. 

In the second part of our presentation, we show that one can see the didactic semiosis process in joint action as a twofold semiosis. In effect, the teacher and the students, in some different ways we will precise, have to decipher the signs of the milieu in which the didactic action unfolds, and they have to decipher the signs each participant bears in the joint action, what we call the reciprocal semiosis of others. We show how this semiotic work plays a fundamental role in the joint action, through the equilibration process.

In the third part of our presentation, we present two empirical analyses.

The first analysis refers to an instructional sequence called Treasures Game, designed for Kindergarten by Brousseau and his team. Brousseau (2004) considered this research design as a fundamental situation for the notion of a representation. The Treasures Game consists of producing a list of objects to be remembered and communicated. The didactic device takes place over a long period (about 45 sessions), which becomes a ritual time, but one where the rules change as the game progresses. This situation is thus devoted to the joint production of signs necessary to represent the objects, and is particularly well adapted to our inquiry. We implemented a new version of this sequence in a cooperative teaching design.

The second analysis refers to a class (6^th and 5^th grades) of visually impaired students. We analyze the way the students and the teacher have to compensate the impossibility of creating shared visual signs, notably by using proxemic and prosodic techniques. We focus on reading sessions using tactile books specifically designed to allow visually impaired students to experience a kind of reading process. It is important to acknowledge that this reading activity may unfold with the use of the Braille alphabet, a “logic” code based on the sense of touch, whose learning requires an intense semiotic activity.

In the last part of our presentation, we present a comparative analysis of our two empirical studies.

Brousseau, G. (2004). Les représentations : étude en théorie des situations didactiques. Revue des sciences de l'éducation (30) 2, 241-277. Sensevy, G. (In press) Overcoming fragmentation: towards a joint action theory in didactics. In Hudson, B. & Meyer, M. A. (Eds.) Beyond Fragmentation: Didactics, Learning, and Teaching. Leverkusen, Germany, Barbara Budrich Publishers.