In this presentation, we will rely on the Joint Action Theory in Didactics (Gruson & Forest, 2011 ; Sensevy & Mercier, 2007 ; Sensevy, 2011a ; Sensevy, 2011b) to present a theoretical approach of the relationship between teaching and learning, within a comparative approach. In doing so, we will try and show how the Joint Action Theory in Didactics (JATD) may contribute to the construction of a science of instructional practice (Koschmann, 2011).

In the first part of the presentation, we will outline some features of the joint action new paradigm as it has been unfolding in recent works in various disciplines. In the second part, we will focus on the Joint Action Theory in Didactics and more particularly on three main elements of the theory: the notion of learning game; the contract-milieu didactics, that we call the equilibration process; the twofold semiosis. In doing so, we will argue that the teacher’s work can be considered as an equilibration work between the didactic contract and the didactic milieu. Then we will emphasize the nature and the function of the semiosis process in such an equilibration work. The third part of the presentation will be dedicated to two empirical studies, which may function as exemplars (Kuhn, 1974) JATD, relating to the three elements we mentioned above. The first analysis refers to an instructional sequence called Treasures Game, designed for kindergarten by Brousseau (2004) and his team. We show the specific organization of the twofold semiosis through the equilibration process in the third phase of the sequence, when students have to deal with a code designed by one of them, and when the teacher has to manage the debates about this representation problem. The second analysis refers to a video conferencing session during which primary French and English students play a famous game "Who is it?". With this study, we will attempt to clarify how this technology-enhanced learning environment enables a reconstruction of the learning situation in a specific inquiry process, requiring a particular teacher’s equilibration work and a specific student’s entitlement.

Using micro analyses of the empirical data, we will show that the teacher's and students' joint action relies in both cases on a specific equilibrium between the contract and the milieu embodied by a twofold semiosis and consequently on the deciphering of signs. During the didactic action the teacher and the students have to identify and recognize the specific signs of the knowledge that emerge in the milieu. We called this process the « first semiosis ». In the same time, the students have to identify the teacher's intentional signs that can help them deal with the milieu in a good way, this is what we call the « second semiosis ». After that, we will elaborate on the comparative stances we constructed in our research, from an epistemological and a methodological viewpoint. Finally, we will argue that the Joint Action Theory in Didactics has to be considered, within a transactional perspective, in the Learning Sciences paradigm.

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