Didactic Semiosis And Shared Meanings, Contrasting Two Sessions : Mathematics And Literature

Author(s):

Isabelle Nédélec-Trohel(presenting / submitting)Dominique Forest(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 11 B, Semiotics and Methodological Issues in Research on Teaching and Learning

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-12

17:15-18:45

Room:

A-206

Chair:

Florence Ligozat

Contribution

Our research comes under the scope of the Joint Action Theory in Didactics paradigm and we use the model of the game (Brousseau, 1997, Sensevy, 2011, 2102) to take into account the logical structure of the teaching-learning process in situ. We show how students get involved in the production of new meanings thanks to specific semiosis processes, including language, proxemic and graphic dimensions, embedded in a succession of learning games.

Our communication is based on the description and the analysis of two contrasted situations. The first one is about mathematics, with a subtraction problem solving by 7-8 years old students, some of them are low achievement students (Nédélec-Trohel & Forest, 2012). The second one is about two 8-9 years old visually impaired students reading a fable in a tactile book (French research named IMADOI, granted by National Agency for Research).

In these two cases we have a text, i.e. a type of representation of the reality : a problem statement in mathematics, a fable in literature. In situ, students have to link this first representation with another ones. In the first case (problem statement) it is a mathematic modeling, in the second case (fable), a tactile representation. According to a semiotic approach, we argue that the difficulty for students is to build shared meanings about objects and situations, by developing representations of it.

Method

Verbal, non-verbal and spatial phenomena have to be taken into account together in the situation to describe this "twofold semiosis" (Sensevy & Forest, 2012). For these reasons, our analyses are grounded in video recording of the sessions (Forest & Mercier, 2011). The non-verbal and spatial fittings are observed by a proxemic analysis (Hall, 1963 ; Forest, 2009). The analysis is supported by a hybrid system of representations which combines photograms, utterances, and commentaries.

Expected Outcomes

Contrasting these two cases with a semiotic analysis, we try to show that : in the first case, the passage from a “plot” representation to an “algebra symbolization” can permit students to experience mathematic relation. In the second case, tactile illustration can bring complementary meaning to the text but it does not permit students to expand the experience of the text. So, the activity of tactile exploration is doubted.

References

Brousseau, G. (1997) Theory of didactical situations in mathematics. Dordrecht: Kluwer academic publishers. Nédélec-Trohel, I. & Forest, D. (2012). Studying the didactic semiosis of an aid device designed to help students with learning difficulties in mathematics. Colloque international “Formes d’éducation et processus d’émancipation”. CREAD. Université de Rennes 2. 22-24 mai. Forest, D. (2009). Agencements didactiques, pour une analyse fonctionnelle du comportement non-verbal du professeur. Revue française de pédagogie, 165, 77-89. Hall, E. T. (1963). A system for a notation of proxemic Behavior. American Anthropologist, 65, 1003-1026. Sensevy, G. (2011). Overcoming Fragmentation: Towards a Joint Action Theory in Didactics . In B. Hudson & M. Meyer (Eds.), Beyond Fragmentation : Didactics, Learning and Teaching in Europe (pp. 60-76). Opladen and Farmington Hills : Barbara Budrich. Sensevy, G. (2012). About the Joint Action Theory in Didactics. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft. Berlin: Springer Sensevy, G. & Forest, D. (2012, July). Semiosis process in instructional practices. International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Sydney, Australia.

Author Information

Isabelle Nédélec-Trohel (presenting / submitting)

Université Picardie Jules Verne-IUFM d'Amiens

St Gilles

Dominique Forest (presenting)

D. Forest : Université of Western Brittany, France

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