Focus
How signs become meaningful and their role in making meaningPrincipal Metaphors
- Knowledge is … scope of interpretive possibility
- Knowing is … using signs
- Learner is … a sign-using system (individual, interpersonal, cultural)
- Learning is … making meaning
- Teaching is … interpreting
Originated
1860sSynopsis
Semiotics is concerned with the role of signs in making meaning. Semiotics assumes that individuals cannot have direct knowledge of things and events, and so “sign” is posited as a sort of mediator between one’s mind and an object or event. That is, a sign is a stand-in that represents something else. Most signs are arbitrary (i.e., inherently meaningless) and may be icons (images), pointers (that direct attentions), or symbols (e.g., numbers, words, gestures). People usually use combinations of signs to communicate. Semiotics examines how signs become meaningful on personal and collective levels and how, once meaningful, signs are deployed to influence interpretation and action.Commentary
Semiotics interrupts or rejects many commonsense assumptions about knowledge and communication, and so the theory can be very difficult to understand and explain. Consequently, most criticisms seem to be associated with interpretations that are shallow or false. Of the criticisms that are based on careful reading, a common concern is that many theorists seem to refer to individuals’ uses of “signs” in a manner reminiscent of the knowledge-objects of the Acquisition Metaphor. That is, signs are frequently discussed as being acquired, as mental representations, and as internal symbols – suggesting that many proponents of Semiotics actually work from quite unsophisticated theories of learning.Authors and/or Prominent Influences
Ferdinand de Saussure; Mikhail Bakhtin; Roland BarthesStatus as a Theory of Learning
With its focus on how meaning is made, negotiated, and propagated on personal, interpersonal, and cultural levels, Semiotics might be seen as a trans-level theory of learning – that is, one that implicitly casts persons, collectives, and cultures as nested, intertwined learning systems.Status as a Theory of Teaching
Semiotics is not a theory of teaching, and it offer no advice (direct or indirect) on influencing learning. (That said, see Semiotic Pedagogy.)Status as a Scientific Theory
Interpreted as a theory of learning in the manner described above, Semiotics can be classified as a scientific theory. It is critically attentive to its assumptions and constructs, and it is associated with considerable empirical evidence.Map Location
Please cite this article as:
Davis, B., & Francis, K. (2020). “Semiotics” in Discourses on Learning in Education. https://learningdiscourses.com.
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