Analysing videos in educational research: an “Inquiry Graphics” approach for multimodal, Peircean semiotic coding of video data

Abstract

This article introduces an "Inquiry Graphics" (IG) approach for multimodal, Peircean semiotic video analysis and coding. It builds on Charles Sanders Peirce's core triadic interpretation of sign meaning-making. Multimodal methods offer analytical frameworks, templates and software to analyse video data. However, multimodal video analysis has been scarcely linked to semiotics in/of education (edusemiotics), for the purpose of exploring higher education teaching-learning and settings. This article addresses the mentioned gap by introducing the IG approach, which links multimodality and edusemiotics primarily via Peirce's triadic sign. The article offers a step-by-step IG coding guide, examples and explanations. IG application can be expanded to video analysis across many fields, levels and subjects, within and beyond higher education research, nationally and internationally.

Postdigital Dialogue

“…the dialogue stemming from educational research, philosophy and pedagogy-the move towards more integrative approach to artefacts is further based on the fact that: (i)n the last two decades, the global movements of multimodality (Jewitt, Bezemer and O'Halloran 2016;Iedema 2003;Jewitt, Kress, Ogborn and Tsatsarelis 2001;van Leeuwen 1998), new literacies (Freebody and Luke 1990;Knobel and Lankasher 2006;Lankshear and Knobel 2007) and multiliteracies (Anstey and Bull 2006;Cope and Kalantzis 2000;New London Group 1996) have been paving the way for renewed understanding of communication and education processes, especially in relation to technology mediation. (Lacković 2018) Such renewed understanding means that those processes include but go beyond language, bringing to higher education research and teaching the artefacts that surround us and are a part of us (Lacković 2018;Hallewell and Lacković 2017;Lacković 2010). As Susi (2006Susi ( : 2110 argues, 'one of the fundamental findings of cognitive science is that artefacts shape cognition and collaboration (Woods 1998)', building on the Russian cultural-historical school in psychology of the late 1960s and 1970s (Vygotsky 1978).…”

“…As Susi (2006Susi ( : 2110 argues, 'one of the fundamental findings of cognitive science is that artefacts shape cognition and collaboration (Woods 1998)', building on the Russian cultural-historical school in psychology of the late 1960s and 1970s (Vygotsky 1978). Artefacts are commonly overtly verbalised (mentioned) in the dialogue, or they are mental representations, such as associations, metaphors and images in interlocutors' minds (Lakoff and Johnson 2008), or they mediate dialogue by the power of its external material presence and visibility, socially infused affordances, functionality and affective immediacy (Lacković 2018;Stafford 1998). As dialogue requires an ongoing engagement and interpretation, multimodal and semiotic approaches offer tools and language to uncover layers and aspects of this omnipresent interpretative dimension of the dialogue.…”

Thinking with Digital Images in the Post-Truth Era: A Method in Critical Media Literacy

“…The signification aspect of the PSC embeds an inquiry graphics (IG) analysis (Lacković 2018), as it is aligned with Peirce's tripartite sign explained above. Each of the triadic nodes (representamen-object-interpretant) focuses the analysis and inquiry on the sign as follows: the embodied representamen focuses the analysis on researcher's, learners' or participants' observing, naming (as singular nouns) and listing of the embodied content of the photograph; the interpretant-led analytical step focuses analytical attention on the researcher's, learners' or participants' interpretations; and the object of inquiry (conceptual object, research object) step focuses attention on the symbolic meanings linked to theory, research questions or pedagogic goal.…”

The voice, text, and the visual as semiotic companions: an analysis of the materiality and meaning potential of multimodal screen feedback

“…Situated within a semiotic analytical framework based on an Inquiry Graphics (Lacković, 2018) approach, the contribution of this study to the field of initial education is twofold. Firstly, it highlights the significance of the materiality or characteristics of modes which both carry meaning and shape social actions in situated feedback practices.…”

“…In the broadest sense, semiotics is the study of "signs" (Eco, 1976). Its primary aim is to analyse how we create and interpret signs in order to communicate and interpret meanings (Sebeok, 2001) through a diversity of forms such as words, images, sounds, gestures, road signs, text messages and so on (Chandler, 2002;Lacković, 2018). According to Peirce (1931-58), a sign in its represented form can be categorised in different ways: as icon, index or symbol.…”