Predicating from an Early Age: Edusemiotics and the Potential of Children’s Preconceptions

Abstract

This paper aims to explain how semiotics and constructivism can collaborate in an educational epistemology by developing a joint approach to prescientific conceptions. Empirical data and findings of constructivist research are interpreted in the light of Peirce's semiotics. Peirce's semiotics is an anti-psychologistic logic (CP 2.252; CP 4.551; W 8:15; Pietarinen in Signs of logic, Springer, Dordrecht, 2006; Stjernfelt in Diagrammatology. An investigation on the borderlines of phenomenology, ontology and semiotics, Springer, Dordrecht, 2007) and relational logic. Constructivism was traditionally developed within psychology and sociology and, therefore, some incompatibilities can be expected between these two schools. While acknowledging the differences, we explain that constructivism and semiotics share the assumption of realism that knowledge can only be developed upon knowledge and, therefore, an epistemological collaboration is possible. The semiotic analysis performed confirms the constructivist results and provides a further insight into the teacher-student relation. Like the constructivist approach, Peirce's doctrine of agapism infers that the personal dimension of teaching must not be ignored. Thus, we argue for the importance of genuine sympathy in teaching attitudes. More broadly, the article also contributes to the development of postmodern humanities. At the end of the modern age, the humanities are passing through a critical period of transformation. There is a growing interest in semiotics and semiotic philosophy in many areas of the humanities. Such a case, on which we draw, is the development of a theoretical semiotic approach to education, namely edusemiotics (Stables and Semetsky, Pedagogy and edusemiotics: theoretical challenge/practical opportunities, Sense Publishers, Rotterdam, 2015).

Veni, vidi, didici: Teaching Approaches and Learning Outcomes of Semiotics

“…Both the student and the teacher are involved in a mutual learning process. While the student learns from the teacher, the teacher learns too -this is what makes educational communication work (Olteanu et al, 2016), increasing the learner's and the teacher's cognitive abilities, which leads towards competence of iconic intelligence, memory improvement, adaptability, semiotic literacy and other competences that might be crucial for the development of educated future generations.…”

Schematic Enough to be Safe from Kidnappers: The Semiotics of Charles Peirce as Transitionalist Pragmatism

“…Also, as he argues somewhere else, together with Olteanu and Kambouri, Peirce's thought allows for supporting that ‘[w]e cannot and we do not proceed with most of our lives by doubting everything. We accept (which is distinct from approve )’ (Olteanu et al ., , p. 629).…”

Can Preschool Teachers’ Accurate Analysis of the Development Trajectories of Children’s Preconceptions Ensure Their Effective Response? Evidence from Situational Judgement Tests

“…Specifically, teachers' comprehensive or accurate analyses of children's thinking cannot guarantee that they will make a response that promotes the development of children's thinking and vice versa [12][13][14][15]. On one hand, it is difficult for preschool teachers to make an appropriate response to support children's development if they cannot analyze children's thinking or preconceptions exactly [6,7,16]. Surprisingly, some research findings show that preschool teachers can make appropriate responses even though they cannot analyze the development level of preconceptions accurately [17,18].…”