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ERIC Number: EJ685910
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Apr
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0013-1857
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Peircean Theory, Psychosemiotics, and Education
Smith, Howard A.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, v37 n2 p191-206 Apr 2005
The main aim of this article is to describe central elements of, and the relationships among, three interrelated domains of inquiry. The first domain is Charles Peirce's semiotic theory which offers five concepts of special relevance to the other two domains: (a) primary components of the triadic sign, including the object, representamen, and interpretant; (b) the unceasing process of semiosis, or continuous growth of the developing sign; (c) the three forms of inference, of which Peirce's notion of abduction is of special interest; (d) the element of surprise in experience, and (e) the universal categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness that ground Peirce's overarching theory. The second domain incorporates the discipline of psychosemiotics, which is defined as the study of how we learn, understand, and use the signs of culture. The article outlines the nature and scope of psychosemiotics and emphasizes its grounding in Peircean semiotics, meaning-making, and the five concepts listed above. The claim will be made that signs, semiosis, and meaning act through the seven signways outlined in the article and thereby bind the individual into the surrounding physical and cultural environments. The third domain is formal education, for which implications are presented as derived from Peircean theory and viewed through the psychosemiotic lens. In this perspective, all forms of education are semiotic processes grounded in signs and meaning-making. Further, formal education consists of learning a wide variety of culturally-valued signs by way of the seven signways and through processes that often differ from a technocratic, standards-driven, accountability-oriented approach to learning and instruction.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A