Social semiotic discussions about the role played by representations in effective teaching and learning in areas such as physics have led to theoretical proposals that have a strong common thread: in order to acquire an appropriate understanding of a particular object of learning, access to the disciplinary relevance aspects in the representations…

Some pre-service mathematics teachers in South Africa are nervous about the content of Euclidean geometry because they did not study Euclidean geometry in high school but will be expected to teach same when they start their teaching career. Because of this, graduating pre-service mathematics teachers were enrolled for a six-week intervention…

In this article, the central argument is that research on the semiotic repertoire should also focus on how repertoires are racialized, and race is evoked through the semiotic repertoire. The article uses data from the South African educational context to advance a position in which semiotic repertoires simultaneously give and restrict access,…

This paper explores the notion of "productive risk" as a way of understanding how diverse students can become re-makers of landscape architectural design practices and education. We trace the design trajectories of two first-year students at a South African tertiary institution and examine how the students negotiate the risk of drawing…

Extended Curriculum Programmes have a responsibility to validate the resources and experiences students bring to their learning environment. However, designing assessment practices that encourage diverse students to draw on their resources in order to both access and challenge disciplinary discourses can be complex. This article is framed in terms…

Globally, the use of visuo-semiotic models (VSMs) in the mathematics classroom is called for across levels and topics. Literature confirms that visual cognition/literacy in teachers is limited and that their capabilities in visual representation is low. The aim of this study was therefore to explore pre-service teachers' (PSTs) conception of VSMs…

Background: Globally, teaching practice has been at the heart of teacher education programmes. For quality teaching and learning, literacy student teachers are expected to develop metacognitive attributes and critical thinking to integrate theory and practice. Because of the dominance of autonomous models in literacy teaching and learning…

Background: Several isiXhosa home language (HL) learners are excluded from meaningful mathematics learning because they are taught in English. Not only do teachers lack epistemological and pedagogical confidence in using multiple languages when teaching mathematics, but there are no mathematical registers for African languages that allow for…

There is much concern in South Africa about the poor performance of learners in mathematics, particularly in geometry. The aim of this research was to explore the understanding of basic geometry concepts by grade 10 and grade 11 learners in terms of the van Hiele's levels of geometry thinking. The participants of the research were 147 learners…

Visuo-semiotic models, such as Lewis structures and ball & stick models, are widely used to enhance students' learning. However, there is limited research about the impact of these models on specific visuo-semiotic reasoning skills. In the current research, we aimed to determine the extent to which physical molecular models could enhance…

This study, conducted in one high-achieving secondary school in a disadvantaged area in the Western Cape province of South Africa, asks whether mathematics teachers alter their "talk" across the face-to-face and computer-based lessons. Data were gathered through video recordings of teacher/student interactions across ten face-to-face and…

Engineering educators express concern that undergraduate engineering students solve problems procedurally without the necessary conceptual understanding. While research in engineering dynamics has focused on using technology to improve student performance, this article focuses on using representations for modelling problem solving in the lecture.…

Purpose: The significance of visuo-semiotic models in biology education has increased. Students have to develop visuo-semiotic skills, which could enable them to learn biology effectively. However, a lack of a universal theory of visual literacy has made it challenging to develop and assess visualization skills, including visuo-semiotic skills.…

Many pre-service mathematics teachers in South Africa are apprehensive about the content of Euclidean geometry, because they did not study Euclidean geometry in high school but will be expected to teach the content when they start their teaching career. This article reports on a study that explored the role of semiotic representations in…

In this article we examine the nature of inter-semiotic and intermodal construction in the exposition of a solution for a geometry rider. In the tradition of hermeneutic phenomenology, this case study involved an exploration of the oral discourse and visual texts used in a mathematics lesson. This research was intended to contribute to the…