In this paper we move from considering the chair as an (inanimate) object, to exploring its vitality through a more vibrant and active reading of this inescapable everyday item. We are inspired by feminist new materialism and how affect shapes our understanding of matter. Reading matter in this way surfaces our orientations toward everyday items…

The general education classroom is filled with academic vocabulary, and individuals with developmental disabilities benefit from explicit vocabulary instruction (Browder et al., 2008; Marzano, 2020; Smith et al., 2013). Picture-based alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) can encourage academic skills development (Ahlgrim-Dehzel et al.,…

One of the main questions regarding Dutch primary education in our secularised and religiously diverse society--both with regards to public and religiously-affiliated schools--is how to get students acquainted with the symbolic language of religious and worldview-affiliated life narratives. Teaching literacy in symbolic language has become less…

This article draws upon my keynote address delivered at the 44th Oceania and Comparative and International Education Society (OCIES) Conference held at the University of Sydney. It examines how metaphors and other forms of symbolic language used to describe educational dilemmas shape the responses that are imaginable in addressing them. In…

In "Teaching for Wholeness," Clifford Mayes continues to expand the horizons of Jungian pedagogy, a movement that draws upon the thought of Carl Jung and Jungian scholars to address crucial educational issues and define new ones. Mayes leads readers through an analysis of Freudian and post- Freudian psychology in educational theory and…

Tolerance of ambiguity has been referred to as "the indispensable component of symbolic competence" (Kramsch, 2006, p. 251) and the recommendation was later made for college-level language instructors interested in emphasizing symbolic competence in their classrooms to "bring up every opportunity to show complexity and…

In several of his papers, Charles S. Peirce illustrates processes of interpreting and understanding signs by examples from second language vocabulary teaching and learning. The insights conveyed by means of these little pedagogical scenarios are not meant as contributions to the psychology of second language learning, but they aim at elucidating…

This study empirically evaluated a classification schema based on symbolic communication level use with students with significant cognitive disabilities. Ninety-five teachers of students with significant disabilities rated students' level of performance on 10 academic tasks. Cluster analysis suggested a range of two to four clusters solutions.…

The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive relationship between the level of symbolic representation in preschoolers' sociodramatic play and reading and mathematics abilities and rate of growth in early elementary grades for children with and without disabilities. The relationship of three aspects of sociodramatic play--symbolic…

Reexamines the concept of semiotic modeling systems as conceived by members of the Moscow-Tartu School of semiotics of culture. The metaphoric use of the term language in the broad sense equivalent to the modeling system is discussed and qualified. (Author/JL)

This essay offers an analysis of PowerPoint apart from the histrionics of the "'Tis and 'Taint" arguments about its value, and proposes a program of research to move forward our understanding of PowerPoint as an inscriptional system. To that end, the study begins with a discussion of PowerPoint as an inscriptional system that employs both…

Instructional strategies requiring transmediation, the process of translating meaning from one sign system (such as language) to another (such as pictures), are critical to enquiry-oriented classrooms because learners must invent a connection between the systems. This article, drawing on semiotic theory, explores how transmediation achieves its…

The study investigated whether significant differences existed among normally developing 3-year-old children in transparency and in the learning of symbols from three different graphic symbol systems (Blissymbols, Picture Communication System, and Picsyms) frequently used with augmentative communication devices for communication disordered…

Examples cited refute a generally accepted view that the origins of metaphors are arbitrary. To illustrate this point, examples are cited of how products of nature (curcubitic plants: melons, pumpkins) are used as references to people and their characteristics (hardiness, appearance, texture, inertness, reproductive and sexual connotations). In…

Attempts a semiotic experiment to explore the fluctuations of meaning produced by interferences between textual and figurative representation within one picture. Discusses examples such as the portrait with its presentation of the subject and the topographical city plan. Provides an in-depth exploration of Philippe de Champaigne's "Ex-voto of…