Reports on a study designed to find out what scientists and science students actually do when they are reading familiar and unfamiliar graphs. Describes changes in ontologies of scientists and science students as they engage in the reading tasks assigned to them. Theorizes a transition of graphs from things to signs that come to stand for natural…

Presents four successive perspectives on the senses. The first is on objectivism, the second is a view from sensory psychology, the third on phenomenology, and the fourth is that of sensory anthropology. (Author/VWL)

Presents an overview of international perspectives on referencing in educational research, reflects on a number of constants relating to the game of references that could contribute to improving research practices and education, and contemplates the semiotic aspects of referencing in education by opening a discussion on the nature of academic joy.…

Explores questions related to the meaning and nature of time in schooling environments. Highlights include metaphors of time; postmodern perspectives; semiotic interpretations; the value of collaboration; and the organization of learning environments. (Contains 34 references.) (Author/LRW)

Photographs are the most frequent inscriptions in high school biology textbooks. However, little is known about how students make sense of and learn from photographs; even less is known about the different resources available for making sense of photographs when they appear in lectures. In this study, the use of photographs during lectures and…

More often than not, metafiction is approached more on philosophical than aesthetic grounds. In metafictional works the ontological or epistemological dimensions of works of art, literature in particular, are being highlighted by the art works themselves. Moreover, metafictional works of art are singled out as a specific type, almost a genre. This…

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…

Research on children's early literacy learning has predominantly focused on a 'child attribute improvement methodology' (Bloome & Katz, 2003) in which the child is conceptualised as having a series of attributes which are potentially affected by particular sets of treatments or events. These 'input-output' studies, also described as 'black box'…

In Experiment 1, 24-month-old toddlers were taught a new word ("whisk") through the labeling of a picture of a whisk. After repeated pairings of the word and picture, participants were shown the picture and a real whisk and asked to indicate the whisk. They took the word to refer to the real object rather than to the picture. Experiment 2…

This article examines the contention that the central concepts of C. S. Peirce's semeiotic are inherently communicational. It is argued that the Peircean approach avoids the pitfalls of objectivism and constructivism, rendering the sign-user neither a passive recipient nor an omnipotent creator of meaning. Consequently, semeiotic may serve as a…

This study examined the influence of first language (L1) orthographic experiences on decoding and semantic information retention of new words in a second language (L2). Hypotheses were that congruity in L1 and L2 orthographic experiences determines L2 decoding efficiency, which, in turn, affects semantic information encoding and retention.…

In this essay, Andrew Stables and Stephen Gough explore some of the implications for educational policy and practice of a view of living (and, therefore, of learning) as semiotic engagement. Such a view, Stables and Gough argue, has the potential to displace or circumvent essentially Cartesian models currently dominant within learning theory…

To investigate the stability of trace reactivation in healthy older adults, 22 older volunteers with no significant neurological history participated in a cross-modal priming task. Whilst both object relative center embedded (ORC) and object relative right branching (ORR) sentences were employed, working memory load was reduced by limiting the…

With business documents, visuals can serve to enhance the written word in conveying the message. Images can be especially effective when used subtly, on part of the page, on successive pages to provide continuity, or even set as watermarks over the entire page. A main reason given for traditional text-only business documents is that they are…

Learning to write well often proves to be one of the most difficult areas in the English language arts for young children. However, in these fourth- and fifth-grade language arts classrooms, children are offered opportunities to explore, think through, and express meaning across and within sign systems--in particular, using art, drama, and…