Semiotic Modes and Representations of Knowledge

Kristina Danielsson,Staffan Selander

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-63960-0_3

Abstract

AbstractWhen organizing our understanding of the world around us, we use semiotic resources (e.g. Kress 2010). Semiotic resources are resources that we use to organize our understanding of the world and to make meaning in communication with others, or to make meaning for ourselves.

Highlights

In a project on the text worlds of pupils in primary school, Charlotte Engblom (2010) made an interesting point regarding what counts for teachers and pupils, and that their interests can sometimes be contradictory
In one classroom activity, when students were asked to produce a text on the computer, one pupil made a conscious spelling “mistake” on the word mum, to allow the words in the sentence to be placed in a way that made the image appear at the right place on the page
The visual appearance of the different text resources was considered more important than correct spelling. The problem for this student was not spelling, but instead how to handle the digital tool, in this case to make the words appear at the right place without manipulating the word length

Summary

Chapter 3

When organizing our understanding of the world around us, we use semiotic resources (e.g. Kress 2010). Semiotic resources are resources that we use to organize our understanding of the world and to make meaning in communication with others, or to make meaning for ourselves.. Semiotic resources are resources that we use to organize our understanding of the world and to make meaning in communication with others, or to make meaning for ourselves.1 When these semiotic resources are used in systematic ways they form semiotic modes. Examples of semiotic modes are color (when color is used in more or less conventionalized ways), spoken or written verbal language, images, or gestures. A semiotic mode in itself can be viewed as multimodal, for example an image where color is used as one meaning-making resource. In all social communication we combine semiotic modes. Social communication is always multimodal (e.g. Jewitt et al 2016)

Knowledge Representations

What Semiotic Modes “Count” in Schools?

Semiotic Mode and Meaning Potential

Semiotic Mode and Meaning

Implications for Education

Summary