Short introduction to semiotic resources
In short, my research focuses on understanding that act of learning physics. I study this by looking at how students’ manipulate semiotic resources to make meaning. That was a lot of buzzwords. Allow me to explain them and how they connect to learning physics.
Semiotic Resources
Semiotic resources are activities, tools, and representations, that we use to investigate, communicate, and explore different concepts or ideas. For example, I am using this TEXT to communicate ideas. This specific TEXT is my semiotic resource that I am using to convey some type of meaning to you. You are using the TEXT to explore the ideas that I have written down. In the physics discipline, we have a lot of different semiotic resources that we use to investigate and make meaning about different physics related concepts and ideas.
Within physics, we use measurement apparatuses to obtain data, algorithms to process the data, and mathematical tools to analyze the data. Each of these manipulations of data have been designed to extract some type of meaning. They are created to help with the construction of knowledge about a specific idea.
Simulation of gravitational interaction
An object in an elliptical orbit around another, more massive, object. The simulation is created with Newtonian gravity and the colors are chosen to place the student in a “space” context. The red trial is there to showcase the non-circularity of the orbit and to showcase that the velocity changes over the orbit. This is a semiotic resource designed to highlight some specific aspects of newtonian mechanics.
When students learn, they interact with a number of different semiotic resources. This interaction is what provides opportunity for learning to take place. Each semiotic resource is constructed, either by design, or by necessity, to convey a specific concept or idea. Several semiotic resources may be designed to convey the same concept, but in different ways.
For example: a formula and a diagram may describe the same concept, but they do it in different ways.
Manipulation of semiotic resources
Semiotic resources can be manipulated and modified by the student. This changes the meaning-making potential of the semiotic resource. Different aspects become discernible depending on the type of manipulation that is performed.
When I say manipulation, I mean any type of interaction with the semiotic resource that has the potential to change the meaning-making potential of the semiotic resource. For example: If you have written down a formula in your notebook and adds an arrow to one of the elements. You have changed the meaning-making potential of the formula, a specific element is highlighted and will draw more attention through more associations or other connections. The modification can also come through social interaction. When discussing a visualisation with another person, they will probably highlight aspects that you have not discerned, or force you to discern specific meanings so that you may explain them to your friend.
These types of interactions with the semiotic resources creates a flow of discernment that, hopefully, aligns with the meaning-making potential of the semiotic resources. It is this flow of discernment that we, as educators, want to preserve so that the student is always in a state of discernment, of noticing and reflecting on disciplinary elements, while moving between different semiotic resources.
