Download full Teaching adolescents educational psychology as a science of signs 1st edition howard s
https://ebookgate.com/product/teachingadolescents-educational-psychology-as-a-scienceof-signs-1st-edition-howard-smith/ Download more ebook from https://ebookgate.com
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant download maybe you interests ...
Handbook of Psychology Educational Psychology 2nd Edition Irving B. Weiner
Grounded in the semiotic thought of Charles Sanders Peirce, America’s greatest polymath, Howard A. Smith’s Teaching Adolescents addresses topics in educational psychology from a semiotic or sign-based perspective rather than a behavioural one. In this educational psychology textbook, Smith’s main argument is that teachers must rely on signs of all kinds to understand students and to survive as teachers. This book is unique in applying a single unifying framework throughout.
Among the many concepts that Smith discusses in Teaching Adolescents are the nature of the sign and its basis in semiotics, and the use of signs in classroom management. Various signs of learning and thinking are highlighted, as are those signs derived from local culture that have an impact on the lives of students and teachers, such as adolescent preoccupations with drugs and sex. In addition, Smith discusses what teachers can do to ensure their own physical and emotional health in the classroom. The theoretical continuity and practical application of semiotics make Teaching Adolescents an indispensable resource for students in preservice teaching programs and for teachers working with teens, as well as a fascinating and real-world study for anyone interested in the science of signs.
(Toronto Studies in Semiotics and Communications)
howard a. smith is a professor in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University.
3. Teacher–student relationships.4. Communication in education.
5. Educational psychology.I. Title.II. Series.
LB1033.5.S62 2007371.102′2C2006-905629-3
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP). www.utppublishing.com
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.
In memory of Dick Hopkins (1949–2002)
Exemplary teacher and reader of signs
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xix
1Semiotics of Schooling and Teaching 3 Semiotics3
Nature of the Sign5
Applied Semiotics7
Signs in Schooling9
Distinguishing between Education and Schooling9
The Culture of Schools11
Schools in Historical Perspective16
Adolescents in School22
Signs in Teaching24
The Culture of Classrooms24
Signs of the Expert Teacher27
2Signs in Communication 29
Teaching as Communicating in Signs30
Defining Communication30
Communication in the Classroom31
Verbal Signs34
The Limitations of Discourse35
Questioning37
Non-Verbal Signs41
Environmental Factors42
Proxemics47
Kinesics52
Haptics58
Physical Characteristics59
Paralanguage60
Artefacts61
Signs, Communication, and Cultures61
3Signs in Class Management and Discipline 65
Signs in Class Management65
Adolescence and Class Management67
Setting the Stage69
Main Approaches to Classroom Management70
Five Signs of Effective Teachers74
Before School Begins77
The First Day of School78
Organization and Management during the First Few Weeks80
Maintaining What Has Been Accomplished Together81
Signs in Discipline86
Examining Teachers’ Beliefs about Discipline87
Challenges to Classroom Order90
The Challenges to Mr Altonen90
Analysing the Challenges to Mr Altonen90
Other Challenges95
Promoting Student Self-Discipline and Responsibility for Learning97
Some Dos and Don’ts of Discipline98
In General, What Should Teachers Do?98
In General, What Should Teachers Not Do?99
Management for Pre-Service Teachers100
4Signs in Adolescent Development 104
Nomothetic and Idiographic Knowledge105
Effects of Nature and Nurture on Behaviour108
Nature (Heredity)108
Nurture (Environment)109
Nature and Nurture109
Time110
Genes and Memes111
Physical Development114
Puberty and Physical Characteristics115
Sex Differences in the Brain116
Can People or Activities Be ‘Left-Brained’?119
Brain Growth and Development120
The Left-Handed Adolescent121
Cognitive Development124
Semiotic and Information-Processing Approaches124
Jean Piaget’s Theory: An Appraisal125
Lev Vygotsky’s Theory: A Comparison127
Recent Advances in Theory and Research129
Moral Development132
Social and Emotional Development135
Social Development136
Emotional Development141
5Signs of Learning 144
Learning and Its Major Approaches144
Six Levels of Learning146
The Behaviourist Approach149
The Information Processing (Cognitive Constructivist) Approach153
The Cultural Constructivist Approach157
Comparing the Major Approaches to Learning159
The Signways of Learning164
The Linguistic Signway165
The Musical Signway168
The Logical-Mathematical Signway170
The Spatial Signway173
The Bodily-Kinesthetic Signway175
The Social-Personal Signway176
The Naturalistic Signway178
6Teaching as a Semiotic Venture 182
Signs in the Classroom182
Multiple Literacies and Intelligence(s)183
Transmediation189
Problem Solving193
Surprise and Experience195
Motivation198
Emotion203
Memory208
Testing and Assessment216
General Principles of Teaching221
7Signs of Exceptionality 225
The Concept of Exceptionality225
Special Education and Inclusion228
Coping inside the Inclusive Classroom231
Accommodations231
Modifications232
Strategies234
Promoting Social Development and Social Acceptance234
Using Labels with Exceptional Adolescents235
Jennifer, Diagnosed as Hard of Hearing236
Scott, Diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome236
Mike, Said to Have a Learning Disability237
Theresa, Said to be Gifted238
The Spectrum of Exceptionalities239
Introduction to Disability Studies241
Teaching Exceptional (and all) Students246
Teaching Involves the Semiotic Process of Generating Meanings247
Meaning Is Dependent on Culture and Context250
Meaning Making Is a Collective Process252
Meaning Making Is an Individual Process254
Meaning Is Established in Every Signway255
Things Not to Do256
Explicit Teaching257
Ability Grouping261
8Signs in Culture 265
Adolescents and Their Cultural Surround265
Sexuality269
Teenage Pregnancy270
Sexuality Diversity272
Hurting Oneself274
Dealing with Death275
Substance Abuse276
Suicide278
Hurting Others284
Physical and Emotional Abuse285
Bullying290
Sexism292
Racism293
Life after School294
Dropping Out294
Further Study and Other Alternatives298
School in Society299
9Signs of the Expert Teacher 302
Teaching as a Sociocultural Role302
Characteristics of Expertise in Teaching305
Progressing from Novice to Expert305
Qualities of Expert Teaching308
Suggestions for New Teachers310
Demonstrating Expertise310
Cooperative Learning311
Mastery Learning312
Homework313
The Parent–Teacher Interview314
Appraising One’s Own Performance316
Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies320
Teaching Satisfactions and Dissatisfactions323
Teacher Stress326
Factors Associated with Stress among Teachers327
Effects of Stress329
Dealing with Stress330
Surviving as a Teacher331
Glossary 335
References 345
Name Index 379
Subject Index 389
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
The main objective of this book is to inform future secondary school teachers about how best to teach adolescents. But what does ‘teach’ mean in this context? What are the defining characteristics of good teachers, and what must they know about organizing and managing classrooms? What should teachers know about the learning and development of adolescents in order to teach them effectively? What role does biology play in helping teachers understand adolescents? How do cultural views affect the mandated curriculum and the essential values of school? What can teachers do to promote their own stability and enthusiasm for teaching over the long term? These and other questions will be addressed in the following chapters.
As you can probably guess, there are no single or simple answers to these questions, as answers depend heavily on the supportive disciplines and theoretical perspectives brought to the topics at hand. Much of the content of this book is drawn from the discipline of educational psychology, but theory and research in related fields such as semiotics, evolutionary psychology, and anthropology often supplement that content. More significantly, the conception of educational psychology presented here is broader and deeper than the usual renditions appearing in most other textbooks in the discipline. The content is broader in that it addresses topics not usually included in such texts, such as communication and applied semiotics. The content is deeper in that throughout, the book offers a unifying theoretical perspective based on signs instead of a collection of often disconnected topics and findings.
Indeed, the basic claim of this book is that all we know or can claim to know is based in signs, a concept to be defined shortly. Put more bluntly, signs are all we have to work with. When we translate this statement into
the classroom context, we can ask the following questions: (a) What is an IQ of ‘85’ a sign of? (b) What is hitting a classmate a sign of? (c) What is tardiness a sign of? (d) What is hastily completed homework a sign of? And so on, ad infinitum. This focus on signs shifts the teacher’s attention from observed behaviours, which are always signs of something, to the meanings of those behaviours (or signs). In this way, meanings are based on signs and signs come to ‘mean’ through an inseparable combination of biological predispositions (i.e., heredity) and cultural experiences (i.e., environment). Teachers and students – as do humans everywhere –use signs unceasingly to guide their ongoing understandings and actions. Because this sense of sign may be new to you, I will sketch its broader context (see chapter 1 for further details). The formal study, discipline, or science of signs is called semiotics, from the original Greek term for sign. Although semiotics consists of several subcategories, the one of primary interest to us is applied semiotics, which is the application of semiotic concepts and practices to real-life matters. A further level of analysis brings us to a focus on human cognition and learning and to the subdiscipline that I have termed psychosemiotics (H.A. Smith, 2001). In my sense, psychosemiotics is the study of how humans learn, understand, and use the signs of culture. One central aim of this book is to apply the psychosemiotic perspective by arguing that adolescent learning and understanding is based in signs and their meanings.
Now, let me elaborate on the concept of sign. A sign can be defined (perhaps unsatisfactorily) as anything that stands for something else to somebody. For example, the word ‘tree’ is a linguistic sign that stands for something else, in this case a botanical entity that grows in the ground and that displays particular features distinguishing it from a flower or vegetable. Through cultural experience – which often includes supportive encounters with actual trees – we learn to associate the word with the entity. In this way, ‘tree’ is the sign for tree. However, it is important to note that a sign is not a sign unless it is understood as such. Thus the word ‘tree’ is meaningless (i.e., it is not a sign) to someone who speaks no English and who may never have seen a tree. Furthermore, a maple tree holds limited meaning to those who are familiar with some kinds of trees but who have never seen a maple tree.
To apply these notions to the classroom, teachers need experiences with myriad perceptual incidents before these incidents become meaningful to them and thus become signs from which they can then act. As will be argued in following chapters, the essence of most schooling is the teaching and learning of cultural signs, especially the symbolic systems
usually referred to as the three R’s: reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic (as described in chapter 1, symbols are a particular type of sign). But we shall also see that signs are far more pervasive than this and that a teacher’s effectiveness is tied closely to his or her ability to comprehend and act on a wide range of individual and cultural signs.
Before I summarize the chapter contents, I should address one more issue consistent with the psychosemiotic perspective. The standard approach to educational psychology focuses on abstract, rational cognition to the exclusion of underlying biological and often emotional factors that guide our thinking and behaviour. This approach is understandable, given the computer metaphor that has dominated cognitive psychology over the past forty years, but many human qualities are lost in this vision. Teachers and students are not stimulus-response mechanisms (the traditional behaviouristic stance); nor are they dispassionate information processors (the prevailing cognitive science view of human functioning). Rather, they are proactive agents guided by embodied thinking, contextual demands, and often non-conscious intentions. In this vein, the issues, research, and approaches to teaching addressed in this book highlight the forms and complexities of human meaning in context instead of stressing general principles of behaviour drawn from studies on mindful cognition and other features of the information processing paradigm.
Chapter 1 elaborates on the nature of the sign and its basis in semiotics. The ideas of school and teaching as signs are also introduced. Chapter 2 underscores the view that teaching is a profession grounded in signs of communication and relationship rather than in those of information. Non-verbal rather than verbal communication is emphasized because of the former’s tremendous power to influence human interactions both inside and outside the classroom. In chapter 3, as an extension and application of chapter 2, signs in classroom management and discipline are addressed. Successful teaching is often characterized by the ability to use this category of signs quickly, quietly, and effectively.
Chapters 4 and 5 present some of the more standard content of educational psychology textbooks, albeit with this difference: they place more emphasis on the roles of biology and emotion in both development and learning. In chapter 4, signs in adolescent development are presented, with attention paid to both biological and cultural aspects of development. In this analysis, development is seen as occurring on both emotional and cognitive planes. Chapter 5 addresses various signs in learning and thinking, including the many ways in which adolescents
learn and come to learn. Different modes of inference are highlighted, along with capabilities of the seven signways.
In chapters 6 and 7, implications of the principles of development and learning are explored. The application of the psychosemiotic perspective to classroom instruction, and related processes, are presented in chapter 6; signs of exceptionality are summarized in chapter 7. The usual approach to understanding exceptionality is to interpret human differences relative to signs drawn from established norms, but questions can be asked about who determines exceptionality, on what bases, and for what reasons. This area of inquiry, usually termed disability studies, approaches signs from a critical interpretive perspective.
The final two chapters focus on signs that extend beyond the classroom but that have significant impact on students’ and teachers’ lives inside the classroom. Chapter 8 addresses various cultural influences, such as drugs and sex, that often preoccupy adolescents on a daily basis, while chapter 9 considers the qualities of the expert teacher and some of the steps that teachers can take to safeguard their physical and emotional health in a demanding profession. Both chapters emphasize once again the pervasive influence that cultural signs have on human cognition and behaviour.
The book’s contents and chapter ordering (the latter based roughly on the ‘concerns’ model described by Fuller and Bown [1975]) are intended primarily for pre-service teachers at the secondary school level. Readers interested in the semiotics of teaching, learning, and living can read the chapters in any order according to individual needs or interests. To promote further reading and reflection on selected topics, I have listed several key references at the end of each chapter.
The book’s psychosemiotic perspective is reflected in the following five themes, which provide a conceptual overview of the chapters that follow.
1 A Semiotic View of Schooling and Teaching: An introduction to the semiotic view grounded in signs, and to how psychosemiotics in particular can inform us about the cultural processes of schooling and teaching.
Chapter 1. Semiotics of Schooling and Teaching
2 Signs in Communication and Classroom Management: If communication and relationship are viewed as the essence of teaching, then certain signs become critical for knowing and managing both students and the curriculum.
Chapter 2. Signs in Communication
Chapter 3. Signs in Class Management and Discipline
3 Biological and Cultural Signs in Adolescence: Teachers are faced constantly with the need to understand signs related to the ongoing and multifaceted processes characteristic of adolescent development and learning.
Chapter 4. Signs in Adolescent Development
Chapter 5. Signs of Learning
4 Applying Signs at the Teaching Learning Interface: In formal teaching situations, teachers apply what they know about development and learning across a very broad spectrum of human interest and capacity.
Chapter 6. Teaching as a Semiotic Venture
Chapter 7. Signs of Exceptionality
5 Cultural Signs beyond the Classroom: Learning and teaching are affected by many powerful cultural factors that intrude constantly in the lives of both adolescents and teachers.
Chapter 8. Signs in Culture
Chapter 9. Signs of the Expert Teacher
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
I am most grateful to the late Dick Hopkins, who enthusiastically granted full access to his high school class in Manufacturing Technology for research purposes. When my colleague Ann Marie Hill and I conducted our study in the mid-1990s on an exemplary classroom in Technological Education, we chose Dick’s class based on his reputation as an outstanding teacher and a 1994 winner of the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence. Results of our research – which was supported by Strategic Grant No. 812-95-0004 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada – were reported widely (e.g., Hill & Smith, 1998). These results include a video production, presentations to both teaching and academic communities, published articles, and insights as presented in the following chapters. The photographs in this book constitute a small sample of the more than six hundred images that I captured in the course of the research. For all of the images and the accompanying videotapes and audiotapes created by both Ann Marie and myself, I am most grateful to Dick and his students. Dick’s sudden and unexpected passing in 2002 shocked all of us who knew him, but his example of an excellent and dedicated teacher lives on.
This text is a major revision, with a dramatically altered focus, of an unpublished work created jointly more than fifteen years ago with another colleague, Nancy Hutchinson. Recently, Nancy kindly granted me full access to the chapters and content for which she had been primarily responsible in that original manuscript. Although every chapter has been revised and updated significantly in order to conform with the new, overarching semiotic perspective, I am sure that some of the remaining material still reflects Nancy’s hand.
I am most grateful to those key individuals who made substantial con-
tributions to the present work. First, my spouse Karin Steiner brought a critical eye and careful reading to large portions of this manuscript. Of course, the responsibility is mine alone for any lingering mis-statements and errors. Second, two anonymous reviewers offered both highly supportive comments on the manuscript and invaluable suggestions for its improvement. I very much appreciated reading the analyses of these rare individuals who were well informed in the two often-disparate disciplines of educational psychology and semiotics. Third, editorial staff at the University of Toronto Press were essential in seeing this work through to completion, especially Editor Len Husband for his close attention in shepherding me through the various publication processes and Managing Editor Frances Mundy for her careful work on copyediting and production. Thank you all.
TEACHING ADOLESCENTS:
EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE OF SIGNS
This page intentionally left blank
1 Semiotics of Schooling and Teaching
MARY
Mary Maarten had to finish some photocopying before school began, and she was hung up in traffic. As she finally turned onto the street leading to Holleford Secondary School, she was immediately aware of the many signs of school: a street sign with the silhouette of a running child; streams of young people flowing in one direction with their multicoloured backpacks; yellow school buses competing with other vehicles for road space; hundreds of cigarette butts scattered on the sidewalk just outside school property; and the large main entrance with the school crest containing the Latin phrase Sapere aude, which Mary understood to mean ‘dare to be wise.’ As she entered the main door of the school, she was aware of the busy general office on the left containing the administrative suites. On the wall straight ahead the large, glassed-in trophy case appeared with its various cups and trophies plus a large wooden sign proclaiming ‘Home of the Hawks’ (the name of the school’s senior sports teams). As she hurried to the photocopier in the teachers’ staff room, she reflected once more on how close the science and English classrooms were to the front of the school compared with her own Tourism and Hospitality class. Now, just fifteen minutes to the first bell of the day.
Semiotics
This book brings a semiotic point of view to teaching in secondary schools and to understanding adolescents. This perspective emphasizes the signs that are inherent in any given situation as well as the interpretations and actions that result from attending to those signs. In everyday
life we all respond constantly to the unceasing presence of signs; that said, teachers have a professional responsibility not only to respond to signs but also to actively and deliberately teach them to others. In the brief case of Mary, we saw how her world as a professional educator was perfused with signs – that is, signals or clues – about the nature of school and the cultural values attending this particular setting. In this book we shall be emphasizing the forms of these various signs – which range from testosterone to testing – and how experienced teachers interpret and respond to them. A central argument in the following chapters is that success in teaching depends heavily on the ability to handle signs of many kinds in the processes of instruction and management.
This chapter introduces some basic concepts concerning the discipline of semiotics and the idea of the sign as promulgated by Charles Peirce. Also, two subsidiary levels of semiotics will be addressed briefly: applied semiotics as one of three branches of semiotics, and psychosemiotics as a subdiscipline of applied semiotics. The final sections of the chapter will show how psychosemiotics can inform us about the cultural processes of schooling and teaching from the early history of formal education until today. As examples, we will discuss the early Western cultures of the Middle East, Greece, Rome, and Europe.
A definition seems in order at this juncture: semiotics is usually defined as the doctrine, study, or science of signs. Less formally, semiotics can be described as the study of all systems of signs (such as mathematics, architecture, language, music, and dance) and symbols (which are often taken as special cases of signs), as well as the study of how signs are used in generating meanings and messages. The oldest known formal application of semiotics – the term is derived from the Greek word for sign –began with the reading of bodily signs in the medical practices of Hippocrates (460–377 BC) and Galen (c AD 130–200). Although other historical giants such as Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Roger Bacon all addressed the idea of signs in one form or another, the history of modern semiotics began near the end of the seventeenth century, when John Locke (1632–1704) used the word semiotic to define one of three divisions of science (Nidditch, 1975). Two hundred years later, around 1897, Charles Peirce (1839–1914) picked up on Locke’s insight and described semiotics (although Peirce always used the term semeiotic) as ‘the quasi-necessary, or formal, doctrine of signs’ (Hartshorne & Weiss 1932, 2: 134). The term semiotics came into general use in 1962 following the first American conference on the discipline (Sebeok, 1986). Today, semiotics is being applied in such diverse areas as forensic anthropology, software development, medical diagnostics, theatrical
production, and commercial advertising. Indeed, signs and their meanings are absolutely everywhere.
An alternative conception of semiotics resides in psycholinguistics, in other forms of linguistic analysis, and in many structuralist accounts. This view of semiotics is represented by the writings (and followers) of Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), the founder of the perspective known as semiology (Saussure, 1915/1966; Silverman, 1983). According to this approach, semiology is a subset of psycholinguistics. In contrast, the view this book will take is that linguistics and all forms of language use are in fact a subset of semiotics – a position consistent with Peirce’s notion of the discipline.
Semiotics can be divided into a number of subdisciplines such as zoosemiotics, phytosemiotics, neurosemiotics, and ethnosemiotics. However, in this book the subdiscipline of psychosemiotics will be the only one of concern to us. Elsewhere (H.A. Smith, 2001), psychosemiotics has been defined as the study of how humans learn, understand, and use the signs of culture. In this view, meaning at the cognitive level is derived from the countless signs that are everywhere around us. Our effective functioning as human beings is depends entirely on our ability to comprehend these signs. Indeed, the essence of schooling is the teaching and learning of cultural signs, especially through the symbolic systems usually represented as the three R’s (reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic), which are often proclaimed as the cornerstones of education. But because signs are far more pervasive than the two formal symbol systems of language and logic, the effective teacher of adolescents is a keen reader of signs of all kinds. In the next section, the nature of the sign and its significance for teachers and for teaching will be addressed.
Nature of the Sign
The concept of sign was introduced earlier. In this section I elaborate on it in view of its central role in this book. The notion of sign this book will adopt is one that reflects the triadic, irreducible, and unceasing process that Peirce (1992, 1998) described on various occasions. That is, the sign, which never stops growing and changing, has three constituents, which cannot be decomposed further without destroying the sign. For our purposes, I will use Peirce’s well-known definition of 1897:
A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody, that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more
Figure 1.1.The sign according to Peirce
Student sees test papers on the teacher’s desk
REPRESENTAMEN (R)
OBJECT (O) DeterminationDetermination
Interpretation
Tests are used to evaluate the student’s progress
INTERPRETANT (I)
Student decides to study tonight to prepare for test
developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of the representamen. (quoted in Buchler, 1955, 99)
This conception of the sign is shown in figure 1.1, together with an example of the sign in use. One point should be made about the terminology associated with this definition. The word sign is generally used by Peircean scholars (e.g., Corrington, 1993; Serson, 1997) to refer to the entire triad of constituents, whereas representamen (also called a sign in the above definition) is used to denote the first of the three constituents. Thus, the representamen is taken as the sign in an existing form that is brought to a given situation, whereas the interpretant is the sign in its more developed form following an acquaintance with the object. The interpretant becomes the representamen at the next involvement with the same object.
In the example presented in figure 1.1, and beginning with the representamen, the test papers on the teacher’s desk are a sign to the student who is already familiar with testing and exams. The object that deter-
mines these test papers is the school’s mandate to evaluate students’ academic progress. The student acts on the sign of the test papers by resolving to study tonight for the test that she expects will take place in tomorrow’s class. The student’s decision to study is her interpretation of the school’s testing mandate. In this way, the representamen (the test papers) is inextricably linked to both an object (the school’s need for testing) and an interpretant (the decision to study in order to do well on the test). Furthermore, every testing occasion broadens and deepens the sign for the student. Although the sign may appear as a static entity in the definition and portrayal shown in figure 1.1, the thrust of Peirce’s formulation is one of continuous change and development. Every time we are exposed to a situation, our knowledge and awareness of the situation grows. This semiotic process of ongoing and unceasing sign development is called semiosis, which is akin to learning and is the most fundamental of human processes.
In this way we are constantly aware of and responding to signs of all kinds such as cloud formations, traffic signals, smiles from Aunt Jemmie, Montreal Canadiens sweaters, and growling dogs. All of these signs impart meaning of some sort and result in some kind of action. These signs become meaningful through the interaction of biological predispositions and cultural experiences, both of which we shall examine in later chapters. Note well that Peirce placed particular importance on non-verbal signs of all kinds. Unlike many scholars and researchers both past and present, he gave no privileged status to verbal or literary texts and assigned great value to non-verbal and embodied signs (Sykes, 2000). In taking this position he was a century ahead of his time (see Lakoff & Johnson, 1999).
Applied Semiotics
One further aspect of psychosemiotics is worth addressing before we consider signs of schooling and teaching: placement within the academic disciplines. Because of its focus on mind, body, and meaning, psychosemiotics draws on the theory and concepts of both semiotics and cognitive science (which some theorists view as a branch of semiotics). Thus, psychosemiotics is especially close to the subdiscipline of cultural psychology – which should not be confused with ‘cross-cultural’ psychology, which sees culture as an independent variable rather than as an intrinsic element of cognition. Within semiotics, psychosemioticians and their associated educational researchers and practitioners belong to the field of applied semiotics. But what is applied semiotics? It is probably Charles
Morris who coined this compound term, when many years ago he described semiotics as either pure, or descriptive, or applied. According to Morris, applied semiotic(s) is ‘the application of semiotic as an instrument [and] utilizes knowledge about signs for the accomplishment of various purposes’ (cited in Sebeok, 1990, 324). From this standpoint, applied semiotics has a practical bent of the sort that often characterizes research in such fields as education, law, medicine, and marketing. A second classification system for semiotics appeared in an undated early-1990s guide to semiotic studies at Indiana University. It included the word ‘practical’ as a central characteristic of applied semiotics:
Semiotics may also be regarded as a constellation of beliefs, values, and techniques which serve as a unifying matrix for all knowledge. The search for theoretical foundations and for an interdisciplinary method among the sciences and humanities is called General Semiotics. Another branch of the field, Comparative Semiotics, deals with the establishment of common methodological techniques. A third, Applied Semiotics, involves the practical applications of empirical researches in various organisms, channels of communication, sensory modalities, and different types of codes, as these are found throughout various media.
A third way to classify semiotics was suggested by Roland Posner (1996), who stated that among other things, applied semiotics involves the creation of novel sign systems:
It is the general task of sign theory (semiotics) to explore possible structures and functions of sign systems (theoretical semiotics), to describe and compare actual sign systems (descriptive semiotics), and to recommend particular sign systems for particular purposes or, if necessary, to devise new sign systems (applied semiotics). (10)
From these and other statements concerning the nature of applied semiotics, it appears that there is little consensus about what constitutes this branch. Sebeok (1990) proposed that three intermingling criteria qualify an activity as applied semiotics: policy, social action, and information. Thus it can be argued that there are free-flowing exchanges among the various categories of semiotics (however they may be defined), and that pragmatic and practical objectives can lead to action and policy initiatives. For most people engaged in educational inquiry, the developing understandings that prompt change in educational processes can be referred to generally as applied semiotics.
Signs in Schooling
The purpose of this section is to demonstrate the critical and essential role played by signs in schools and schooling ever since societies founded schools to meet their cultural requirements. To this end, I shall begin by making an important distinction between schooling and education before addressing aspects of school culture. I shall then offer a brief history of Western schooling, with a focus on the Mediterranean area, where this tradition was born. Finally, I shall address from a psychosemiotic perspective features of adolescent presence in modern secondary schools.
Distinguishing between Education and Schooling
In its most general sense, education refers to the unceasing everyday experiences with cultural knowledge and to the learning of that knowledge. The point is to equip citizens to become socially competent. In this view, education is the ongoing natural process of cultural assimilation. It involves the development of one’s knowledge, skills, mind, character, and so on (e.g., Levinson & Holland, 1996) and can be seen as constituting the bulk of human endeavour. In its narrower sense, education is taken to mean the formal structures and processes established by society to ensure the continuity of approved knowledge for the next generation of citizens. Thus education is often equated with formal education as reflected by the institution of schooling. In this book I will tend to use education in the latter, narrower sense, although my biases tend towards the former general meaning.
What, then, are the primary features of education? And what should be the objectives of schooling? In the psychosemiotic view, education is a semiotic process grounded in meaning making; its raison d’être is the learning of signs and the making of meanings across the full range of human intellectual capacity. These forms of capacity have been described as biopsychological potentials that manifest themselves as multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983) and that connect the individual to the outside world through representational modes called signways (H.A. Smith, 2001). From this point of view, the principal mission of a full educational system is to promote the mastery of signs and symbols across a broad range of human endeavour, including not only language and mathematics but also other domains such as cultural myths, music, rituals, and ways of being.
Yet, the learning of signs of many kinds contrasts sharply with the tra-
Another random document with no related content on Scribd:
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 93, No. 570, April, 1863
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 93, No. 570, April, 1863
Author: Various
Release date: April 7, 2024 [eBook #73347]
Language: English
Credits: Richard Tonsing, Jonathan Ingram, Brendan OConnor, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE, VOL. 93, NO. 570, APRIL, 1863 ***
Transcriber’s Note:
New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.
BLACKWOOD’S
MAGAZINE.
CONTENTS.
S D J , 397
M C ’ M P II., 414
S J G , 436
T I C , 457
C P XV., 471
N . XX. O S -C .
N . XXI. T M M .
S ’ L B , 480
T Y - M , S -W C , 499
M B , 521
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45 GEORGE STREET. AND 37 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
To whom all Communications (post paid) must be addressed. SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE.
SENSATION DIPLOMACY IN JAPAN.[1]
1. ‘The Capital of the Tycoon.’ By Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B. London: Longmans.
It is one of the most singular features of our institutions that, when our diplomatic relations with remote and semi-barbarous countries become so involved that even the Government is at a loss to know what course to pursue, the public take up the question in a confident off-hand way; and though, by the force of circumstances, deprived of the information possessed by the Foreign Office, they do not hesitate either to denounce or to approve the policy recommended by those who have studied the subject on the spot, and who alone can be competent to form an opinion on the matter. It is true that papers are occasionally laid before Parliament, but what proportion of those who hold such decided views have read them? In the case of the Arrow, when people voted for peace or war with China, how many members of Parliament had informed themselves on the merits of the question? and what did their constituents know about it? Yet so it
is; the ultimate decision upon all important and complicated questions of foreign policy necessarily rests with the most illinformed class. If they generally decide wrong, we must console ourselves by the consideration that even free institutions have their drawbacks, but in compensation have made us so rich and powerful, that we can always scramble out of any scrape they may get us into. In countries despotically governed, the merits of a secret diplomacy are inestimable; but where the Government is responsible, though it would be difficult to substitute an open system, secret diplomacy is attended with grave inconveniences, for it becomes impossible to furnish that public who sit, as it were, in appeal, with the whole facts of the case upon which they are called to decide. It is then clearly the interest of the Foreign Office to encourage the dissemination of accurate political information in a popular form, when the publication of it does not involve a breach of confidence; and inasmuch as Blue-Books are not generally considered light or agreeable reading, and are somewhat inaccessible, the diplomatist who has a political story to tell, and can do it without betraying State secrets, is a public benefactor. In these days of official responsibility, it is not only due to the public but to himself that he should have an opportunity of stating his case. It may happen that his conduct will be brought publicly in question and decided upon before he has an opportunity of laying before the world all the facts. Great injustice is frequently done to officials serving in distant parts of the world, who even at last are unable to remove the erroneous impressions formed upon incorrect or insufficient information. This has been specially the case in China and the East: a policy based upon an acquaintance with the local conditions as intimate as it was possible for a foreigner to obtain, has been upset by a majority of ignorant legislators, who too often receive their impressions from superficial travellers, or residents with special interests at stake. It is clear that the opinion of a merchant is not so likely to be right in diplomatic questions as that of a trained official, who has passed half his life in studying the language, institutions, and people of the country to which he has been accredited; yet when it comes to be a question between the mercantile community and the minister, the latter is in danger of going to the wall.
While, on the one hand, the traditions of the Foreign Office are opposed to what may be termed diplomatic literature—and they dole
