Semiotics In Mathematics Education

This volume discusses semiotics in mathematics education as an activity with a formal sign system, in which each sign represents something else. Theories presented by Saussure, Peirce, Vygotsky and other writers on semiotics are summarized in their relevance to the teaching and learning of mathematics. The significance of signs for mathematics education lies in their ubiquitous use in every branch of mathematics. Such use involves seeing the general in the particular, a process that is not always clear to learners. Therefore, in several traditional frameworks, semiotics has the potential to serve as a powerful conceptual lens in investigating diverse topics in mathematics education research. Topics that are implicated include (but are not limited to): the birth of signs; embodiment, gestures and artifacts; segmentation and communicative fields; cultural mediation; social semiotics; linguistic theories; chains of signification; semiotic bundles; relationships among various sign systems; intersubjectivity; diagrammatic and inferential reasoning; and semiotics as the focus of innovative learning and teaching materials.

This book discusses a significant area of mathematics education research in the last two decades and presents the types of semiotic theories that are employed in mathematics education. Following on the summary of significant issues presented in the Topical Survey, Semiotics in Mathematics Education, this book not only introduces readers to semiotics as the science of signs, but it also elaborates on issues that were highlighted in the Topical Survey. In addition to an introduction and a closing chapter, it presents 17 chapters based on presentations from Topic Study Group 54 at the ICME-13 (13th International Congress on Mathematical Education). The chapters are divided into four major sections, each of which has a distinct focus. After a brief introduction, each section starts with a chapter or chapters of a theoretical nature, followed by others that highlight the significance and usefulness of the relevant theory in empirical research.

Semiotics as a Tool for Learning Mathematics is a collection of ten theoretical and empirical chapters, from researchers all over the world, who are interested in semiotic notions and their practical uses in mathematics classrooms. Collectively, they present a semiotic contribution to enhance pedagogical aspects both for the teaching of school mathematics and for the preparation of pre-service teachers. This enhancement involves the use of diagrams to visualize implicit or explicit mathematical relations and the use of mathematical discourse to facilitate the emergence of inferential reasoning in the process of argumentation. It will also facilitate the construction of proofs and solutions of mathematical problems as well as the progressive construction of mathematical conceptions that, eventually, will approximate the concept(s) encoded in mathematical symbols. These symbols hinge not only of mental operations but also on indexical and iconic aspects; aspects which often are not taken into account when working on the meaning of mathematical symbols. For such an enhancement to happen, it is necessary to transform basic notions of semiotic theories to make them usable for mathematics education. In addition, it is also necessary to back theoretical claims with empirical data. This anthology attempts to deal with such a conjunction. Overall, this book can be used as a theoretical basis for further semiotic considerations as well as for the design of different ways of teaching mathematical concepts.

Current interest in semiotics is undoubtedly related to our increasing awareness that our manners of thinking and acting in our world are deeply indebted to a variety of signs and sign systems (language included) that surround us. Since mathematics is something that we accomplish through written, oral, bodily and other signs, semiotics appears well suited to furthering our understanding of the mathematical processes of thinking, symbolizing and communicating. Resorting to different semiotic perspectives (e. g., Peirce's, Vygotsky's, Saussure's), the authors of this book deal with questions about the teaching and learning of mathematics as well as the history and epistemology of the discipline. Mathematics discourse and thinking and the technologically-mediated self of mathematical cultural practices are examined through key concepts such as metaphor, intentionality, gestures, interaction, sign-use, and meaning. The cover picture comes from Jacob Leupold's (1727) Theatrum Arithmetico-Geometrico. It conveys the cultural, historical, and embodied aspects of mathematical thinking variously emphasized by the contributors of this book.

In this book, Raymond Duval shows how his theory of registers of semiotic representation can be used as a tool to analyze the cognitive processes through which students develop mathematical thinking. To Duval, the analysis of mathematical knowledge is in its essence the analysis of the cognitive synergy between different kinds of semiotic representation registers, because the mathematical way of thinking and working is based on transformations of semiotic representations into others. Based on this assumption, he proposes the use of semiotics to identify and develop the specific cognitive processes required to the acquisition of mathematical knowledge. In this volume he presents a method to do so, addressing the following questions: • How to situate the registers of representation regarding the other semiotic “theories” • Why use a semio-cognitive analysis of the mathematical activity to teach mathematics • How to distinguish the different types of registers • How to organize learning tasks and activities which take into account the registers of representation • How to make an analysis of the students’ production in terms of registers Building upon the contributions he first presented in his classic book Sémiosis et pensée humaine, in this volume Duval focuses less on theoretical issues and more on how his theory can be used both as a tool for analysis and a working method to help mathematics teachers apply semiotics to their everyday work. He also dedicates a complete chapter to show how his theory can be applied as a new strategy to teach geometry. “Understanding the Mathematical Way of Thinking – The Registers of Semiotic Representations is an essential work for mathematics educators and mathematics teachers who look for an introduction to Raymond Duval’s cognitive theory of semiotic registers of representation, making it possible for them to see and teach mathematics with fresh eyes.” Professor Tânia M. M. Campos, PHD.

The advancement of a scientific discipline depends not only on the "big heroes" of a discipline, but also on a community’s ability to reflect on what has been done in the past and what should be done in the future. This volume combines perspectives on both. It celebrates the merits of Michael Otte as one of the most important founding fathers of mathematics education by bringing together all the new and fascinating perspectives, created through his career as a bridge builder in the field of interdisciplinary research and cooperation. The perspectives elaborated here are for the greatest part motivated by the impressing variety of Otte’s thoughts; however, the idea is not to look back, but to find out where the research agenda might lead us in the future. This volume provides new sources of knowledge based on Michael Otte’s fundamental insight that understanding the problems of mathematics education – how to teach, how to learn, how to communicate, how to do, and how to represent mathematics – depends on means, mainly philosophical and semiotic, that have to be created first of all, and to be reflected from the perspectives of a multitude of diverse disciplines.

Mathematics education research routinely receives the attention of educators, mathematicians, linguists, psychologists, anthropologists, and others. In this volume, the induction of students into mathematical meaning-making is studied through the prism of these several disciplines. What unites all such approaches to pedagogy and to the assessment of pegagogy- and to the subject matter of mathematics itself - is semiotics. Myrdene Anderson teaches at Purdue University, Adalira Saenz-Ludlow teaches at the U of North Carolina, Shea Zetlweger is former chair at Mount Union College, Ohio, Victor V. Cifarelli teaches at the U. ol North Carolina.