A pragmatist semiotic analysis of secondary students’ embodied and material reasoning in astronomy

Abstract

Background: In learning astronomy, students need to shift between 3D and 2D representations involving complex interactions between the body and material environment. Little attention has been paid to the iconic nature of this astronomical diagramming. Purpose: This research explored the value for students of diagramming to reveal the structural relationships of astronomical phenomena. The study aimed to 1) operationalise Charles Peirce’s pragmatist semiotics to analyse students’ bodily and material reasoning 2) identify the iconic nature of students’ diagramming through Stjernfelt’s activating of Peirce’s iconicity. Sample: Two students (a pair) from a class of 30 Year 7 students (12 years old) and their teacher (1) from a government secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. Design and Methods: A micro-ethnographic approach to the analysis of video/audio records and student artefacts was utilised in the context of three moments from a 1 hr lesson on astronomy. This data was analysed using Peirce’s sign types of icon, index and symbol to construct a triadic account of the bodily and material nature of students’ reasoning as diagramming. Results: The two students determined, by revealing structural relationships with their bodies as well as a mini-whiteboard and a torch and globe, that the Sun is higher in the sky in Summer than Winter due to the Earth’s rotational axis with a tilt (of 23.5 degrees) and its elliptical orbit around the Sun. Conclusion: For students to transduct between 3D and 2D astronomical representations, they need to coordinate space-based and Earth-based perspectives through bodily and material diagramming that makes apparent key structural relationships (i.e. iconicity).