In: Semiotics Theory and Applications ISBN 978-1-61728-992-7
Editor: Steven C. Hamel © 2011 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Chapter 10
THE ROLE OF SIGN VEHICLES IN MEDIATING
TEACHERS‟ MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM SOLVING
Sinikka Kaartinen and Timo Latomaa
University of Oulu, FinlandABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the basic semiotic concepts of sign, sign vehicle, meaning
content, meaning giving and shared meaning as understood in the European semiotic
tradition, and investigates the role of semiotic tools as sign vehicles in mediating in-
service teachers‘ mathematical problem solving. Our particular interest is to interpret the
basic semiotic concepts from the cultural historical perspective for the analysis of
discourses. The participants in our study were a group of teachers participating in an in-
service course whose pedagogy draws on the sociocultural perspective. A specific
discourse analysis method to unravel the nature of the semiotic tool as a sign vehicle was
developed for the study. The dimensions of the discourse analysis method, grounded in
the discourse data of the study, were discourse moves, the role of the semiotic vehicle
and the cultural focus of interaction. The results of the study suggest that socially shared
meaning making around the semiotic sign vehicle consisted of three types of content
episodes, namely problem solving, clarification through mathematizing and clarification
through hands-on activities. Four different participant roles emerged in the analysis of
discourse moves. These roles were the tutor, clarifier, questioner and silent supporter. On
the whole, the semiotic sign vehicle and discourse moves investigated in this study
supported socially shared meaning making and hence teacher learning in the problem
solving situation in this study.1. INTRODUCTION
This study is based on the earlier work of the first writer (Kaartinen, 2004) and it
emphasizes the role of in-service teacher education for enhancing teachers‘ participation in
e- mail: [email protected], [email protected]