Experiential Learning in Teaching: Using Peircean Semiotics to Inform Educational Research Design

• In Event: Semiotic Understandings of Education

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to show how Peircean semiotics can inform the design of studies that examine experiential learning in teaching. Peirce’s semiotics provides a means for analyzing the relationship among perception, behavior, cognition, and emotion: four components of Kolb’s theory of experiential learning. This analysis will draw on three key concepts from Peircean semiotics: 1) the triadic formulation of signs; 2) Peirce’s classes of signs; and 3) immediate, dynamic, and final interpretants. These concepts will be used to 1) illustrate experiential learning through situated learning, experience, and cognition; 2) describe a developmental progression of experience in teaching, and 3) explain how experiences are clarified and made explicit.

Author

• John E. Henning, Ohio University