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

Figures & data

Table 1. The object-representamen relationship. Adapted from Legg (2017) and Jappy (2013).

	Icon	Index	Symbol
Definition	Signify objects by resembling them structurally. Parts are related in the same way that the objects represented by those parts are themselves related.	Signify their object by being in some way directly connected with them.	Signify their objects by some convention or habit that is arbitrary.
Affordance	Enable us to exercise our imagination, and think about what is possible because their objects may or may not exist.	Connect us with particular objects in the world because of their direct pointing function.	Give us general concepts because their defining conventions are repeatable.
Example	Map.	Wind vane.	The word ‘star’.

Figure 1. Final drawing consisting of five clusters of representations.

Photograph of students’ final drawing on the mini-whiteboard that shows the five clusters of representations as unpacked in Table 2.

Table 2. Iconic relationships between and within the five clusters of representations.

Cluster	Iconic relationship
1–3	This depicts the structural relationship between the Sun (1) and the Earth’s elliptical orbit (3) around the Sun (1).
1/3–2	This depicts the structural relationship between the Earth on its rotational axis with a tilt of 23.5 degrees (2) and its elliptical orbit (3) around the Sun (1). Note: students did not actually indicate 23.5 degrees as the precise axial tilt.
1/3–4	This depicts the structural relationship between the Earth on its tilted rotational axis during Summer in Australia when the Sun is higher in the sky (but also Winter in Australia when the Sun is lower in the sky) (4) and its elliptical orbit (3) around the Sun (1).
1/3–5	This depicts the structural relationship between the Earth on its tilted rotational axis during Winter in Australia (5) and the Earth’s elliptical orbit (3) around the Sun (1).
1/3–4/5	This depicts the structural relationship between the Earth on its tilted rotational axis during Winter (5) and Summer in Australia (4) and the Earth’s elliptical orbit (3) around the Sun (1).

Figure 2. S1 spins the globe in an anticlockwise direction (as indicated by our dashed arrow).

Screenshot of video footage of Student 1 spinning the globe in an anticlockwise direction.

Figure 3. S1 holds the globe, looks at it and places it down and then draws the tilt (rotational axis of the Earth) and labels it.

Screenshot of video footage of Student 1 holding the globe, looking at it and placing it down and then drawing the tilt (rotational axis) of the Earth and labelling it with ‘Tilt’.

Figure 4. S1 draws arrows to indicate the anticlockwise direction of the Earth’s elliptical orbit of the Sun.

Screenshot of video footage of Student 1 drawing arrows to indicate the anticlockwise direction of the Earth’s elliptical orbit of the Sun.

Figure 5. S1 draws the astronomical position of Earth in Summer in Australia (exclaiming ‘And here, it’s Summer in Australia’) and the astronomical position of Earth in Winter in Australia (labelling ‘Winter in Australia’).

Screenshot of video footage of Student 1 drawing the astronomical position of Earth in Summer in Australia and the astronomical position of Earth in Winter in Australia.

Figure 6. S2 draws circles on the ‘Summer in Australia’ and ‘Winter in Australia’ Earths to mark Australia’s location relative to the Sun’s incoming energy.

Screenshot of video footage of Student 2 drawing circles on the ‘Summer in Australia’ and ‘Winter in Australia’ Earths to mark Australia’s location relative to the Sun’s incoming energy.

Figure 7. S1 using the globe and torch to gesture the exposure of Australia to the Sun’s light rays in Summer. We call this material-embodied diagramming process ‘light rays’.

Screenshot of video footage of Student 1 using the globe and torch to gesture the exposure of Australia to the Sun’s light rays in Summer.

Figure 8. S2 using the globe and torch to show the ‘higher’ angle of the Sun’s light rays hitting Australia in Summer.

Figure 9. S1 tilting the globe from its orbital axis to emphasise the angle at which the Sun’s light rays hit Australia in Winter.

Figure 10. S1 rotating the whole globe not on its axis but from its base (as indicated by our dashed arrow) while shining the torch at Australia.

Screenshot of video footage of Student 1 rotating the whole globe not on its axis but from its base while shining the torch at the Australia’s location on the globe.

Figure 11. S2 gesturing and drawing the rotation of the Earth on its axis (as indicated by our dashed arrow).

Screenshot of video footage of Student 2 gesturing and drawing the rotation of the Earth on its axis.

Figure 12. S2 gesturing and drawing the ‘upward’ angle of Australia on Earth relative to the Sun in Summer (as indicated by our dashed arrow).

Screenshot of video footage of Student 2 gesturing and drawing the ‘upward’ angle of Australia on Earth relative to the Sun in Summer.

Figure 13. S2 drawing the position of Australia (green circle) during the Winter.

Screenshot of video footage of Student 2 drawing the position of Australia during the Winter.

Legg, C. 2017. “Diagrammatic Teaching: The Role of Iconic Signs in Meaningful Pedagogy.” In Edusemiotics – a Handbook, edited by I. Semetsky, 29–45. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1495-6_3.

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Jappy, T. 2013. Introduction to Peircean Visual Semiotics. London: Bloomsbury.

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