Creativity and innovation in modern pedagogics A cognitive and semiotic approach to teaching
Benny Bang Carlseni
Abstract
Creativity and innovation are keywords in the international discourse of pedagogics, which is also
inspired by the OECD “Definition and Selection of competencies” (DeSeCo) project. Therefore,
creativity and innovation are now in the school curriculum in many countries. Pupils must learn to
think creatively and develop their creativity for the benefit of the society. The exercise itself may be
legitimate, but the question is whether it is possible to immediately foster creativity and creative
learning environments without creating the necessary conditions proved to develop innovative potential in pupils, university students, and teachers.
In an American context, there seem to be no reservations about the foregoing trends. For example,
Richard Florida writes (2002), in the introduction to his book, The Rise of the Creative Class: “We
live in a time of great promise. We have evolved economic and social systems that tap human creativity and make use of it as never before”. In other words, innovation and creativity have become an
economic issue targeted and measured as a core skill (“competence”) of executive activity in the
international discourse of pedagogics. However, as an educational, sociological, and critical consideration, one may critize the fact that economic paradigms in educational thinking have now become
so prevalent and colonizing that the individuals are being weighed and measured according to the
creative and productive energy they bring to the community, as early as possible, in order for their
society to continue being competitive. From a critical viewpoint, the obsession with innovation may
be seen in the context of a neo-liberal discourse on “Human Resource Management”. On the other
hand, both creativity and innovation may be considered as goods and as worthy skills that may contribute to the development of the individual´s learning capacity, personality, and identity.
What are the specific dimensions of all forms of creativity and innovational practice? Four categories are considered to be essential in a pedagocial perspective:
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Analogical and metaphorical thinking, divergent thinking, sign making of multimodality, and the
ability of combination i.e. to be able to shift perspective, to face a problem from a different point of
view with reference to the term ‘bisociation’.
(Kupferberg, 1996 and others)
This paper attempts to challenge the traditional paradigm of teaching. This approach to the concept
of analogies/metaphors as a new strategy of pedagogics relies primarily on newly founded theories
of cognition and semiotics. What are the distinctive marks in the modern conception of analogy?
What gives an analogy power and interest in a pedagogical sense?
Professor Douglas Hofstadter and Professor Emmanuel Sander (2013) point out that the power of an
analogy “comes from the fact that it sees beyond the surface differences of two situations to reveal
something deep and hidden they have in common” (Surfaces and Essences. Analogy as the fuel and
fire of thinking, 2013). According to Hofstadter and Sander (and others) our everyday life, capacity
for thinking and reasoning suggest the force of analogy as a core of recognition and an essential
perspective of human knowledge.
My key interest in this matter is to investigate the mental mechanism and linguistic conceptions
(e.g. the metaphor) that trigger the analogies. How can we simulate and trigger the analogies exploiting new strategies of learning in the field of signmaking and examining items of multimodality
and other textual representations? (Cf. Gunther Kress, 2010). Findings of students´ creative production of multimodal, digital textbooks will be elaborated in my presentation of the paper.
The cognitive and semiotic approach to teaching
In the traditional psychological discourse of teaching, the theories in general focusing on the ego,
the identity and the self. The psychological approach is framed by theories supporting models of
teaching based on a system of representation and motivation, empathy in the mental intrinsic structure of the human mind. (Cf. Kohut, 1971 and Tønnesvang, 2002). Recently studies in pedagogics
and teaching back up these theories with reference to the discourse of appreciation. (Cf. Dysthe,
1997 and Honneth, 2006).
The critique of identifying patterns of pedagogics and teaching solely in the intrinsic mental apparatus of the individual require a new perspective of cognitive learning and perception. The cognitive
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semiotic approach proposes a new vocabulary as a counter-argument to the holistic theories of the
psychological configurations of the self, ego and identity. (Cf. Lakoff, 2003). Cognitive semantics
as Georg Lakoff and Mark Johnson (2009) and Douglas Hofstadter claim that the world of the human mind is categorized in terms of time, space, causality, certain frameworks and narrative structures (e.g. scripts).Our perception of the world relies primarily on preconceived linguistic patterns,
signs, symbols and metaphorical schemes. In addition to these cognitive discursive structures bodily
emotions and affects as objective mental forms of representation, attract our attention.
Lakoff (1987) is working on a complex understanding of the relationship between the figurative
metaphorical pictures and abstract configurations in our consciousness. Visual schemes, depicting
space, seem to correspond with certain conceptual structures. For instance, Lakoff and Johnson
1980) refer to spatial upward-downward metaphors: “I am quite elevated today” and the reverse of
the medal:”I am feeling down today”. To be in control is up: “The scholar is at the top of his academic career”. To lose control is down:”The Government fell down at the Time of Question in the
Houses of Parliament.”
The theory of cognition does not assert that the essence of human experience is based on an objective correlation and articulation of metaphors and conceptual structures alone. Lakoff maintains the
idea that humans generate meaning by their experiences. It is obvious that we cannot manage without the personal pronoun ‘I’. Let me emphasize, it is not particularly interesting to the individual’s
process of learning to be deeply rooted in the core of the self or the identity. The basic framing of
our consciousness and identity relies on what Lakoff and Johnson (2003) has labeled the ‘containermetaphor’. The fundamental idea is that we conceive the ego and body as personal marks of demarcation. For instance, things can get in or out of our field of vision again.
Douglas Hofstadter (2007 and 2013) strikes at the rote of the matter claiming that the the ego is sustained by the notions of suggestive projections and hallucinations. According to Hofstadter, our
consciousness and thinking are identical. The consciousness consists primarily of symbols (and
neurons). Let me quote a paragraph from his work I Am a Strange Loop (2007):
“Most of the time, any given symbol in our brain is dormant, like a book sitting inertly in the
remote stacks of a huge library. Every so often, some event will trigger the retrieval of this
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book from the stacks, and it will be opened and its pages will come alive for some reader. In
an analogous way inside a human brain, perceived external events are continually, triggering
the highly selective retrieval of symbols from dormancy, and causing them to come alive in
all sorts of unanticipated, unprecedented configurations. This dance of symbols in the brain is
what consciousness is (It is also what thinking is). Note that I say “symbols” and not “neurons”. The dance has to be perceived at that level for it to constitute consciousness”.
p. 276
Hofstadter’s skepticism towards our ego-fixated western civilization and traditional psychological
framing is not necessarily presenting a new philosophical idea. Quite early, the German philosopher
and radical thinker Theodor W. Adorno pointed out his distrust to the idea of the individual and the
ego of having a substantial meaning. Adorno discusses the fall of the individual in his work of Minima Moralia. Reflections from Damaged Life published in German in 1951 in his discourse of the
non-authentic work of aesthetics:
“The untruth lies in the substratum of the genuine, the individual. If the law of the world’s
elapse is hiding in the principium individuationis of which the antipodes Hegel and Schopenhauer shared a mutual understanding, then the assumption of the egos’ final essence is the
victim of the illusion, which confirms the established order at the same time as this essence is
facing deterioration. The parallelization of the genuine and the truth cannot be sustained. The
very fact of this consistent reflection - what was labeled psychology by Nietzsche - consequently to insist on the inherent truth demonstrates again and again that the experiences from
our early childhood are simply not quite ‘true’.”
p. 258-259 (In my translation from the Danish version)
In my point of view, the case is not about getting rid off the individual as such and deleting it from
the annals of history. The philosophical point in Adornos´ statement is claiming the individual’s dependence of its primary drives (Cf. the psychoanalysis). The speculations on the individual as such
always contain a moment of uncertainty. The normative psychology and the philosophy of existence
have always faced a difficulty incorporating the scientific apparatus and pursuing the essence about
the authentic self. In late modernity, this quest is more topical than ever in the field of current psychology.
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The French philosopher Michel Foucault is one the most radical critic of the individualization of the
process of knowledge and acquisition. Foucault has investigated these aspects in his brilliant book
about The Order and Things (English edition, 1994). Among other things Foucault pointed out how
man played a central part in the episteme of modern civilization; the human being was ascribed a
foreknowledge inherent in the individual and its psychology. The impact on individualization labeled later by Foucault as the technology of the self. What is the meaning of this idea? According to
Foucault, the technologies of the self are apparently the specific practices by which subjects constitute themselves within the system of power, perceived as a natural system or perhaps imposed from
the power. Moreover Foucault claims this idea of governmental strategies to be embedded, for instance within institutions of higher education in late modernity.ii However, Foucault renders an alternative to this version of the subject by acknowledging the meaning of linguistics. In my approach, this is of a crucial interest for my discourse of cognition and analogy. Let me quote a central
paragraph from The Order and Things by Foucault:
“To a large extent the linguistics might well play an important role. There are grounds for
making this assumption. It allows a realization of structuring the contents in it itself; therefore
one can argue that it is not a repetition of knowledge required elsewhere, an interpretation of a
preconceived reading of the phenomena; it does not suggest a ‘linguistic’ translation of the
facts observed in the research of man; it would rather suggest the principles for an essential
reading.”
p. 441 (In my translation of the Danish edition)
To summarize, I have presented three different discourses about the individual on the basis of the
history of ideas in order to shift the paradigm from the selfcentered approach to teaching and pedagogy replacing it with a cognitive position based on a more objective understanding, where linguistics, signmaking, symbols play a significant role for the teaching processes. Moreover, I believe that
analogy is a key to explaining the processes of learning, which I will elaborate in the following sections. The theory of analogy provides a persuasive answer to the questions raised above.
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The theoretical framework of creativity and innovation in the field of pedagogy
1. What is creative and innovative competence?
What do we really mean by using the two categories of creativity in relation to the knowledge of
learning and pedagogy? According to the Danish Professor Lars Qvortrup (2006), we should not
reserve the term only to the genius of an artist who is inspired by a sudden insight. This idea derives
solely from the time of the Romantics. Based on research studies recently over the subject (Cf.
Tanggaard, 2010) we need to rethink the concept of creativity. With reference to the works of Richard Florida (2002), Qvortrup defines creativity as a knowledge of science and resources, which he
describes within the individual as a faculty of how we combine things in realityiii:
“Creativity includes the faculty of making syntheses i.e. to combine a series of input in order to
make a coherent idea. It implies the individual´s confidence and his faculty of running risk. To
quote the famous economist Joseph Schumpeter, one should be able to put adaptive answers
aside in favour of new creative answers. One should be ready to penetrate traditional ideas –
schemata – in favour of new ones. In terms of Piaget you should not only assimilate, but
accomodate.” (Qvortrup 2006, p. 30 in my translation)
In the quotation above, I introduce two essential categories by Piaget within the field of learning.
The knowledge of assimilation refers to an additional knowledge to what we have already established, whereas the concept of accommodation goes a step further to make a new surprising insight.
Comparing the idea of analogical learning to the accommodative learning processes we might say
that both categories have a transformative learning potential and offers alternative signs of thinking.
In the following section, I will try to elaborate upon the ideas of learning in a more profound perspective.
2. Analogy at high level of perception
The core of recognition in the field of cognitive research of analogies is focusing on the analytic process of thinking and perception, which leads us in the direction of making analogies. In short, what triggers the analogy? The research of analogy-making is related to a
general perspective of science, i.e. the research of computer science (Cf. the research program of ar-
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tificial intelligence labeled “Copycat” launched by Hofstadter and Mitchel), cognitive psychology, studies in philosophy, mathematics, semiotics, literature and linguistics. In principle, the
research of analogy refers to a ubiquitous field of scientific recognition of topical interest. For instance, George Polya points out:”Analogy pervades all our thinking, our everyday speech and our
trivial conclusions as well as artistic way of expression and the highest scientific achievements”
(Hofstadter and Sander, 2013, p. 507)
Hofstadter has described the phenomenon of analogies from many angles, crossing areas
of human perception and thinking. Here is small bouquet of examples: Joane, age two, says
to her mother: “Come on, Mommy, turn your eyes on!” A little girl speaks to her mother,
as if she were dealing with an electrical device having an on-off switch. (Hofstadter and
Sander, 2013 p. 39). Here is another one: “Are there many Einsteins (in the plural) in this
study group”? The analogy refers with a piece of irony to the genius Einstein - and the only
one. And take this analaogy: “The Paris of the Middle East is Beirut” presupposes the reader´s understanding of Paris as the primordial capital connoting elegance, style and avant-garde. Perhaps,
the most celebrated and epoch-making discovery, was made by Galileo. Let me quote Hofstadter on
the shocking insight of Galileo:
“Galileo knew that the Earth was round and that the Moon rotated around it in a periodic fashion, with a period about thirty days. All at once, Galileo was “seeing” a second Earth (Jupiter) in the sky, accompanied by several Moons.” (Hofstadter and Sander, 2013)
Galileo interprets the light stimuli of his observation of the Moons of Jupiter as having the
similar rotation as the Moon rotating the Earth. Making this analogy Galileo completely transformed the medieval idea of living in one universe alone. Hofstadter and Sander have elaborated the
definition of the concept of analogy (Hofstadter and Sander, 2013):
“What makes the quality of an analogy is how different the two analogous situations are. To put
it another way, what lends great strength to an analogy is if someone spots an essence shared
by two situations that to most people appear wildly different. An analogy´s power comes from
the fact that it sees beyond the surface difference of two situations to reveal something deep and
hidden they have in common” (p. 515)
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How can we describe the positions of Hofstadter and Sander in terms of pedagogics and strategies
of learning, which are the topic of this study? Especially Hofstadter refers to the concept of analogy
as an exclusive cognitive human faculty and skill inherently situated in our perceptions, experiences
and memories. Hoftstadter in particular is not concerned with the idea of constructing the various
types of analogy with the purpose of pursuing a systematic study of pedagogics and teaching, although he provides rich and boundless examples of analogies out of which it would be possible to
develop a more conscious strategy of learning. To summarize, will we be able to simulate analogies
with a deliberate purpose, pursuing a cognitive (conscious) learning strategy, for instance in school?
When I read Surfaces and Essences by Hofstadter and Sander it was a bit of a puzzle to me that the
authors did not reflect on the idea of transforming the insight of analogy-making as a possible
bridge to the field of pedagogics and teaching. However, the American researchers of artificial intelligence Forbus, Gentner, Markman and Ferguson are taking a more explicit attitude to the learning perspective in various scientific contexts, i.e. various modalities of signmaking, literacy, computersimulations and other cultural contexts. (Cf. Kress)iv
The pedagogical approach of analogy investigated by the American Professor Paul Messaris implies
this pedagogical viewpoint:
“(Analogical thinking). It comprises the ability of conceiving a certain structural similarity
between to different objects or situations and to achieve a better understanding of the single
object via the sign representing the other”.
Video, Ergo Cogito - Visual Signmaking and Analogical Thinking” p.126.
Analogies make it conceivable to categorize, labeling things and situations, making scripts and sudden insights. (Cf. Galileo´s vision of the universe). In other words, the analogy comprises schemes
in our collected mental lexicon. According to Hofstadter (2006), “Analogy is the mechanism that
drives it all. Analogy is the motor of the car of thought”. Let us draw our attention to a linguistic
analogy; the word collision, derives from the traffic domain. For example, it is possible to transform
the word into another context; the couple was on collision course. Through the metaphoric analogy,
we can expand the first concept to comprise a mental picture of the unhappy situation of the couple.
It is also likely to establish the learning of a concept via visual analogies. For instance, the German
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dramatist Bertolt Brecht´s concept of ‘Verfremdung’ can be visualized through an analogy to the
famous smoking of a cigar-scenario by Andy Warhol, where we are facing his smoking a cigar for
about 15 minutes to the alienation and surprise of the viewer. From a learning viewpoint, an aesthetic device as ‘Verfremdung’ (alienation) can reappear from the memory of the viewer, when we
speak of Warhol or referring to the spectacular smoking scene. According to Lakoff, this example
shows an overlapping of concepts and metaphors interacting with one another creating a sudden
connection to the concept of ‘Verfremdung’.v
If we refer to the department of Danish Literature and Film we might embark upon a prototypical
text as the tragedy of love portrayed by Baz Luhrman´s Romeo & Juliet;an example of a prototypical text representing parental interference into the love of a young couple. The fairytale of “The
Ugly Duckling” by H.C. Anderson creates numerous analogies and textual references in everyday
life and reality TV programs. Another topic could be the working of analogies about the motif of
the double in literature and film. The “Shadow Figure” by H.C. Anderson can be related to “Dr.
Jekyll and Mr.Hyde”, to the protagonist “Neo” in “The Matrix”, and finally referring to “Thriller”,
the famous musicvideo by Michael Jackson.
What is the point of rattling off all these analogies? The point is that it is possible to simulate the
analogy in order to create a new and expanding view, i.e. making coherent interpretations of the
texts in order to extend the knowledge of the learner. My hypothesis is that it is conceivable to develop the ability of the learner being able to mobilize simulations, which might provoke a creative
learning potential within the individual. This is of a crucial importance for me to organize the
teaching and learning processes in school.
In this context, we are working with the concept of transfer, the transformation of simulations, a
specific knowledge within a certain domain, coherent interpretations and mental synthesis of the
different representations.
3. The metaphor and the analogy
The cognitive theory is reasoning that the human cognition relies on our ability to connect several
mental rooms for instance to represent different structures from one semantic domain to another. vi
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The metaphor plays a crucial role in our cognitive system. Experiencing and understanding metaphors are the bricks of which the human consciousness and perception are based upon. Lakoff and
Johnson claim that our conceptual system is metaphorically structured. vii
It is difficult to make the concept of the metaphor immediately intelligible, because we meet the
concept in many different contexts reaching from commonplace expressions to poetic and literary
metaphors. How can it be deviated from the concept of analogy? If you look up the word in diverse
dictionaries, the metaphor (gr. Metapherein) means transfer of word and meaning (very often used
in a figurative sense) from its normal use to a context, which evokes a new figurative meaning. The
park is the lung of the city is a metaphor. Compared to the analogy the metaphor tries to create a
similarity, but in doing so it does not attract our attention. The analogy is slightly more complicated,
because it demonstrates a certain similarity between things which differ in the sense that we can add
a’like’. The analogy implies a comparison between an unknown field and a more recognizable in
order to create a sudden insight. The metaphor and the analogy express the transference of meaning.
Like the metaphor, the analogy is referring to our understanding of experiencing a matter of approximating the same kind.
I suggest that the metaphor and the analogy are two sides of the same coin. Both based on a comparison of mental representations. The difference between the metaphor and the analogy deals with
criteria of comparison.viii The analogy characterized by a considerable similarity between the representations. In contrast, the metaphor refers to a considerable likeness described attributively. The
difference between the two categories is debatable, but one thing is sure to quote Dedre
Gentner:”Analogies and metaphors are pervasive in language and thougth”. (Hofstadter and Sander,
2013 p. 507)
4. The concept of obstinacy and the semiotic signmaking
The concept of obstinacy and alternative signs of thinking refer to the individual´s ability to think
divergently. Persons thinking divergently are characterized by their obstinacy and creative experiments (“Bisociation” Kupferberg, 1996). Howard Gardner (Cf. Boden, 1996) has described the creative person´s complex way of thinking:
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“The creative person has two counteracting tendencies. One is to question every assumption
to reject the current styles of thinking. The other is to exhaust a domain, to explore it more
systematically, more comprehensively, and more deeply than others have done before.”
The profile described above is of course a claim of idealism; yet the researcher, teacher and the student must strive to achieve these necessary faculties in order to be creative in their respective fields
and develop innovative competencies.
When we are working with the idea of signmaking in a semiotic sense, we must call attention to the
traditional impact of semiotic scholars as Saussure, Barthes, Peirce and Eco. However, this topic
does not offer a discussion of the classic scientific assumptions of the sign. I am intensely concerned about the new founded theories of semiotics proposed by the British Professor Gunther
Kress, Selander and others. In a global world dominated by signs and expressions of multimodality,
Kress (2010) points out the specific changes in the semiotic production of communication and distribution of sign and meaning making. Kress addresses the social and cultural changes as follows:
1. Media: From the book to the TV and videoscreen
2. Semiotic production: From obsolete analogous technology to digital technologies
3. Representation: From the literary language to the image (visual representations)
4. Digital literacy
These new frames of signmaking and communication, shared by all cultures in principle, imply a
new comprehension of the idea of signs. Kress (2010) outlines three fundamental principles of modern signmaking:
•
That signs are motivated conjunctions of form and meaning; that conjunction is based on (2)
the interest of the signmaker; using (3) culturally available resource.
Kress emphasizes that the distinct semiotic resources for framing signs will vary from culture to
culture, what kinds of frames there are and so on. In the global world of mass- media, the semiotic
resources are commonalities of a general kind. We all share the common challenges in the world of
mass-media communication, cultural espressions and so on. Kress is elaborating these ideas of
framing the semiotic signs at different cultural levels:
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“These shared principles are based on experiences common to humans in social groups
in their engagement with a world vastly different at one level and yet presenting common
challenges. If we take this line of argument we can acknowledge commonalities at a very
general level and yet be able to focus on the specifities of cultural difference. The theory
can then provide a shared frame at its most general level and respond to specific needs at
the level of any one culture and its modes”. (Kress, 2010 p. 10-11.)
Teachers in the school all over the world are facing these new challenges presented by Kress and
others. In my research, I have tried to address the new direction of learning by introducing my students for new learning designs in order to create textbooks for the children at school. Before I embark on my findings and presentations of the work of my students, we should add the Peircian approach to the sign. According to Peirce (1991), readers (recipients) are agentive in their semiotic
reflection of the sign. The reader interprets constantly new signs. They are remaking and transforming the signmaterial of the culture. The form and meaning of the sign rest on the interest of the
maker - the interpreter. One may argue that the Peircian conception of the sign is opposite to Kress´
discource of the motivated sign, but the reader´s interpretation is still open for a new chain of semiosis as Kress writes:
“The concept of the motivated sign in no way places restrictions on sign-makers; the sign
is as open or as restricted as the sign-maker´s interest, which shapes the sign; an interest
which is an effect and realization of the histories in social environments of the sign-maker”
(Kress, 2010 p. 69)
The term multimodality requires a certain attention. First, we must clarify the concept of mode.
Kress offers the following definition of the term:
“Mode is a socially shaped and culturally given semiotic resource for making meaning.
Image, writing, layout, music, speech, moving image, soundtrack and 3D objects are
examples of modes used in representation and communication”. (Kress, 2010 p.79)
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Different modes offer different multimodal representations balancing functional emphasis and affordance.The idea of modal affordance expresses the possibilities and restrictions, which characterize the semiotic representations; sound contribute to enhance our feelings, when we watch a film.
The written text can explain, maintain our thoughts, narratives and experiences of the past, present
and the future; whereas the picture can explain the texture of space, lines, bodily movements and
gestures and so on.
To summarize, the concept of mode and multimodality offers different potentials and approaches to
making meaning. Kress uses the concept social semiotics to describe the modes in the multimodal
text; about the interrelation of the modes and the functional emphasis of the different multimodal
expressions, i.e. sound, image, writings, colour, gestures, facial expressions and so on. The mingling of the different modes offers the reader (the recipient) a vast number of opportunities for
choosing the motivated signs and multimodal expressions as a resource in a social semiotic context.
Thus, the final point is to quote Kress:
“Social semiotics and the multimodal dimensions of the theory, tell us about interest and agency;
about meaning (-making); about processes of sign making in social environments; about the
the resources for making meaning and their respective potentials as signifiers in the making
of signs-as-metaphors; about the meaning potentials of cultural/semiotic forms.”
Kress, 2010 p. 59)
This theory proposed by Kress comprises his ambition to describe and analyse all signs, modes and
multimodal texts as well as the interrelation between the various cultural expressions. The theory is
also extended to include classroom studies.ixThe theory of social semiotics epitomizes my interest
to develop a framework for my students´ digital designed textbooks.
Digital learning designs, models and examples
Through preliminary studies and projects, I have tried applying my thinking to the analogical learning processes in my teaching subject of Danish language and literature (film as well). I have not yet
finished my study of the topic, but I am trying in a tentative way to outline some samples of my
findings. My final study comprises 22 textbooks from my teacher training including 85 teacher students. The findings are collected in the period from 2011-2015. The theoretical basis of the survey
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(Cf. the previous sections of the paper) is based on my cognitive aim to establish a connection between different textual genres (multimodality) and the cognitive processes of analogy. I have published two books about different genres within a pedagogical and semiotic perspective.x In these
books, different methodological reflections are made on the topic with respect to the tradition of semiotics. In short, it is important to clarify the concepts of learning, meaning-making and representation in advance, before I exemplify some samples of the students´work with their digital textbooks. According to Selander and Kress (2012), the concept of learning is as follows:
“Expressed more precisely we define learning as an extensive capacity to apply and
elaborate different modes within a specific area of knowledge both in theory and practice”
(p. 29. In my translation)
Learning and meaning-making can be seen as two sides of the same matter/activity, because both
activities can transform information and signs into new representations of meaning. Selander and
Kress point out:
“Meaning-making is similar to the concept of learning to be understood as creative actions,
where you redesign the already existing representations” (p. 29)
The idea of redesigning the pedagogical material is of a cruxial importance in the students´ approach to their digital texts. They follow these principles:
1. A textbox with different textual expressions addressing different genres (fictional and factual texttypes)
2. A textbox for the instruction of the teacher. In this box the key principles for the composition of the material, are outlined; the idea of making a digital multimodal textbook, the theoretical basis of the textbook, aims of instruction, pedagogical positions, strategy of learning,
modelling and so on.
3. A textbox for different exercises addressed to the pupils with differentiated styles of learning.
4. A textbox with links to films, texts, images, drawings, sound and lay-out.
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Case 1.
In the following, I am referring to two examples (Cf. examples of power-point presentations later at
The Conference). The first example is borrowed from a textbook with the title:”The Journey of Life
through Lyric Representations” addressing the fifth grade. The teacher students are aiming to make
a connection between three modalities:
Poetical and metaphorical expressions, expressions of music and visual signs are connected to form
an analogical aspect. Common to the students´ organization of the textbook is the idea about a prototypical genre, which is transformed into different simulations of texts in order to create similarities around the same essence. (Cf. Hofstadter´s definition of analogy). For instance, the song of the
Danish rappers Nik and Jay, “One Day Left” is connected to the perception of elderly people´s last
moment of life performing the same rap in a video. The starting point of the pupils´ learning is prototypical. A well- known number of the Danish rappers is transformed into a new communicative
context, but at the same time, the pupils are recognizing the analogy in a creative and funny way
bridging their ability of making categorizations. The pupils are confident with the rap performed by
the popular young idols, which enable them to expand their view of dead by making comparisons analogical meaning – to the video performed by the elderly people. Their view of dead is thereby
extended and qualified. The following model can illustrate my point. The model is inspired, by the
Danish Associate Professor Jens Hansen (2012):
Model for learningdesign. Digital multimodal textbooks:
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Illustration
Explanation
Extension
Contrasting
Representa-
One mode il-
One mode ex-
Two and sev-
Two modes are
tional forms
lustrate the
plains the
eral modes
opposite to one
meaning in an
meaning in
are fused to a
another, telling
another mode
another mode
new sign ex-
their own story,
of expression
of expression
tending
which opens
meaning
for the readers
interpretation
of the signs
Analogical
Equality signs
Recognition
transfer
referring to
of meaning by mation of the
analogies (Cf.
the same es-
doubling
remaking of
Hofstadter and
signs
Sander 2013, p.
sence
Transfor-
Differentiated
515
Examples
Sound, voice
The video of
The video of
The video of
and image
the elderly
the elderly
the elderly peo-
substantiate
people is dou-
people is
ple and the mu-
the text in Nik bling the
fused to the
sic of Nik and
and Jays
modes in Nik
music-video
Jay are narra-
text”One Day
and Jay´s text
of Nik and
tively different
Jay expand-
representations,
ing the mean-
but they show
ing of death
the same ana-
and old age
logical compre-
across gener-
hension of
ations
death and des-
Left”
tiny
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Case 2.
“Who is behind the mask” is the title of the digital textbook above. This digital textbook is addressed the pupils + 14. The aim of the design is to develop the pupils´ understanding of the mask
behind the man. It deals with the identity problems of modern man. The digital textbook tries to integrate text, image, films, pieces of art and music. The illustration above gives an example of the
many challenging excercises in the textbook. The pupils must combine different musical expressions with the image in an analogical way. They must associate and interpret the different modes of
expressions accompanied with 1700th - Century classic music and modern popular music performed by the German group Rammsteins “Angel” (1997). The pupils must answer the question:
Use your own words to describe how the music and image can affect the total expression of a piece
of art and aesthetics. Furthermore, they must write a story about the thoughts and feelings of the semiotic correlation of the signs.
Pedagogical considerations
The classroom:
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In the classroom the pupils are working together in order to establish a mutual knowledge about the
topic “The mask behind the man”. In the classroom, the teacher is scaffolding the achieved
knowledge of the pupils in their individual learning process collecting the knowledge from the other
areas of learning. Each learning-room deals with a variety of multimodal expressions in order to differentiate the pedagogical materials for the pupils.
The room for excercises:
In this room, the pupils are going to meet the classic procedures of analysis of texts on the intrinsic
premises of the piece of work. The analysis of the pupils is addressed to close reading methods of
the texts. They must be able to identify analogies and must be aware of the different ways of interpretations and inferences.
The room of workshops:
In the room of workshops, the pupils are working more productively. With references to the specific
pieces of art, they must focuse on the creative dimension of redesigning the different modes. They
are free to make new compositions in a creative way of interpretation.
The room for projects:
In the room for projects, the pupils work individually. The teacher presents a starting point for the
reflections of the pupils´ working processes, presenting various problems, dilemmas and interesting
scenarios of investigation. The pupils are free to work by themselves, in groups but in an independent way. At the end of the process, they will have to present a product/digital text, which testifies
their ablity to work with different kinds of modes and multimodal expressions.
Final remarks
In this final section of the paper, I account for my theoretical and pedagogical assumptions of a semiotic and an analogical creative approach to modern aesthetic education. This paper presents an
idea of the different aspects of the current discussion of educational literacy and media-literacy on a
global scale. In contrast to the existing theories and focus on the motivational psychology of the
learning processes situated in the individual alone, this study offers a different approach to the
styles of learning, based on cognitive mental representations, challenging the hypothesis that we all
share the mutual understanding of symbols, language and metaphors, governed by our ability of
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making analogies. I have also presented a theory of social semiotics as a framework for my presentations of the creative designs and redesigns of multimodal expressions and the interrelation of the
different modes in my students´digital textbooks. Finally, I present a model of analyzing the different semiotic modes of multimodalities:
Model for analyzing expressions of multimodality:
Inference
Transfer
Transfer
Modes
Sign-analysis
Analogical learning
The analytical elements in the model are framed by the following semiotic conceptions: The interplay between expression, content and the interpreter; denotation and connotation (Barthes, 1969),
the motivated sign (Peirce, Kress and others). The concept of inference deals with the reader´s ability to read behind the surface lines of the text in order to interpret a text of ambiguiety and complexity. In continuation of my model of learning design, it is important to use the analytical model together with the four functional representations mentioned earlier: Illustration, Explanation, Extension and Contrasting.
Finally, I conclude that the cognitive learning of analogies deals with analogical transfer of signmaking, transformation of simulations and knowledge of prototypical texts and coherent interpretation.
References
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Notes
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i
ii
Benny Bang Carlsen, Associate Professor Ph.D at Via University college of Aarhus/Denmark.
Cf, The Report, 2008 www.akf.dk
Cf Vygotsky (1995) who regards the fantasy of children as an expression of the faculty of combination (“Fantasi
och kreativitet i barndommen”)
iv
Cf Forbus, Kenneth, Gentner, Dedre, Markman, Arthur B, Ferguson, Ronald W.: ”Analogy just looks like high level
Perception. Why a domain - generative approach to analogical mapping is right”. In:Journal of Experiment and Artificial Intelligence.
v Cf. Lakoff and Johnson:”Metaphors We Live By”.
vi Cf. Peer Bundgaard (2003):”Cognitive semiotics”.
vii Cf. Lakoff and Johnson:”Metaphors We Live By”
viii CF. The distinctions made by Gentner and Markman, 1997:”Structural Mapping in Analogy and Similarity”
ix Cf. Kress et al, 2005:”English in Urban Classrooms. A multimodal perspective on teaching and learning”
x Cf. Carlsen, 2010:”The Didactics of Genres”,”Learning Profiles. Aims and Competencies” (Edit. Carlsen & Mølgaard) Vol. 3. (These books are published in Danish!)
iii
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