Search

Navigation signs as a textbook element: Pedagogical experiments of visual semiotics // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2025. Issue 1 (43). P. 9-37

The introduction to the article presents the context in which data from a series of pedagogical experiments was generalized. This context consisted of the characteristics of “forced symbolism” and the rupture of “subject-to-subject” communication. Both characteristics were the result of applying the concept of “semiotic diagnostics” (Irina V. Melik-Gaikazyan). The next section of the article, “Visual Arguments for Setting the Research Problem,” discusses the concept of “visual literacy” (John L. Debes) and analyzes the visual representations of primary school students (grades 1–4) and 5th-graders based on their drawings. Collages made from these drawings are presented (“Filimonovskaya Toy,” “Dove of Peace,” “Motherhood,” “Gzhel”). It is concluded that, firstly, by grade 5, children studying in regular schools lose interest in drawing. Secondly, in the 5th grade, children independently master digital methods of combining and/or reduplicating visual samples, which specifically demonstrates the effect of “forced symbolism.” The “Materials and Methods” section provides characteristics of the series of pedagogical experiments. The experiment participants were 5th grade students. A set of symbols in a specific school textbook became the object of the study, and the nature of decoding navigation signs became irs focus. The series consisted of two stages of a didactic experiment; a creative experiment (the name of this experiment records the manifestation of students’ creative abilities); two stages of a verification experiment. By groups of participants, the series of experiments is divided into didactic and creative experiments, in which participants from a specific school took part, and a verification experiment, in which schoolchildren from other schools took part. The stages of the didactic and verification experiments are similar in methods. At the first stage, schoolchildren were offered open-ended questions, and at the second stage, closed-ended questions with answer options. The questions were aimed at establishing the possibility of decoding navigation signs in a specific Russian language textbook (published by Mektep). Out of ten navigation signs, four signs were not decoded during the didactic experiment (“Listen,” “Speak,” “Learn the theory,” and “Work with the word”). In the creative experiment, children were asked to create a visual sign about these educational activities themselves. The content of the “Research Results” section consisted of, firstly, navigation signs for four educational activities developed by the authors (based on the visualized ideas of students); secondly, a generalization of the verification experiment results (the new signs “Listen” and “Speak” acquired didactic efficiency, and the new signs “Learn the theory” and “Work with the word” did not, since the students did not understand the content of the formulations for these educational activities). A comparison of experimental data with theoretical results of visual semiotics achieved in recent years served for a number of conclusions. The semiotic diagnostics of symbols in a specific textbook helps to identify the need to modify the formulations of naming educational activities. This circumstance demonstrates the potential of visual semiotics, which allows us to draw conclusions about the didactic effectiveness of the entire textbook based on the corresponding diagnostics of its visualized part. It was established that, firstly, the involvement of schoolchildren, implemented in the course of a creative experiment, in the modification of navigation signs serves to identify those problem areas that require methodological reflection. Secondly, this involvement becomes a way to clarify schoolchildren’s visualized ideas, which serves both to determine the directions of the formation of types of visual literacy and to respond to changing social requirements for educational results. The need for a new scientific and practical direction is established: didactic visual semiotics.

Keywords: types of visual literacy, symbols in school textbooks, didactic efficiency, methodological reflection, didactic visual semiotics

The "visual-semiotic transformation method" as a pedagogical tool: Pro et contra // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2026. Issue 1 (47). P. 24-45

This study continues work previously initiated and published in the first issue of this journal in 2025, and aims to advance "didactic visual semiotics." The social relevance of the research is determined by the conditions of a sociocultural environment permeated with visual symbolism. The article amis to discuss the "method of visual-semiotic transformation" and the results of its testing during a methodological experiment. The experiment was conducted among fifth-grade students at a school with Kazakh as the language of instruction and included diagnostic, formative, and control stages. A distinctive feature is that the formation of sociocultural competency when teaching and learning Russian as a non-native language occurs within a bilingual educational environment. The experiment was preceded by a content analysis of the standard curriculum and textbooks for the fifth grade in Russian language and literature. This analysis revealed that the current programs and textbooks do not provide systematic coverage of sociocultural learning components. The methodological foundation of the experiment was based on principles of cognitive linguistics and the paradigm of visual semiotics. The discussion of the method-focused experiment's results revealed arguments "contra" – namely, a lack of precision in accounting for the actual informational essence of the influences that formed the basis for justifying the social relevance of the discussed method. Furthermore, the success of the method, presented verbally (positive dynamics in the experimental group's indicators), is visually understated in its expression (see Fig. 5), if one notes that the maximum values on the histograms are capped at the 70 percent level. The arguments "pro" can be considered more significant. The first reason is addressing a different kind of deficit: the lack of application of semiotic methods in education, whose purpose is to serve as a means of adaptation to a sociocultural state of society filled with symbolism, symbolic systems, and forms of signs. The second reason is that the presented study is a rare case among Russian-language publications on pedagogical experiments, as the experiment's results have undergone methodological critique, which serves to refine the conceptual foundations of the "method of visual-semiotic transformation."

Keywords: method-focused experiment, sociocultural competency, bilingual education, Russian as a second language