Semiotic Mediation and Social Mediation (Paperback)

The acquisition of intersubjectivity, as the result of semiotic mediation and social mediation, is the critical issue in moral education. As Vygotsky lamented, morality is beginning to acquire an increasingly temporal character, therefore, the essence of moral education can not be found in unnecessary debate on moral stages or instruments. Rather, it should be concerned with how individuals improve their ability to think about one moral issue from multiple perspectives, and how young adults can learn to respect the different perspectives, with the assistance of semiotic and social mediation. This project returns to the basics of human development, which are semiotic mediation and social mediation, and uses open text and group activity to facilitate moral semiosis. The results suggest that, if reality is open to multiple perspectives, instructional texts and activities for moral competency should also be open for learners. This study provides alternative perspectives of semiotics and sociocultural development theory applied to moral educators as well as instructional designers and learning scientists.