Didactic Interface between Mathematical Modeling and Semiotics

Abstract This article proposes a discussion on the approach of Mathematics contents in mathematical modeling activities exploring the interlocution with semiotics, so that an interface between mathematical modeling and semiotics is glimpsed. The construction of this interface is mediated by the analysis aimed at the development of two modeling activities, one being developed by Higher Education students and the other by Basic Education students. On the one hand, this interface is linked to the epistemological situation of mathematical objects that only become present through signs. On the other hand, mathematical modeling has characteristics of a pedagogical organization that is not disconnected from a variability of signs and an eminent semiotic activity. In this sense, mathematical modeling, whether in line with the humanist scientific current or in line with the pragmatic current, can be a means of facing the problems that Bruno D'Amore characterizes as purely didactic . Thus, the article proposes a didactic-semiotic perspective for mathematical modeling that implies considering that, in the classroom, its relationship with learning is not disconnected from an interface in which signs, of different natures and coming from different semiotics systems, are articulate to solve a problem whose origin is not, in general, Mathematics itself.