Teaching and learning the doing of Mathematical Modelling: a semiotic interpretation

Abstract: In this paper we investigate the communicational process established in a context whose focus is on teaching and on learning to do mathematical modelling. Our considerations are based on a theoretical framework considering elements of Peircean semiotics associated with an interpretative analysis of three episodes related to classes in a course in Mathematical Modelling in a Mathematics Degree. The conclusion is that from a semiotic point of view the learning about doing mathematical modelling is revealed in the communicational interpretants (commens) that result from the overlap of intentional and effectual interpretants. This overlap hangs on the teacher, the students and the communicational process that is triggered among them in the development of mathematical modelling activities.