Abstract
This paper argues that pedagogy can be enhanced through the study of theory, and begins with the assumption that, for the benefit of the professionalization of the field, there is a need for engineering education researchers to engage in theorization of the specific events and practices that make up the myriad teaching and learning experiences within the context of the engineering sciences. The aim of this paper is to show how one particular theoretical approach, social semiotics, can shed light on various aspects of the teaching and learning of one particular engineering discipline, namely Civil Engineering. This is done in order to achieve the greater aim of demonstrating how and why engagement with theory such as social semiotics is of use in informing pedagogy. The paper draws specifically on the concept of transduction, the process of transforming meaning from one semiotic form to another. In so doing, four key implications from a social semiotic account of civil engineering work are drawn. First, differential access to meaning-making resources and technologies must be accommodated in the educational sphere. Second, students need to be encouraged to view the activities in which they are engaged in the engineering classroom as meaning-making practices and not routine procedures. Third, some transductions require greater abstraction of meaning than others and may therefore require mediation in the form of intermediate transductions. Fourth, it is only through pedagogic efforts aimed at enabling students to perceive meaning-making practices as functional within context, that students can potentially come to engage in the full articulation of their communicative and representational practices as meaningful work. Finally, the paper calls for further research into the social semiotics of engineering education as it appears this may offer useful pedagogical insight.