Making Sense of Making Meaning, the Semiotic Way: Emotional Journey of a Novice Learner

I write this auto-ethnography as homage to my teachers and peers, both in the classroom and in scholarly realms, who inspired me to soar beyond the horizons of self and find meaning within the cosmic consciousness that surrounds us. As a novice learner in an introductory semiotics course, I learned about the process of meaning making. This paper is a product of my learning and understanding of a semiotic worldview. Encouraged by my professor, I delved deeply into the "thinkings" of two semiotic masterminds: Charles Sanders Peirce and Jakob von Uexkull, whose philosophies, ideologies and beliefs helped make sense of events in my own life as I saw it unfolding in new ways within my stream of consciousness. While indulging in the flavors of my autoethnographic inquiry, I was also privileged to have my fellow classmates share their experiences with me, through one on one-thought exchanges, captured via participation in class discussions and observations, as well as interviews and a survey, bringing my investigation into the realm of ethnography. The findings indicate that curiosity, fulfillment and hope are the critical bookends of the novice learners' learning process. Based on the findings, I developed a new Curiosity Fulfillment Loop Model that may help explain how novice learners continue on their learning path to becoming seasoned learners, and yet always staying novice for some knowledge. Keywords: Auto-Ethnography, Ethnography, Semiotics, Novice, Learners, Peirce. Curiosity, Fulfillment, Hope, Education Preface Overview: How it Started This is the story of one: me. This is also the story of the five: my fellow novice learners. Above all, this is story of novice learners' journey through the semiotic looking glass; a journey that ventures into an unknown world of signs, symbols, and meanings, transforming our intrinsic and extrinsic landscapes. As a researcher involved in investigating multiculturalism, and how it manifests itself within learning environments, I was deeply curious to know what I could learn from the "science of signs," as I thought Semiotics to be. Thus, I signed up for an Introductory Semiotics course. As is evident, I had no prior knowledge of the subject, and therefore, I walked into the course with a blank slate, but with several expectations born out of the ignorance of little knowledge. During my first day in the class, I realized that this course might not be what I thought it would be. It occurred to me that the dynamics and essence of the class would in fact be something that I may not have experienced before. I was right. As a long-term student, I had grown to expect a certain form and alignment, a certain way that things are done in a course. For example, most classes have a specific lecture set up and some specific evaluation requirements. We are asked to do things in specific ways and follow a specific pattern of learning and evaluation. In the Semiotics class, however, I was taken aback to hear the professor say that we could select how many papers we want to write and that there would be no lectures-only round table discussions! During the weeks spent in the course, I have acquired knowledge that I was only remotely aware existed. Beyond that, I have learned how to use that knowledge intrinsically and extrinsically to enhance my self-awareness and explore the deepest depths of my consciousness. Because I am a dedicated social researcher and evolving scholar, committed to sharing with the world experiences that I perceive to be meaningful, I was compelled to indulge in this investigation to explore how I transformed from a novice learner of Semiotics to a full believer in the pursuit of meaning making. However, my labors are not limited to this purpose, but rather expanding from it. As a learner, I have always been driven by feelings that I like to think of as "learning emotions." These feelings play a major role in my learning process, sometimes even to the extent of completely enhancing or inhibiting my cognitive retention. …