The Reflexive Teacher and the Semiotics of Learning: An Umwelt-Based Account of Didactic Transposition

Abstract

This article reconceptualizes didactic transposition as a semiotics of learning grounded in Jakob von Uexküll’s concept of Umwelt and in teacher reflexivity as a core pedagogical competence. Moving beyond traditional views of transposition as content simplification or sequencing, the paper argues that learning is a biosemiotic, situated, and co-constructive process in which learners integrate new knowledge into subjective, meaning-laden worlds shaped by embodied, cultural, linguistic, and technological experiences. From this perspective, teaching is understood as semiotic mediation: an interpretative practice through which teachers design, orchestrate, and regulate semiotic pathways that enable disciplinary knowledge to become intelligible and meaningful across plural Umwelten. Particular attention is given to the role of digital technologies and artificial intelligence, which increasingly extend learners’ semiotic environments by introducing adaptive feedback, multimodal representations, and generative outputs. While these tools expand educational affordances, their pedagogical value depends on reflexive teacher mediation capable of aligning technological signs with curricular goals, cultural frameworks, and ethical considerations. The article positions teacher reflexivity as both an epistemic and professional competence that supports inclusion, interpretive flexibility, and culturally sustaining pedagogy in heterogeneous classrooms. By integrating biosemiotic theory, semiotics of learning, and contemporary educational technology, the paper offers a theoretical framework and practical implications for curriculum design, assessment, and teacher education in complex, AI-augmented learning ecologies.