The course is an introduction to the fundamental theories of cognitive semiotics for students who do not have - either at bachelor or graduate level - any academic prerequisites within the area.
In lecture-based instruction, the absence of feedback from the students entails that you cannot know what they have understood or only partially understood. One way of tackling this is to create an environment where the students are always able to interrupt the lecturer, or rather: are obliged to do this if there is something they have not understood, something they will criticise, or something they will put into perspective.
I use the first slide in the first lesson of my courses to impress upon them that they can and must ask, criticise and provide perspective. This helps turn the actual lecturing situation into a situation in which discussion is always possible.
All of this is of course easier said than done and, depending on the nature and temperament of different classes, not always so easy to implement. Some classes are just quieter and more passive than others. Conversely, four to five talkative students can easily monopolise the debate, much to the others’ irritation.
The students are activated in an otherwise passive lecturing situation and, in this regard, this is particularly applicable to the students who have something that they have not understood.
The idea of the activity is that students rarely get anything out of just listening passively to what is communicated from the other side of the teacher's desk. It is about getting the students to mobilise their knowledge along three axes: