The second day of Semiotics started with a simple but challenging question, what is most essential to facilitate learning? Dr Long conducted this more or less like a quiz, seeking a word that was not forthcoming. How strange to have a collection of engineers in a room listing all the words they associate with learning and not one mentioned the word discovery.

Discovery learning is founded on trust and respect for the learner. Discovery learning moves away from telling to experiencing. Discovery Learning allows the learner to learn through trial and error. Discovery learning is learner-centric, not teacher-centric. This was done in order to prime the group for their excursion the next day at Mauthausen. Mauthausen semiotic walk was planned as an experiential discovery experience.

Quite the opposite to a typical safety approach that dictates data and fears discovery.

One of the most important things in discovery-learning is the trust of maturity in the learner.

The next thing in the day which was most successful was a panel discussion about implementing SPoR in the workplace. This included a consultant, a Global Head of Safety and middle manager for an international company for nuclear power and a Safety Consultant in oil and gas based in Canada.

This proved popular as none offered easy fixes or silver bullets to the well-known failures of traditional safety.

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/843755733

At the end of the day a semiotic camera exercise was undertaken to help understand how affordance in spatial literacy influence decision making. This was good preparation for the discovery of use of space and place at Mauthausen. It also helped people understand the relationship between semiotics, behaviours, decision making and social influences.