Grounded in the semiotic thought of Charles Sanders Peirce, America's greatest polymath, Howard A. Smith's Teaching Adolescents addresses topics in educational psychology from a semiotic or sign-based perspective rather than a behavioural one. In this educational psychology textbook, Smith's main argument is that teachers must rely on signs of all kinds to understand students and to survive as teachers. This book is unique in applying a single unifying framework throughout.

Among the many concepts that Smith discusses in Teaching Adolescents are the nature of the sign and its basis...