analysis of meanings
Description
Analysis of meanings implies that an individual (or agent) does not 'pluck knowledge out of a tree' but rather constructs meanings through experiences and social interactions. Fosnot asserts that meanings are fluid and shaped by personal and collective experience rather than being static or universally shared. (see indirect realism)
Quotes
Hence, no matter how one looks at it, an analysis of meanings always leads to individual experience and the social process of accommodating the links between words and chunks of that experience until the individual deems they are compatible with the usage and the linguistic and behavioral responses of others. (Fosnot. C, pg. 5)
Language enables the teacher to orient the student's conceptual construction by precluding certain pathways and making others more likely.
The consideration of how meanings are constituted, and how, consequently, linguistic communication works, would dismantle the still widespread notion that conceptual knowledge can be transferred from teacher to student by the means of words. This is not to say that language is not important. In fact, it is the most powerful tool available to the teacher, but it does not transport meanings or concepts.