This article summarizes an instructional experience designed and conducted at the University of LuganoCommunication Sciences-(Switzerland) within a Political Theory's freshmen course, which involved disciplines like: philosophy, political science and epistemology. We offered students two types of authors to be learned: one through a multimedia video interview in combination with written texts of these authors, defined as the audio-visible authors, and one type of author offered only through a text-based format (the invisible author). We gathered quantitative data (students' performance on their written exam compositions, their grades; the number of written words they wrote; and the number of times students mentioned the two types of authors in their written compositions). We also collected qualitative data (through semi-structured interviews and thinking aloud protocols), analyzing the metaphors students used to define the reading and learning experience with the audio-visible and the invisible authors. Results show that students perform better when the author to be studied is offered with more media instructional supports, they tend to establish a social relationship with the author, and the quality of their critical thinking and the level of interest in a new subject both increase. The article is divided in three parts: we will first give some definitions of what a metaphor is; second, we will describe our case study and the results of the data analysis; third, we will discuss the results.
Francesca Rigotti The House as MetaphorThe Tradition of the House Man needs a fixed reference point, without which he cannot venture away on unknown paths. Even after the loss of centralitity brought about by the Copernican revolution, our "need for a centre" has remained strong. And the simplest and most immediate centre sought by all is the house, the reference place which offers each one of us the minimum of stability and roots to enable him to leave it whenever he likes, whether he chooses or has to.Living in a house is a central experience, a basic statute, a primary condition of human life, and its importance can be seen in its full significance in many, varying aspects. As the house and living in it are central human experiences, so the metaphor of the house is central to man's rhetorical apparatus, and is present in religious, psychological, cultural, sexual and political contexts. In the political field especially this metaphor is frequently used, as is borne out by different political expressions which highlight the close relationship between "making" politics and the "making" of homo faber in his domestic activity. The constructive technique of politics is a knowledge which turns into practice just as the architect's knowledge does. The same way of denoting places and objects in politics reveals the latter's deep alliance with the dimension of habitation. We find the courts of justice and government house or even just the House, as in parliamentary reports, alongside the chambers and cabinets, the ruling houses and the houses of leading families (the Atrids, the Levites, Stuarts, Bonapartes), Brought to you by | Stockholms U Authenticated Download Date | 10/5/15 5:48 1660-1700, 1985, 9/2: 61-74, here p. 63, and H. Erskine-Hill, "Heirs of Vitruvius: Pope and the Idea of Architecture", in: H. Erskine-Hill and A. Smith (eds.), The Art of Alexander Pope, London: Vision Press, 1979, 144-168, here p. 146. 2 A suggestive example of this may be read in an English writer of the second half of the 17th century, Thomas Fuller, who wrote of the "bloodless revolution": "So Solomon most wisely did contrive,/His Temple should be still-born though Alive./That stately Structure started from the ground/ Unto the Roof, not gulity of the sound/Of Iron Tool, all noise therein debarr'd [...]"; Th. Fuller, A
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.