Emma Nardi

Aspetti retorici nella scrittura dei bambini

On 28 November 2014 a conference took place at the National Roman Museum - Baths of Diocletian in Rome on the first results of the experiment Nulla dies sine linea, dedicated to the writing skills of primary school children. This article attempts to give an initial response to the following questions. Is it possible to say that the children, albeit implicitly, have and know how to use proper elements of speech rhetorical construction? And if yes, is it possible to retrieve from their writings some categories of reference? The answer to both questions was positive. In particular, in the texts produced by the children, elements related to the incipit, to the recipient, to the relationship between truth/likelihood and contradictions/incompatibilities have been found.

Segni di un codice. I santi di Lorenzo Lotto

During the exhibition on Lorenzo Lotto that took place in Rome at the Scuderie del Quirinale, an experiment was organised for secondary school students. The educational activity focused on the specific iconographic features of some saints represented by Lorenzo Lotto, that can be found in the works of other Renaissance artists as well. Hence, an iconographic code was identified and then connected with aspects of the linguistic code, notably synonimy and metonymy. The article discusses the underpinned theoretical aspects, the characteristics of the tests used in the experiment, the results of the activity.

Orientamenti di ricerca del Committee for Education and Cultural Action (Icom-Ceca)

In 1946 Unesco created the International Council of Museums (Icom), an organization with the purpose of coordinating the activities of museums around the world and promoting cooperation. Since then, Icom has extraordinarily grown and is nowadays organized in National committees, reuniting members of each country, and International committees, made of professionals who share the same interests in their works and research. The first International committee created by Icom is the Committee for Education and cultural Action (Ceca), and this proves the priority attributed to museum communication towards the public. This article develops in two parts: in the first, Icom political and administrative structure is described, with the explanation of how it works; in the second, Ceca institutional aims are introduced, and then, its work in the research field of cultural mediation in museums is presented. A complex picture is thus drawn which aims at the definition of educational standards, development indicators and shared procedures, capable of overcoming any cultural, social and logistic difference, from the professionals of cultural mediation in museums all over the world.

Testo verbale e testo iconico. Verso una metacomprensione

Emma Nardi Illiteracy is a concrete presence in our society and a real threat for democracy. Educational research is consequently bound to study appropriate means of contrast, in order to allow a deep acquisition of the processes for verbal text decoding. A research project, carried out at Roma Tre University and addressed to first-year university students, considers image reading in a way that is parallel to verbal text reading, with the purpose of building a common metacomprehension framework. A quasi-experimental research was carried out, following the causalcomparative method (pre-test/post-test, experimental and comparison group), in order to verify the hypothesis that the introduction of an image comprehension method improves students’ reading ability. The article presents the theoretical background for the experiment, and details instruments and methods used, offering a proposal to envisage a common assessment and teaching framework in understanding texts and images.

The Association for Educational Assessment - Europe. An Agency for Accountability in Europe

The Association for Educational Assessment - Europe. An Agency for Accountability in Europe - AEA-Europe was founded in 2000 with the main goals of improving communication among European institutions interested in educational and occupational assessment, and providing a framework within which co-operative research, development implementation and evaluation of projects involving educational assessment could be undertaken. After 10 years of successful activity, the Association has built a position that could allow it to become the protagonist of the EU’s policy in the field of assessment, becoming a reference point for all its members, and playing a crucial role as an applicant for projects funded by the European Union. This article, dealing with research policy, describes the activity carried out by the Association since 2000, presents the EU’s policy in research funding specifically applied to Tempus projects, and discusses how the Association could contribute to evaluation and accountability in the European Higher Education and Research Area.