Graduate School of Education KookMin University Directed By Professor. Kim, Kwan-Bae
As metaphor is directly related to the creative use of language, it leads to the extension of thinking ability. When metaphor is used, convenience and utility exist in information delivery. That's why the job of examining the educational application of metaphor use is meaningful. We can expect the improvement of students' abilities of thinking and expression from the educational applications of metaphor.
Metaphor is explaining something through the comparison to another thing, so it expands an ordinary thinking system and imagination beyond a rhetorical concept. It is an artistic technique of regarding an original image and a supplementary image as the same things. Therefore, when two or more images hardly mixing in reality appear in one scene at the
same time, their interaction can communicate the designed intention and meaning.
In addition, metaphor is an efficient means of materializing a new or abstract meaning through the already known facts.
That is, an unclear or a totally new fact can be made clear.
What's more, the abstract aspects of a target object can be made concrete to leave a powerful visual impression.
The excellent effects of metaphor in learning are diverse:
explaining abstract concepts, implying the usage of something, relating ideas, and increasing afford through the provision of visual communication methods to learners. These effects are the very things that are needed in basic visual designs.
Above all, metaphor becomes one of the means of helping students expand thinking and increase creativity. As metaphor originates from each student's own experience and recognition, various personalities and potentiality can be drawn.
In this research, the concept of metaphor as used in linguistics, psychology, philosophy, and aesthetics is applied to the educational processes of basic visual designs in vocational high schools. The present study can be summed up as follows:
1. The concept, characteristics, and general theories of metaphor are investigated in the concerned literature. This is
the theoretical examination to reveal whether metaphor is applicable to the education of basic visual designs.
2. Creativity, imagination, and metaphor are known to understand the relations between metaphor theories and a design education.
3. Centered on concepts and expressions, metaphor in visual designs is reviewed to check the ways of application.
4. The processes of the metaphor-applied basic visual design education are researched, while curricular plans are suggested.
The process with the application of metaphor in basic visual design develops in seven stages: presentation of theme, written representation, categorization, application of metaphor, idea sketching, idea expression, and evaluation. Such a process is meaningful in enabling students to improve the creative thinking and expressions through easier and systematic learning.
The presentation of theme is an introductory stage, in which the topic of the lesson is introduced and critical mind is aroused.
The theme is gradually conveyed to students by the transition from the introduction of concrete concepts to that of abstract concepts. Teachers are advised to present the theme in the way of asking questions. Since the students are not expected to suggest familiar answers, they must provide their own interpretation from other aspects. Thus, the presentation of theme by asking questions would stimulate the students to
search for other meanings.
In the stage of written representation, the attributes of the theme are described. It would provide the foundations for the students to apply the metaphor more easily and to become more flexible with their approaches to various attributes.
Categorization is the process provided for the search of the metaphor with ease. Categorization puts the meanings and images about the theme into groups. It would be associated with a more diversified and creative way for the combination of common features in various words or for the conversion of several directions into the same meanings.
In the application of metaphor, the category is selected for the expression of the student's own feelings and the metaphorical sentences are organized. Since the category is selected among those made available in the categorization stage out of the differences in experiences, knowledge, or imaginations, it is unlikely for the students to have similar metaphorical sentences among themselves. Therefore, a variety of expressions may emerge for single theme.
The stage of idea sketching visualizes the images about theme. Diverse visualization is possible, as the metaphorical sentences with selected words do not imply only one correct interpretation for the text.
In the stage of idea expression, the formative tools suitable for the students' own idea expression should be chosen for
concrete representation. Above all, the intension of the expression should be maintained with the focus placed on the idea about the metaphorical theme, rather than descriptive skills.
In the stage of evaluation, the sympathy of other students should be won through the presentation of finished works. The presentation would provide the students with the opportunities to recollect and arrange their own thoughts and experiences for the embodiment of the theme with the application of their own metaphor. Winning of the sympathy among the students each other would contribute to their gaining of indirect experiences through their own metaphor. The application of metaphor, which is basically the process-centered education rather than the result-centered education, would serve as the base for more flexible and broader thinking of the students.
Therefore, in the basic visual design education at vocational high schools, the metaphor applied educational processes are expected to make best use of students' experiences and improve their imagination, aesthetical sensitivity, and creativity.
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