Non-cognitive skills and adolescent identity in technical institutes

evidence from a research-training study

Abstract

This paper problematizes the adolescent experience in technical institutes, a context marked by socially-onstructed
hierarchies in educational pathways and devaluing narratives that can affect self-efficacy, motivation and identity. Drawing on a research-training study involving 165 first-year and 153 third-year students, the work analyses the development of non-cognitive skills as sensitive indicators of adolescent transition in environments characterised by a culture of making and the early professionalisation of roles. The findings reveal the process of renegotiating identity and confirm the role of active guidance as an inclusive pedagogical device, capable of supporting students’ initiatives and enhancing technical institutes as generative spaces of educational possibility.