Educating teachers for a competence-based approach to teaching. The case of the preschools in Vicenza

Abstract

Teaching and learning skills is not a new topic but, as Maccario asserts (2012, p. XVII), “they have to recognize that many things still remain to be made to support schools and teachers in their comparison to the requests that the concept of competence introduces in the educational practices, both in the building of validate knowledge […] and in the opportunities of educational offer”. The perspective becomes the expression of a paradigmatic can deeply change the idea of knowledge if the reconsideration is a global and transformative process and not only a formal and a superficial act (Castoldi,
2010, p. 97). In 2012 the National Indications marked the guidelines for the 3-14 years syllabus, involving thousands of teachers coming from different grades in this challenge. These teachers are asked to understand and to put into practice the big change in their daily work, even if there are  resistances, lack of systematic education and common foundations to work on. The contribution presents the main steps of a training path which interested a copious group of teachers from state and city preschools in Vicenza. The path was built step by step starting from the emerging needs analysis between teachers from a reflective perspective (Mortari, 2003; 2009). Two main steps have been developed: the first (S.Y. 2011-12) aimed to identify and to analyze needs
through a workshop, the second (S.Y. 2012-13) aimed to deepen the topic with the active involvement of participants (laboratory). These incentives integrated teachers’ practices and encouraged people to foster reflections and productions based upon their expertise and experiences (Hattie, 2009; Calvani, 2012). The educational path was based on a bottom-up perspective in order to get back and to renew the “metaphorical threads of the teachers’ educational acting” giving advices and tools to rebuild “plots of meaning” about skills education.