ITALIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

The TASC learning framework for the education of non-cognitive skills

2022-08-29T16:53:44+00:00

The recent approval in the Chamber of Deputies of the draft law aims at introducing non-cognitive competences in the curriculum of schools of all levels on an experimental basis. While this is a relevant proposal, this article identifies some aspects for improvement based on the scientific literature. In particular, the use of an innovative learning framework, Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) by Belle Wallace and Harvey B. Adams, is suggested as it is considered a valuable proposal for the promotion of thinking and problem-solving skills. In the context of primary education in Italy, this approach has already been used for accurate experimentation, from which significant trends have emerged in terms of thinking skills (e.g., reasoning, metacognition, creativity), argumentation, and interaction (e.g., peer relations, autonomy), but also in terms of motivation, self-esteem, inclusion and, more generally, learning processes. With the same learning framework, other promising experiences have been conducted in kindergarten, at university, and in adult training, which will be reported on in the text. The outlined proposal is considered a valuable contribution to non-cognitive competences education for students at all levels.

A time series analysis of students enrolled in Italian universities from 2000 to 2021

2022-12-22T11:50:40+00:00

In the last 20 years, the Italian university system has undergone various transformations. Two reforms (1999 and 2010) redesigned its educational offerings and governance system structure. These were superimposed by severe financial crises (2008, 2012, and 2020 with the pandemic from COVID-19) that eroded the pur-chasing power of families. Since 2005, 11 online universities (“università telematiche” in Italian) have been accredited. These phenomena have affected access to higher education and changed student enrollment flows to various universities. In this paper, we investigate university enrollment trends and mobility over the period 2000-2021, also concerning students’ residence, the type of university chosen, and the geographical location of institutions.

I meme nei processi di insegnamento e apprendimento: una semiotica dell’attivazione cognitiva

2022-10-09T10:24:42+00:00

Memes have now become a constant presence on social media to connote important social, political and cultural events. Thanks to their communicative power, that with an image and a few lines of text summarizes a concept in an ironic way, their use has also spread in school and university didactic contexts as an innovative mediator in teaching/learning processes. The structure of the meme conveys a concentration of meaning and to be decoded correctly requires a considerable cognitive effort which involves the knowledge of a set of "encyclopedic" elements on a specific disciplinary domain, for example math or literature. Precisely this semiotic characteristic reveals its potential in teaching as a tool for cognitive activation and support for formant evaluation: the teacher can infact propose memes himself or have them made by students: in both cases he will have to verify their correct interpretation by providing immediate feedback about the meanings associated with the meme. However, memes must be used with care since they can also generate cognitive overload and convey cognitive or cultural stereotypes and are to be considered not substitutes but a useful complement to traditional active teaching strategies.

Prime pagine

2022-12-22T11:38:30+00:00

Prime pagine

State of Educational Research in Italy: A Scoping Review

2022-09-05T13:35:38+00:00

Evaluating whether and how educational research is conducted in a particular country is of great importance because it can help stimulate the scientific community to improve its quality. In particular, the investigation methods it uses, the relationship between them and the aims assigned to the research itself are important. This work examines the articles published during six years (from 2016 to 2021) in the most qualified scientific journals dealing with teaching in Italy. The questions to answer are about how much the overall educational research emphasizes the empirical dimension, what kind of research designs are prevalent, what qualitative and experimental approaches are present.

In the period examined, the analysis highlights a significant number of published articles which mainly saw the prevalence of studies and discussions of a theoretical nature (76,6%). For the remaining part, within a residual number of works that are interested in an experimental empirical approach, the prevalence of observational and qualitative studies is clear, many times with little impact on educational practice. The picture that emerges, requires critical reflection within the scientific community to establish and suggest more explicit and demanding criteria and guidelines.

Learning difficulties for out-of-home care pre-teens and teenagers: school implications, research challenges and new educational directions

2022-09-24T11:52:11+00:00

Studies on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) have increased in different countries, to identify their short- and long-term effects on minor life trajectories. Particular attention was paid to the negative effects of ACEs on school integration and learning. International research has consistently attested and with convergence, in various countries, the presence of learning difficulties among minors who spent a period of time in contest with numerous risk factors, prior to placement. Studying our context, especially with attention to identifying protective factors, is important to prevent the difficulties of children in OOHC. In this contribution, we present a survey in the Municipality of Turin in the years 2021/22 with a sample of 111 minors (from 10 to 17 years), partly in foster care and partly in residential service, aimed not only to describe the phenomenon, but also to detect specific areas for improvement of the care system. In fact, the research also investigates the support strategies used by educators to cope with these difficulties. The results of the survey have significant educational implications, for the work and for the training of professionals involved in the care and support process, in particular for educators. New challenges also emerge for pedagogical research on the subject, more frequently approached from other perspectives (sociological, psychological, legal).

Construction, factor structure and reliability of an instrument to investigate teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of digital technologies in teaching

2022-08-30T09:09:54+00:00

The paper presents the process of constructing and examining the factor structure and reliability of an instrument (“TECNOINS”) to investigate in-service teachers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of digital technologies in teaching. The exploration of the factor structure - in a sample of 165 primary and secondary school teachers - yielded three factors corresponding to the three theoretical constructs considered within the Technology Acceptance Model: attitude, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. In addition, each factor demonstrated reliability estimates in the acceptable to good range of internal consistency and showed adherence to the theoretical constructs. Although some psychometric characteristics remain to be assessed, the instrument “TECNOINS” can represent a valuable research tool for monitoring and evaluating initial and continuous teacher education and training, Action-Research or Training-Research, as well as teaching-technological innovation practices in the school context.

Work demand characteristics and the valorization of university experience

2022-10-04T10:12:56+00:00

This study adopts an innovative concept of transition to the workplace, which envisages the non-linearity of paths by merging the economic sensitivity to job demand, to the pedagogical deweyan one according to which experiences are ‘educational’ if learning continuity is identifiable.

By so doing, the study analyses the continuity of transition to the workplace for graduates between 2008 and 2019 from the five universities of the Lazio region (Sapienza, Roma Tre, for a 12% of the reference population; Tuscia, LUISS, LUMSA), for a total of almost 350.000 graduates and beyond 1,3 million job contracts. The analysis method adopted operates on a database, which has been the source of multiple studies of the UNI.CO work group, given by the integration of a first one by Sapienza concerning graduates’careers and a second one injecting data recorded by the Ministry of Employment.

Considering dependent or para-dependent contracts, the research only scrutinises “matched” (abbinati) graduates, namely those whose record testifies at least one job contract, studying their territorial distribution, its coherence with the degree title, and the quality of the experience.

The study proceeds to show two focuses: the first one on the typology of contracts held by the master degree graduates; the second one on the employment situation of Lazio graduates, originally living in the South of Italy.

Ultimately, the study critically offers a re-conceptualisation of the transition related terminology, overcoming notions of “typical contracts” and “degree outcomes”, by considering the complexity of these longitudinal phenomena.

Editorial

2022-12-22T11:43:26+00:00

Editoriale