Teaching places with digital technologies: A quasi-experimental study on teacher education
Keywords:
Teaching places, Local heritage, Active pedagogy, Primary education, Digital technologyAbstract
In Italy, place-based education is considered an exercise in active citizenship through the enhancement of local heritage. As part of the T-place project, funded by National Research Plan 2021-27, an educational technology workshop was conducted for primary school trainee teachers. The study investigated whether, by the end of the workshop, students developed a greater sense of local belonging and a preference for educational activities related to local heritage for their future pupils. A quasi-experimental design with post-test was used, comparing two groups (N = 89) formed using simple matching method to control background variables (gender, age, socio-economic-cultural conditions, and geographical origin). The results showed that the experimental group, compared to the control group, had a greater sense of local belonging and a preference for local heritage-related activities for their future students. The method, inspired by active pedagogy, proved effective for landscape education, regardless of the place of belonging.
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