Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica. Journal of Theories and Research in Education

Flipping university teaching: a flipped classroom experimentation in the Community of Inquiry framework

2022-06-24T16:35:11+02:00

In the context of an Erasmus+ research project on the educational technology, the study deals with the issue of teaching innovation at the university through the experimentation of a flipped classroom, assuming that this can enhance the dimensions of the theoretical framework of the Community of Inquiry (CoI). The results of the CoI Survey – administered to students at the end of the course – are analysed and, in a mixed-method perspective, they are also related to the metaphorical representations provided by students regarding their learning experience. Moreover, in a quasi-experimental design, the CoI results in the flipped course are compared with those obtained in a cycle of traditional lessons. The evidence does not allow to identify an advantage of the flipped model on the cognitive aspects, while it offers partial evidence in favour of traditional lectures about some factors of teacher presence, and in favour of flipped classroom on some aspects of social presence.

Reading a minority language at school: The case of the Ladin reading book «Flus de munt»

2022-06-24T11:17:43+02:00

This article starts from a special scientific interest regarding the historical textbooks of the Ladin school in the province of Bolzano. It subjects to a didactic and linguistic analysis the book «Flus de munt» [Mountain flowers], a reading book for primary schools of the Badia valley (South Tyrol), published in three editions between 1967 and 1978. Particularly, the question is asked, what didactic and linguistic relevance this book had and how it influenced the teaching of Ladin in the Ladin school in the years and decades following its publication. From a didactic point of view, it is of great importance to reconstruct with which objectives the book was produced and how this process was perceived by the authors themselves. Instead, from a linguistic point of view, «Flus de munt» stands out as one of the first schoolbooks written entirely in the Ladin language, using two Ladin variants for the same valley: the «Badiotto » and the «Marebbano». Moreover, the book plays a significant role in the development of a (linguistic and cultural) Ladin identity.

Educating for citizenship through intercultural democracy

2022-07-11T11:49:33+02:00

This paper deals with the complex and multidimensional concept of citizenship and highlights how citizenship education should foster, above all, practices nourished by being together, by the exchange of experiences between those becoming cultures that people, and specifically students, are. The classroom remains a privileged place to begin to experience otherness, practice freedom, and therefore responsibility, in a respectful way for themselves and others. In brief to become aware and participating citizens. For this purpose, we need a teaching environment that does not relegate learning only to a closed space, like a transmitting setting of knowledge or skills where teachers explain and students repeat, or the instructor demonstrates and pupils imitate. For democratic citizenship, a dynamic didactics is necessary, capable of going beyond lectures through analytical and reflective spaces (why space) that accustom students to thinking and interpreting the world. Further space is crucial as well, that is an experiential-recreational setting planned to guarantee the pupils the possibility to live their environment wittingly. In conclusion, authentic citizenship education needs to bring together knowledge and know-how with the ability to stay with others, starting from contexts experienced every day.

Assessment competence according to teachers: a survey conducted with preschool and first-cycle teachers in four comprehensive schools in Tuscany

2022-09-29T08:22:25+02:00

In most cases, teachers greet the changes in the regulations concerning the assessment of learning with diffidence. Either because they perceive them as external provisions taken on by the government, or because these changes introduce firm elements of discontinuity in well-established teaching practices. This paper presents an exploratory study on teachers' perceptions of assessment and related practices, conducted with a group of preschools and “primo ciclo” schools in Tuscany. The data collected following the administration of the ActEval questionnaire (Quesada et al., 2013) show a low perception of teachers' competence in the use of innovative approaches to assessment, especially with regard to pupils' involvement in the assessment process and the implementation of formative assessment strategies. A critical analysis of the results identifies in-service training as the most effective tool for increasing teachers' evaluation skills and practices to be implemented in ordinary teaching.

Teachers’ attachment, sickness absence and presenteeism. Association between teachers’ attachment and sickness absence and presenteeism in elementary schools

2022-09-05T22:14:09+02:00

The purpose of this study was to find the association between teachers’ adult attachment styles and employee sickness absence and presenteeism. Research data was collected via an online questionnaire. The SPSS program was used. The research was conducted in elementary schools and 779 Slovenian teachers were included. In order to measure teachers’ attachment, we used the ECR-RT and an insecure attachment was found in the sample. We did not find any correlations between sickness absence and presenteeism and the attachment among participants. A methodological tool for the Slovenian setting has been developed and can be used to measure attachment with an add-on for the measurement of sickness absence and presenteeism. The research assignment presents results of our investigation into the connection between teachers’ attachment and sickness absence and presenteeism, and at the same time calls for similar research to be done in other countries.

Art as experience by John Dewey and the Reggio Emilia Approach. Philosophical and pedagogical perspectives in comparison

2022-09-07T16:48:01+02:00

This paper sets out to demonstrate how the work Art as experience (1934) by the American philosopher and pedagogist John Dewey, who was an advocate for the pedagogical activism, was significant to shape Loris Malaguzzi’s thought (1920-1994) and the Reggio Emilia Approach. Reggio’s pedagogical approach is addressed to kindergartens and is characterized by a pedagogy open to all expressive languages, that sees in the artistic experience a new way of living school. According to its experiential and educational context, the Reggio Emilia Approach takes inspiration from Art as experience and reinterprets it configuring its different and important suggestions. Through philosophical-pedagogical investigations, the article reflects on the meaning of the aesthetic experience, of creativity, and of the artistic experience interconnected with relationships. Both Art as experience and Reggio Emilia Approach conceive art as a powerful heuristic tool for human experience and reality.

“We teachers really got together”. The school as an educational community during the Covid-19 pandemic

2022-10-20T15:47:47+02:00

The schools’ closure and the adoption of distance learning (DL) during the Covid-19 pandemic deeply changed Italian schools’ teaching and organizational practices. This article investigates how a micro-universe of four parents, seven teachers, and a school principal experienced and represented the role of the school during the first Covid-19 lockdown (March-June 2020). We analyzed the set of semi-structured interviews through Thematic Analysis (TA). We identified three cross-cutting representations: the school as an “educational community”, as a “guide”, and as a “place of care”. Despite its fading as a physical space, the teachers experienced the school as a place to build meaningful relationships, intensify communication with colleagues, and re-discover the collective dimension of teaching. The school principal’s leadership, which was oriented towards the inclusion and valuing of teachers’ skills, served as a professional guide and emotional support for the teaching staff.

Book review of: Chiara Lepri, Di bugia in bugia. Tra le pagine di narrativa per bambini e ragazzi, Pacini, 2018

2022-10-18T14:42:47+02:00

Book review of: Fernand Deligny, I Vagabondi efficaci, Edizioni dell’Asino, 2020

2022-11-22T18:29:46+01:00