RISULTATI RICERCA

The subject of this paper is Assessment in university contexts and aims to establish a possible dialogue between the assessment of student learning and Accessibility. The aim is to offer a reflection starting from a case study, which has tried to examine the assessment processes from the point of view of cultures (the values and meanings associated with the process), of policies (the strategic and organizational choices) and practices (tools, procedures used). The new element is represented by the specific lens that has been chosen to adopt in reading the results of the research: that of accessibility. In university contexts it becomes important to give value to a construct like this, which arises from the philosophy of Universal Design, and which reveals opportunities for rethinking and improvement starting from questions such as: is it possible to think of an assessment process that promotes accessibility for everyone? How to design a universal assessment process? The research tools used in the study are the analysis of documents (60 documents), questionnaires (156 teachers and 380 students) and Focus Groups (16 students).

Al fine di indagare criticità e potenzialità del Digital Learning nei percorsi di formazione per docenti specializzati sulle attività di sostegno, il presente contributo focalizza l’attenzione sulla qualità e sull’efficacia delle metodologie di insegnamento-apprendimento veicolate proprio tramite l’utilizzo delle Tecnologie dell’Informazione e della Comunicazione (TIC). In particolar modo, oggetto della presente indagine sono le percezioni di un campione di 237 futuri docenti di sostegno circa l’uso di un repository online di video tutorial, di cui hanno beneficiato durante il loro percorso formativo, in qualità di mediatore e dispositivo didattico. Tramite la valutazione dei risultati di apprendimento e dei feedback formativi, la riflessione si direziona, in conclusione, sulle modalità di implementazione dei percorsi di formazione volti alla costruzione di profili professionali in grado di utilizzare le tecnologie a supporto del Digital Inclusion nei contesti formativi.

School inclusion of students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is still an educational challenge for all teachers due to its heterogeneity of cognitive and behavioral profiles. On the other hand, national and international scientific literature shows that inclusive dynamics are strongly influenced by teachers’ opinions, attitudes and sense of self-efficacy on students with ASD. Based on these premises, the current study explores the opinions of future support teachers about their role in promoting the full participation of students with ASD and, particularly, whether attendance of the Specialization Course for educational support activities for pupils with disabilities may influence their opinions.

Many cognitive benefits for learning have been highlighted in the literature, due to peer feedback, but the relational aspects of this way of working, when it is implemented with groups of students, have been little investigated. This study aims to analyze some relational aspects of the use of peer feedback in the university context, considering in particular how the cohesion in the network of exchanges, the level of collaboration and inclusion of students, change during an activity carried out with a method based on peer feedback called Progressive Design Method. Eighteen undergraduate students participated in the study and worked in teams to develop projects in successive phases, each of which involved peer feedback in an online environment, Knowledge Forum. The results showed an increase in the values of the three dimensions (cohesion, collaboration and inclusion) in the first phases of work and a decrease in the last phase. The implications of the study focus on the possibility of creating collaborative learning environments in universities based on this method of work.

This paper presents the results of a study aimed at exploring the potential of technologies as learning mediators enabling the adoption of interactive and conversational teaching approaches for nurturing engagement and participation, to the benefit of the learning quality. The study was carried out at the University of Florence, involving 138 teachers attending the course of Special Pedagogy and Integrated Management of the Class Group. The empirical study adopted a mixed approach based on an online survey combined with participant observation. The elaboration of the questionnaire data and the transcribed observations indicate positive aspects such as increased levels of participation in the lessons, a more relevant and meaningful learning experience and increased motivation to follow and learn. Although the results of this study are promising, further investigation should be carried out to understand participants' perspectives and thus improve learners’ engagement, in favour of pedagogical innovation.

The paper describes the purpose and the methods of the international project “Teaching in Higher Education Effectively via Eye-tracking” (THEE) and summarizes its findings. The project studied the eye movements of higher education teachers and students to reflect on how to improve the teaching-learning process. The participants were four professors and twelve students who wore eye tracking glasses during the lessons. The results of the study demonstrate a clear benefit of the approach based on collecting eye tracking data and teachers’ self-reflection on their own classroom practice. Concerning the analysis of gaze location and teachers and students’ behaviour, we noticed that the teachers looked mostly at the centre of the classroom and that the duration of the fixations depends on the size of the classroom and the type of subjects. Moreover, the teachers of scientific subjects seem to change their fixation duration distribution over the lessons analysed while the humanities lecturers appeared more static. The analyses also highlighted that the teachers of humanities subjects were found to be very focused on the cognitive processes, while teachers of scientific subjects were attentive to the way they can involve students in learning. On the other hand, students of the humanities mainly highlighted some operational factors related to the teacher’s lesson and to their own subsequent study, whereas students of scientific subjects seemed to show more attention to the factors related to the lesson and to activities carried out in the classroom.

What do students expect from their teachers’ feedback? The article aims to focus on the expectations of a sample of university students regarding the feedback provided by their professors. The topic is addressed taking as a reference Hattie and Timperley’s model (2007) consisting of three dimensions: Feed up, Feed back, Feed forward. The questionnaire submitted to a sample of 140 students is intended as an initial test to be validated and administered to a larger sample at a later stage of the research. In this first phase, the results suggest that all the dimensions of the feedback are important, above all, the centrality of the professor's active involvement in the learning process that facilitates the student's self-regulatory and internal learning process

Technologies in training processes by radically modifying the relationship with (and between) knowledge, have determined the need to experiment with new methodological approaches to innovate didactic action, respond to subjective training needs, satisfy the ever increasing requests coming from the job market. In this paper, we want to deepen a particular action of this process, preliminary to the implementation phase of each training intervention. We refer to the needs analysis (NA) aimed at identifying training needs and requirements of the participants with respect to which to organize and modulate the contents and the didactic action. In the opinion of the author, already the NA, if accompanied by specific actions, can constitute an intentionally structured moment to enhance the effectiveness of training feedback in a diagnostic and self-assessment function and in this work we will describe an automated system designed and developed specifically for this purpose. To examine the application opportunities and to show the potential of the automated system, an experience will be presented that involved students attending the specialization course for educational support activities for pupils with disabilities held at the University of Salerno in the A.Y. 2022/2023.

Progettare pratiche didattiche partecipative in ambienti universitari, in sinergia con i servizi educativi locali, significa coltivare il dialogo tra professionalità presenti e future, creando un terreno di scambio e di arricchimento reciproco, dove teoria e prassi si nutrono vicendevolmente per co-costruire strategie inedite in risposta a sfide emergenti.All’interno di percorsi formativi online in chiave professionalizzante – messi in campo durante l’emergenza pandemica – i processi di produzione-ricezione di feedback tra gli attori in gioco hanno alimentato riflessioni pedagogiche e azioni progettuali, dando vita a una “palestra di incontri” in cui affinare competenze professionali e coltivare sguardi consapevoli sul profilo del professionista educativo, grazie anche alla testimonianza degli operatori sul campo. La sperimentazione di tali processi – ripercorsi in chiave riflessiva per rintracciarne gli snodi significativi – apre a ulteriori piste di progettazione didattica in prospettiva laboratoriale e chiama in causa l’Università come comunità viva, affinché mantenga il dialogo con gli studenti e le studentesse, accompagnandoli nell’esplorazione di identità personali e professionali.

In this paper, we present an example of a Digital Learning Ecosystem, set up during the first period of the pandemic emergency and then remodelled and re-proposed for hybrid didactics provided afterwards, involving five pedagogical-didactic courses of two universities in central Italy. The central device in this Ecosystem was recursive feedback, which in contexts of didactics mediated by screens can anyhow activate discursive, adaptive, interactive and reflexive dynamics. In order to understand if these aims were pursued, we administered an open-ended questionnaire to 274 students, which was not intended to measure their enjoyment of the method and the environment, but their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of the system on their learning processes, not only at a cognitive level, but also on at an interpersonal and intrapersonal level. The analysis was conducted according to the Structural Topic Model, which allowed us to re-read the responses as a unique corpus of reflective writings, generated by the students after the input provided by the assigned task.

Il feedback interno è un costrutto divenuto recentemente rilevante per il suo impatto sulla regolazione metacognitiva e affettivo-relazionale, in relazione a diverse skills e contesti formativi. In particolare, il concetto di comparator, ovvero gli strumenti, gli interventi o le risorse che attivano il feedback interno, necessita di approfondimento tramite ricerca empirica. In questo contributo si parte dall’ipotesi che la componente visiva delle mappe argomentative (MA), già legate allo sviluppo di  skills argomentative e di pensiero critico, possa essere una fonte generativa di comparazione concreta, permettendo una comprensione facilitata ed una migliore ricostruzione del senso dell’informazione testuale argomentativa. Infatti, le AM diagrammano le relazioni logiche fra i diversi enunciati, permettendo di seguire e di comprendere meglio la catena di ragionamento. Per verificare la suddetta ipotesi, è stato condotto uno studio sperimentale per indagare in che misura un percorso con le AM favorisse gli studenti nell’incremento di: a) feedback interno (FI) associato quindi a b) il livello di competenza di comprensione del testo (CoT) e a c) lo sviluppo di pensiero critico (CT).

In order to make feedback become a process leading didactic practises it is necessary to overcome the static and single-directional vision linked to providing and receiving feedback and to go towards an interactive and generative feedback, foreseeing some peer feedback moments, some self-evaluation and self- regulation. In this paper we would like to describe a didactic path focused on feedback, activated in two University courses in different Universities with the following aims: activating subsequent feedback spirals (Carless, 2019), first between Professor and students, then between peers, to get to a self-awareness interior process, that is an incorporation of reflexivity on one’s own practices. Promoting feedback literacy (Carless & Boud, 2018) in the student through the experimentation in the practice. In particular, we will account for a peer feedback process realised in the following steps: a) the group production of a learning design; b) the peer review of the colleagues’ designs, through the "Ladder of Feedback" protocol, with a following sharing of the reviews; c) the subsequent reflection on the activated processes through a questionnaire on the students’ perceptions. The analysis of those productions enables us to reflect upon the sense of effectiveness granted to the peer feedback, on the differences between the Professor’s and the peer feedbacks, on the comprehension of the role of the peer feedback within the training process.

In this paper we present a model for formative assessment based on peer-review workshops on MOODLE, designed by researchers of te University of Salerno and  the University of Torino. The model has been implemented in the Mathematics and Mathematics education courses in Primary Education at the University of Torino. The peer-review workshops are intended to pursue the following objectives: (1) strengthening the argumentative skills of prospective teachers to direct them towards a relational view of mathematics; (2) provide them with models of formative assessment rooted in peer-review feedback managed by the university lecturer. We present an example of peer-review that intertwines effective feed-back with a relational understanding of mathematical thinking.

The article describes a technology-mediated collaborative peer-feedback experience. 125 students took part into the activity during the delivery of a 3-months teaching in “Methodology of Action Research”, within a 3-year Degree Course in Psychological, Social and Occupational Sciences. The activity was based on a 4-phases cycle of collaborative output production, structured peer-feedback, collaborative output improvement, individual reflection. The aim of the exploratory case-study here presented is to observe if and how the peer-feedback activity supported the development of collaborative, meta-cognitive and digital skills, other than knowledge acquisition. To answer our research questions, we used a mixed system, able to provide both objective data with respect to the activity carried out and the skills put in place, and subjective data related to the students' personal experience and the perceived impact on their learning. Results show a good appropriation of metacognitive skills and offer numerous hints on the design aspects which have been found to be effective in supporting students’ learning.

Educational research on learning models highlights the need to activate awareness in the individual to assess knowledge and its function. This presupposes that the very knowledge does not have the character of a passive reflection of an already existing order of things. Rather, it is a question of recognizing in the individual the dynamic identity between learning and acting. In this context of investigation, it may be useful to revisit some fundamental lines of thinking expressed by classical American pragmatism, according to which human being is essentially action. Hence, everyone at the same time, is responsible to contributing to the production of a situational truth and to its con-validating. In this sense, the function of knowing as learning cannot be separated from its connection with a social praxis.

This survey, which involved 258 students of the Primary Education Sciences degree course at the University of Molise, intends to examine the effects of feedback literacy activities in supporting student learning. With this purpose, a qualitative analysis of the reflective narratives contained in the e-portfolios produced by the students during the lessons was conducted. The results demonstrate a particular utility of peer feedback activities in increasing forms of self-assessment and autonomous review of the work performed.

The topic concerning both identification, recognition, evaluation and validation of the competences acquired in non-formal and informal contexts, as well as the link with those acquired in formal contexts, has assumed increasing centrality in the last fifteen years in the European and national debate. Within this debate, also with reference to the Italian regulatory framework of Law no. 4 of 2013, the Scuola Nazionale di Improvvisazione Teatrale – Improteatro – has embarked on a path of participatory research-action in order to define both training standards aimed at qualifying the training activities of theatrical improvisation and professional standards aimed at make explicit and maintain the competences of the performers- professional trainers belonging to the organization. This process therefore has intended to strengthen the professional community of Improteatro by qualifying their internal professionalism and the training activities of theatrical improvisation. Starting from the discussion of the normative, theoretical and methodological framework and of the first results produced, the paper aims to offer a methodological and operational contribution for organizations intending to start processes such as the one presented here.

Valutare il guadagno formativo di un’esperienza è tema attuale e cogente in ambito di apprendimento non formale e informale. A tal proposito, l’articolo presenta un modello di valutazione formativa utilizzato nelle attività di apprendimento esperienziale denominata “Sentirsi in alto mare” dell’associazione EFESP (Ecosistemi Formativi Esperienziali) e rivolto a professionisti quali docenti, insegnanti, educatori, facilitatori, psicologi ed esperti delle risorse umane sia ai fini della loro formazione iniziale1, sia per la loro formazione in servizio. Nella complessa articolazione del modello valutativo utilizzato, coerentemente con il modello formativo esperienziale, in questa sede si discute, nello specifico, un questionario strutturato per mappare il mindset per l’agire competente dei soggetti coinvolti nelle attività formative. Si discuteranno alcune questioni teoriche e implicazioni metodologiche rispetto alla funzione formativa della valutazione che accompagna attività di apprendimento esperienziale, fornendo  alcune indicazioni operative.

The paper explores teachers’ interactional uses of stereotypes and prejudices in the Italian L2 classroom. Drawing from video-ethnographic research in a voluntary association, this study adopts a discursive approach to stereotypes and prejudices, analyzing their pragmatic uses during classroom activities. Even though previous literature has mostly argued against these social devices, the analysis illustrates that teachers make use of stereotypes and prejudices to pursue their local aims in the classroom. Specifically, teachers mobilize stereotyped talk to achieve specific social and didactic aims (e.g., to explain a lexical items or to prompt laughter). In the discussion, we critically consider the risks and opportunities of this kind of practice and advance few implications for teachers’ professional practice, arguing for the relevance of video-based teacher training.