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This position paper attempts to ground the discussion on improving the quality of teaching in the context of Higher Education (HE) in order to take concrete directions toward what in the scientific literature is identified as a culture of quality in education. This concept implies an approach to continuing monitoring, reflection and change toward innovation through main stakeholders’ engagement. The paper will hence briefly introduce the policy context and research background at international and national level, in order to analyze the opportunities of implementing a culture of quality regarding teaching at the University of Trento. Furthermore, it will make a number of recommendations for the concrete implementation of the approach. The document is hence divided into the following parts: A first part, introducing the policy context regarding agenda for the modernization of HE in Europe and at international level. In this context, the issue of quality teaching is focused as key element towards better quality of Higher Education. A second part, regarding the importance and forms of innovation in pedagogical approaches in HIgher Education, as well as the conditions of professional development in academic staff regarding better teaching. A third part, consisting on the research carried out by our research unit within the University of Trento, regarding the issue of quality in Higher Education. A fourth part is devoted to introduce recommendations for the implementation of concrete measures and interventions at institutional level.

There was in Spain an inicial «army of teachers» freinetians, a group of snipers commited to the renovation of the system of education which was born and grew in the shade of the Republic. To this army belonged the teachers’ small squad of Extremadura, which took two schools of Las Hurdes as a surprising origin. From there it extended to Montijo -principal center of diffusion for the rest of the educational experiences in the region: Calamonte, Valencia de Alcantara, La Puebla del Maestre and, probably also, Arroyo del Puerco. Surprising is not only that the origin of such an educational innovation took place in a region like Las Hurdes, but also that it was proceeding almost at the same time as the huge movement in Catalonia and Aragon, and that it, most likely, was not affected by Almendros ́s influences. There are reasons to believe that the teacher Jose Vargas Gómez, the origin of everything, had early news from Freinet through the teachers from Torrijos and Camarena before arriving to Las Hurdes.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The article discusses the interplay between language, cognition and culture from a cognitive diachronic perspective, focusing on the relation between religion and metaphorical thought. It investigates the role of the conceptual metaphor UNDERSTANDING IS LIGHT in religious discourse, using the example of The Revelations of Divine Love, written by Julian of Norwich, a late medieval anchoress. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METODS: The paper draws on the Extended Conceptual Metaphor approach, Zoltán Kövecses’s elaboration of the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT). The universalist bias of CMT means that the theory tends to ignore the sociocultural context of historical data, prioritising the influence of universal human embodiment on metaphorical thought. Using Kövecses’s approach, the paper shows how the gap in CMT methodology may be bridged to yield more reliable results. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The present study connects Kövecses’s approach to Cognitive Linguistic research into sociocultural situatedness. To exemplify the problem, the analysis examines the cognitive‑cultural underpinnings of Julian’s use of the metaphor UNDERSTAND‑ ING IS LIGHT. RESEARCH RESULTS: The analysis shows that the metaphorical conceptualisation pattern may well derive from Julian’s sociocultural situatedness. The paper indicates that the anchoress’s metaphorical thought should be seen as embedded in the late medieval sociocultural context, rather than being considered solely in terms of universal aspects of embodiment. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND THE APPLICATIVE VALUE OF RESEARCH: The study concludes that the idea of sociocultural situatedness may be pivotal in the analyses of historical texts. It seems important to incorporate this idea into Kövecses’s approach, which may inform the methodology of cognitive diachronic research into metaphorical conceptualisations. Furthermore, the results may be applied to teaching students how to approach historical texts, helping them gain a better understanding of the relation between metaphorical thought and culture.

This paper provides a comprehensive review of evidence-based behavioural strategies for the successful inclusion of children with autism in general education environments. The authors emphasize the importance of creating a truly inclusive learning environment and implementing behavioural research-based strategies to support the effective inclusion of children with autism. The review includes behavioural strategies such as behavioural assessment and approaches, review and practice, direct instruction, formative assessment and feedback, and school-wide positive behaviour support. The paper is one of a series of papers reviewing inclusive strategies for children with Autism.

Over the last thirty years English for Academic Purposes (EAP) has expanded, cutting across the domains of specialised discourse, and has shifted its focus to meet the needs of large numbers of non-native speaking students at the university level. In this regard, English for Academic Legal Purposes (EALP) can be defined as the teaching and learning of legal English as an ESP subject that includes the academic dimensions of EAP. This paper investigates how EALP textbooks has responded to the challenges of law school education. Reflecting on the pedagogic contributions of Carrick and Dunn (1985), Candlin, Bhatia, and Jensen (2002), and Prinsloo (2015), this paper begins diachronically with a sample of EALP-type textbooks from the point where Prinsloo completed his analysis. Drawing on these reviews, this paper attempts to provide some insights into the development of EALP-type textbooks and their response to the challenges of legal English education.

Classroom deliberations in an inclusive environment is challenging yet rewarding. Teaching students with varied needs under the same roof provides the teachers with the opportunity to bring out their best and to help students to attain an optimum level of learning. The purpose set for this paper is to conduct a rigorous review of inclusive teaching-learning practices across countries to understand and present the best ways of conducting an inclusive classroom. To explore the stated objective the researchers opted for an extensive desk review method to review the available related literature in a systematic manner. As a result of conducting a systematic review analysis, certain themes have emerged under which plausible inclusive practices have been presented as a finding of the research. The study presented five categories of best teaching practices that emerged from the review. This paper presented a concise and accumulated version of the best practices and methods adopted by the practitioners in inclusive education across the world. Amalgamated findings present that using ICT, individualised learning and various classroom management techniques, collaboration and curriculum adaptations provide the best ways to promote inclusion.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The research investigates how young boys progress in life after the loss of their fathers. It explores the adjustments they make, the coping mechanisms they develop to navigate life, and the male roles they assume in the family. Additionally, it examines how family can aid and support their coping and adjustment process. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: This study utilises a case study methodology focused on gaining an understanding of the lives of two adolescent boys who experienced the death of their fathers in the early formative years of their lives. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The paper focuses on five themes- family dynamics, life transitions with and without their fathers, post-loss reassignment of family roles, present circumstances, and future goals. RESEARCH RESULTS: A qualitative analysis of the data revealed that participants’ belief systems, family support, and striving toward future goals helped them to be resilient in this event. CONCLUSIONS RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: While most research typically emphasises the negative impacts of death on people, this study demonstrates how individuals’ can be resilient, dependent on both person-related factors and environmental factors. To help adolescents who are grieving become resilient, the paper offers intervention and coping strategies through counselling, the availability of support networks, and combined efforts by the state and educational institutions.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: Governments across the world were forced to impose social distancing and lockdown measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in December 2019. Following the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic, the disruptions, including restrictive measures such as school closures had severe impacts on the physical, emotional and mental health of all people, especially children with special needs. There was also scant data, particularly in low-to-middle-income countries. Existing literature stems mostly from western countries, thus the need to perform a comprehensive review on this topic. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The primary objective of the systematic review is to understand the impact of COVID-19 and restrictive measures such as school closures on the educational outcomes and physical and mental health of school-going children with special needs. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: This systematic review used the PRISMA 2020 checklist where four databases and grey literature were searched for full text articles, peer reviewed publications in the English language that were published during January 2019–December 2021. RESEARCH RESULTS: The literature search identified 1294 publications, of which 25 key papers were selected. These studies investigate the impact on children with special needs across the globe, with a majority of papers from Europe. We found that COVID-19 and the digitalization of schooling had severe impacts on the physical and mental health of children with special needs and their parents/caregivers. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: These studies highlight the need for an inclusive school environment to ensure that the learning outcomes for children everywhere are achieved. Further, a hybrid model that includes classroom learning with novel inventive methods would be beneficial for children with special needs.

The post-digital era is characterised by the vast presence of platforms that impose their digital affordances and algorithmic control on our behaviour. This environment is challenging education and training, with implications for digital and transmedial literacy. Investigating instructional methodologies is crucial to fostering critical comprehension of such novel informational environments. Argument maps (AMs), which were first created and evaluated in static information contexts (analogical/old web), could be useful in the emergence of dynamic (post-digital) textual forms. The current paper describes a comprehensive literature review based on the above assumptions. We looked into state-of-the-art research on using AMs to handle dynamic information. We found 150 papers using a PRISMA procedure and then examined 19 of them. Our review produced pertinent data about the current state of AMs, including the types of texts on which they are used and the tools (especially digital and artificial intelligence [AI]-based) that have been employed. Our research lays the groundwork for teaching the literacies needed in new informational settings, such as multimodal, dynamic, algorithmic and data-driven contexts, with a specific focus on AMs as effective mediational tools.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of the paper was to discuss a function of passion in professional personal lives of eminent Cracow musicians. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The paper raises the problem of the role of passion in the process of shaping musical eminence, answers the question of the scope of experiencing it as well as it manifesting in activities of outstanding individuals. In conducted research and interpretations, the qualitative perspective and biographical method were applied. The leading technique was problem-concentrated qualitative interview, partially structured, carried out with ten eminent instrumentalists. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The theoretical basis for this reading of the experience of educational biographies was provided by the Model of Authentic Vocation of J. Weller and the Dualistic Model of Passion of A. Bonneville-Roussy, G. Lavigne and R. Vallerand. The interpretations of the research material described the topography of experiencing passion. RESEARCH RESULTS: The article describes autonomous passion associated with musical mastery, instrumental motivation to practice, as well as distinguishes important factors that determine the experience of passion, persistence or burnout (tenacity, ambition, community transfer, conflict of motives, work overload), and concretizes the qualities of musical passion of outstanding musicians: professionalization, love of music, integrity, creativity, strength and determination in pursuit of goals, as well as humility in the face of challenges. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Deciphering the senses and meanings that prominent Cracow musicians attributed to passion suggests that it was autonomous, harmonious and instrumental, motivated by the pursuit of mastery, and that the trajectories of the musicians’ professional biographies were a manifestation of a “professionalization of passion,” which formed the core of their educational experience and constituted and defined their life creed.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(1), 235-255 | Article | (Table of Contents) I. Introduction. - II. Theories of organisational change and survival. - II.1. Functional imperatives: organisational survival "on delivery". - II.2. Power perspective: survival as political battle. - II.3. Institutionalisation and survival. - II.4. Institutional perspective - Survival by riding a fashion wave. - III. The OMC in time and context. - III.1. The birth of OMC education: the European Commission's administration as facilitator. - III.2. Dealing with Member States' sensitivity and the politics of education policy. - III.3. Change and reorganisation. - III.4. Soft governance as practices without a label. - IV. Conclusions: why is OMC education an unlikely survivor? | (Abstract) The introduction of the OMC brought a new template for organising EU governance and EU social and economic policy coordination. This Article looks into how the OMC template for organising governance became practice and developed over time in the education sector. Soft governance under the label OMC has had considerable impact on the approach to common decision-making in EU education policy. The OMC template enabled European level policy makers to enter into issues that had largely been off limits to the EU. The actors, especially the Directorate General Education and Culture (DG EAC), used the OMC format to work around the considerable national sensitivity of education. This way of organising governance was normalised as an appropriate approach to cooperation. The substantive effects on Member States' policy and policy output are, on the other hand, limited. Hence, the functional effectiveness cannot explain the survival of the OMC education. Yet, the soft coordination organised under the heading "Education and Training 2010/2020" survived because the practices incrementally gained legitimacy and became routine. The organisation of governance based on the OMC also became the platform upon which the sector could defend and profile its contribution to European integration. Despite the fact that the OMC label was no longer considered a fashionable and effective organisational template on the EU governance scene, the education sector upheld these governance arrangements.

(Series Information) European Papers - A Journal on Law and Integration, 2018 3(1), 203-205 | Article | (Abstract) This introduction presents the five Articles of this Special Section that was originally conceived at a workshop entitled "Taking Stock of the Open Method of Coordination" (21stIus Commune Congress, 24-25 November 2016, Maastricht, the Netherlands). With a view to deepening understanding of policy coordination in the EU, the Articles place the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) within the broader system of EU law and competences, explore its application in various EU policy areas, study its different forms and the multiplicity of processes that it involves, draw attention to novel processes of coordination at the EU level, examine the relationship of the OMC with other coordination procedures and mechanisms and verify whether or not the OMC remains a relevant conceptual framework for understanding EU policy coordination.

THE «ROBOTICS INTEREST QUESTIONNAIRE» (RIQ): A TOOL TO DETECT FACTORS UNDERLYING ROBOTICS TEACHING Abstract The growing interest of the scientific and educational community in Educational Robotics (ER) is linked to the need to develop digital skills and computational thinking in the younger generation. Through ER it is possible to train multiple cognitive skills and not only programming skills. To this end, it is decisive to outline a new competence profile for teachers that can influence this aspect by activating ER training courses. The paper presents the «Robotics Interest Questionnaire» (RIQ), a validated questionnaire in Italian able to measure with some precision the factors involved in teaching robotics, and discusses the data collected on teachers of all levels (823 teachers). The results provide normative values useful, for example, to allow the diagnostic use of the RIQ in the startup phase of teacher training, in order to hypothesize the level possessed by the participants and orientate the didactic design and the content-methodological choices of the intervention, as well as the final evaluation of the training outcomes thanks to its ability to highlight, when used before and after, improvements in the dimensions investigated: knowledge and interest, sense of self-efficacy, problem solving and collaboration.

In recent years, the use of innovative learning strategies within museum education contexts has been considerably supported by the use of digital technologies, especially in terms of critical thinking enhancement. As underlined by several studies in the field, the aesthetic experience is particularly effective in terms of reflection skills promotion, critical interpretation and analysis, both at individual and group level, as well as personal and creative reinterpretation (Biasi, Patrizi, & Fagioli, 2020). The present paper describes a research conducted within the MOOC «Teaching Critical Thinking through Art», created by the National Gallery of Art in Washington (DC), under the scientific supervision of the Harvard Project Zero researchers, pioneers of Visual Thinking Strategies within the museum context. The paper is aimed at illustrating the results of a content analysis conducted on the forum section of the above-mentioned MOOC during the 2020 edition. In particular, 163 posts from the «See/think/wonder» activity were assessed by two human evaluators using two different Critical Thinking evaluation tools (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2001; Poce, 2017). In addition, specific analyses were carried out selected users’ writing activities in order to identify possible positive correlations between the characteristics of forum posts and the critical thinking skills solicited.

This paper is an effort in reviewing and assembling the research findings of different researchers on the factors that cause conflicts in schools and the strategies adopted by schools for conflict resolution. The research is limited to certain databases only. The basis for selecting relevant literature for this study is their accessibility, language (English) and relevancy to the topic and only those research papers that highlight teacher-teacher conflicts and teacher-administration conflicts have been selected. The several factors that emerged from the study were classified as Structural and Personal factors only. The originality of this paper rests in an attempt to attract the attention of the research community towards the factors that lead to conflicts in schools and an insight into the strategies used by the school administration to resolve them. This study also recommends that school administrators be trained to identify at least some factors responsible for conflicts among their staff, even among the students of the school so that they can resolve it in a better way.

This paper explores a 2016 paper published by Simons and colleagues on the efficacy of ‘brain training’ programs, in relation to the Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment program for teaching thinking. It compares the focus of this Simons paper on interventions with commercial brain training software, with the broad Feuerstein intervention aimed at structural cognitive modifiability. Two approaches to evaluation are discussed. This paper suggests an alternative set of criteria for evaluating effectiveness to the “gold standard” traditional clinical experimental design criteria used in the Simons paper. This is the criteria put forward by Sternberg for evaluating intellectual skill training interventions. It applies these Sternberg criteria systematically to the review by Simons and colleagues and to the Feuerstein program, citing a wide range of research literature on the Feuerstein program.

Based on data generated for an ethnographic research carried out in 2018 - which aimed at comprehending how literacy practices developed in Portuguese lessons delivered to senioryear students of a public high school dialogue with literacy practices in which such students participate outside school -, this paper proposes to present and discuss the concept of “culturally hybrid zones”. The proposal discusses Erickson’s concepts of “cultural borders” and “cultural boundaries” and is grounded on Bakhtin’s notion of textual “hybridization” as well as on Bhabha’s understanding of “cultural hybridity”. In order to achieve the goal, this paper analyzes reading and writing activities taught in the classroom that was observed, and literacy practices produced by students outside school. The outcomes show educational practices more and less responsive to the students’ linguistic culture. The conclusions point out the possibility and the urgent need of establishing critical dialogues between linguistic knowledge that is traditionally taught in school and the knowledge that is built/utilized by students in other social instances

This paper aims to present some theoretical issues currently emerging in the field of intercultural research, with special reference to the role of “educating communities” within socioculturally complex areas. The paper starts by focusing on the relevance of a non reductive approach towards the diversity emerging in today’s educational contexts. It will then proceed to describe some aspects of socioculturally complex territories, also taking into consideration the Invalsi results of the last few years in different schools. To conclude, the paper will suggest that it is important to adopt a postcolonial approach, or rather to focus not only on the weaknesses, but also on the strengths of complex environments. In this perspective, educating communities can play a key role in building on the resources of complex environments.

Training professional skills in education are highly debated in the literature and, in recent years, in the political discussion in Italy. Educational professionalism is disciplined by Law No. 205 in 2017. This paper presents a research in progress started in the 2018-2019 academic year in two Italian universities, Sapienza University of Rome and University of Urbino Carlo Bo. During the 2019-2020 academic year, students in the third year of the Education and Training Degree course were asked to complete an online questionnaire. The questionnaire was divided into three thematic areas: a) educator’s skills; b) evaluation of the university course and the connection between theory and practice; c) writing competencies. Data presented in this paper concern one of the research objectives: exploring the perception of the importance of professional skills by educators in training.

The Chilean educational system, which is considered an emblem of neoliberal public policies, was subjected to a profound legal refom in 2014. The moderate left-wing government passed the «Ley de Inclusión» bill, which seeked avoiding the selection of students, the charging of copay upon families in publicly financed schools, and ending the possibility that private schools, which received public financing, could seek profit. During the discussion of this bill, a set of educative, political and social actors articulated and mobilized looking to stop this. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe the argumentative twists present in the discursive community that opposed the «Ley de Inclusión» bill. The corpus used consists of 139 opinion columns, published in «El Mercurio» and «La Tercera», the two main political media papers between March of 2014 and January of 2015. From an analysis ot these argumentative twists, a discursive coalition was built. The beliefs and representations of the educational community condense on: the need for a gradualist and evidence-based public policy; the free choice of schools as the dominant rationality and tool in the educational quasi-market; and the defense of private education as a means to ensure the existence of differentiated and plural educational offers in the educational system.

This paper presents the permeability and contamination between non-formal, informal and formal contexts as the core of the educational ecosystem. In the “inter-field” between capabilities and education, the paper focuses on the theme of co-responsibility and agentive responsibility: in this way it is possible to build a welfare of capabilities, such as to favor the free realization of people’s potential. From this point of view, educational practices must be able to recognize the agency of informal networks and encourage collaboration between formal and informal networks, in view of the establishment of flexible and open educational ecosystems capable of co-existing with the complexity of modern societies. In this perspective, educational processes play a decisive role in transforming learning and knowledge into choices and decisions, in the dual awareness of the person as an end in itself and of the pluralism of values.

The paper starts from the critique of the concept of sustainable development, moving towards a perspective of social eco-development in line with the democratic demands and Bronfenbrenner’s theory of the ecology of human development. The cornerstone of this transformative perspective is an idea of regenerated social justice, which refers to the model of Nussbaum’s capability approach to embrace a theoretical framework of Social Justice Education based on the theories and practice of Cochran-Smith. Starting from the concept of recognition and inspired by both a pedagogical and a political approach, a qualitative research was undertaken according to a participatory paradigm guided by the idea of giving voice to the most marginalized social groups. Therefore, this research (which is part of a larger project that covered the entire s.y. 2020/2021) has adopted the Student Voice approach, to listen to the voice of students in conditions of educational risk or school drop-out in the context of second chance popular schools, regarding their representations on education and teaching-and-learning, their experiences and the meanings they attribute to school. Between June and July 2021, at the “Antonia Vita” Popular School in Monza, 8 semi-structured interviews were conducted with students aged between 14 and 17 years old, transcribed literally and then analyzed with the software ATLAS.ti, according to the methodology of socio-constructivist Grounded Theory. In the concluding part, the paper then analyzes and discusses the emerging categories and their codes, which induce a reflection on the pedagogical model of the Italian public education system.

The present paper aims to address Waldorf education’s theoretical foundations, which largely intertwine with the anthroposophical conception of existence that Rudolf Steiner embraced. It examines such topics as (a) the four constituent parts of the human being and the role they play in relation to learning in the person’s development; (b) the distinct ways in which the subject learns during the three 7-year development periods; (c) the human organism’s three components: thinking, feeling, wanting and how the educator can favor their development; (d) possible teacher temperaments and their influence on teaching; (e) the need for teachers to self-educate to remedy adverse effects of an unwanted temperament; and (f) the child’s passage from a phase of natural religiosity to that of an artistic sense, which the teacher must take into account. The research paper ends with critical considerations of the role that Steiner attributed to school education.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The paper is an attempt to articulate the defining features of Ignatian Leadership and to clarify what might distinguish it from other brands of leadership without lapsing into motherhood statements and worn-out clichés. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The Ignatian leadership style that is presented is grounded in Ignatian spirituality, which is a source of the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola. Hence, the research problem was formulated: how can Ignatian leadership be implemented in everyday practice? The method of critical analysis of sources was applied. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The paper argues that Ignatian Leadership is, in fact, a radical form of servant leadership, since the Ignatian Leader is at the service not only of the Community, but also–and for Ignatius of Loyola, even more fundamentally–of the Mission entrusted to that Community. RESEARCH RESULTS: Concretely, it proposes a conception of Ignatian Leadership as a threeway relationship among the Leader, the Community, and the Mission, in the process, illustrating what magis and cura personalis might mean in one’s exercise of leadership, but also, spelling out, in light of these relationships, the key functions of the Ignatian Leader. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Ignatian leadership is a form of servant leadership insofar as Ignatian Leaders ought to prioritize serving the Community that they lead over their own interests. However, what distinguishes Ignatian Leadership from servant leadership is its explicit and non-negotiable prioritization of service of the Mission as well.

This contribution examines the ongoing debate concerning the role of artificial intelligence in education (AIEd), and focuses on the challenges and opportunities posed by the new technologies in the EU. The future perspectives of AIEd in the EU encompass a broad spectrum of ethical, regulatory, educational, and societal considerations, reflecting a proactive and multifaceted approach to addressing the new emerging context. The paper also visualizes the intellectual map of the European academia engaged in AI-related research through bibliometrics, revealing the main topics and gaps in the current debate. The scrutiny reveals a lack of documented practical case studies to support education professionals, while the current debate focuses mostly on ethical and regulatory issues.

Il 20/09/2023, lo Sport entra nella Costituzione Italiana, modificandola ed inserendo all’art. 33 un comma specifico; viene riconosciuta la visione culturale di una attività valoriale fondata, come diciamo oggi, sul concetto di ‘Comunità di pratica sportiva’. La novità costituzionale riconosce tali meriti, ma non ne determina ancora diritti: i successi, le medaglie, i valori, sono l’esito di performance, e tali risultati hanno bisogno di fondamenta su cui poggiare. Quali ostacoli a questa importante novità? Il paper propone la Questione Meridionale come prospettiva per l’osservazione Nord/Sud o Napoli/Torino del fenomeno sport; con gli strumenti degli Sport Studies, offre una visione storico-filosofico-pedagogica insieme ad una ricerca scientifica, l’Indice di Sportività (strumento qualitativo/quantitativo prodotto da PTS & IlSole24Ore). I risultati confermano l’attualità della Questione Meridionale nello sport e spingono per interventi di apprendimento multidisciplinari e multisettoriali affinché vengano compiutamente attuati; in questa opera, l’attivismo e il sostegno delle Società scientifiche è assolutamente opportuno, necessario e atteso.

Physical activity provides numerous benefits to physical and mental health, even affecting learning. Despite this, one of the main modern problems is represented by sedentariness. Children and adolescents spend most of their time at school. Therefore, a valid teaching methodology to benefit from the positive effects of physical activity and reduce sedentary moments could be interdisciplinary learning, which integrates physical education into various curricular subjects. Specifically, this paper proposes a systematic literature review of some protocols (n = 11) to investigate whether an elementary school’s integrated physical education and mathematics curriculum can improve learning in the logic-cognitive domain. From all the studies reviewed, the strong importance of interdisciplinary teaching, linking mathematics to physical education, was confirmed to reduce sedentary moments and enable a better attitude toward this discipline, breaking down the many stereotypes that often paint it as a complex and abstract subject.

This paper refers to the «Interdisciplinary Research Project» of the Department of Education at Roma Tre University. The title of the project is «E-learning for higher education: setting up an integrated model for the qualification of learning and educational relationships in online courses» and represents a development of a previous research (Bocci, 2019a), which was aimed at outlining some dimensions and issues of inclusive online education. Taking as a background the different theoretical perspectives that study inclusion and inclusive processes (such as the Bio-Psycho-Social Model, the Social Model, the Capability Approach and the Universal Design) in the present paper the authors show the results of an exploratory survey aimed at verifying the validity of a new search tool − an analysis form developed starting from the work of Gráinne Conole (2013) on MOOCs − used to analyze the level of inclusion of some university online courses of the EduOpen platform. The aim of the work is to provide a self-analysis tool to better guide in an inclusive perspective those who design and deliver e-learning courses. The first results are encouraging and lead to further investment of resources in this direction.

The purpose of this paper is to emphasize the importance of «inculturation» in the religious images drawn by Monica Liu (Ho-Pei), a unique artist who promoted Religious Art and Education in Taiwan. Monica Liu adopted Western Christianity into Chinese art to create paintings that reflect her love for nature as well as Our Lady who is deeply venerated in the Catholic Church and regarded as the mother of humanity. This paper is a qualitative research based on an interview conducted with Huang Wan-Yun, a protégée of Monica Liu who had a very close relationship with the latter during the last ten years of her life. This research is also based on some writings that Monica left behind and several articles written about her by acquaintances. The culture and faith expressed by Monica Liu through Our Lady’s images help us to deeply understand the value and relationship between religious art and faith. In addressing the needs of the secular world, religious art has encountered difficulties in terms of contemporary aesthetics. Monica’s distinct aesthetic considered «moral virtues» important to modern or contemporary art and their absence could result in distorted values. Therefore, true mission work in the field of religious art has to be close to everyone’s heart, as well as emphasize the importance of inculturation through natural representations and create awareness of taboo in art, which involves «additional and supplementary» elements in original artworks.

This paper explores my on-going collaborative research journey that began in 2009 with a critical ethnographic investigation into the ways one early years school in Bristol was working to advance a pedagogy of respect that drew on the multilingual and multiliterate out of school practices of children and their parents in order to open possibilities for in-school learning. The project was framed within a critical ethnographic approach that is underpinned by a philosophy of democratic and collaborative ways of working within the field; acknowledging identities, positionalities and relations of power as constructed within and across institutional settings. In this paper, I present the collaborative learning trajectories and relationships between myself, as researcher, and Lara, the Head Teacher, a key participant within this project. I situate this within a critical reading of researcher identities, collaboration and research-community partnerships within a scholarship that draws on arguments for the democratizing of knowledge production, the re-evaluation and transformation of field relationships through reflexive practice (Byrd-Clark & Dervin, 2014; Facer & Enright, 2016; Giampapa, 2011) and the intellectual and emotional commitment involved in shaping them. What evolved through this unfinished critical ethnographic journey is an understanding of the underlying «practical, personal and symbolic» reasons (Facer & Enright, 2016, p. 59) for field relationships as a starting point in order to build deeper forms of engagement. These deeper forms of engagement generate different ways of knowing that are co-created, ethically grounded, socially responsible and action oriented (Campbell & Lassiter, 2010). I stress the transformative power of these field conversations that were able to evolve and shape new ways of understanding as a result of the longevity of being in the field and working beyond it.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The predominant goal of this article is to put emphasis on issues only children face in the modern world. The theoretical scope of the paper incorporates the specificity of the only child phenomenon, the familial situation of only children, as well as the possibility of maintaining social contacts and developing in the current pandemic-driven situation. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: Research problems have the form of the following questions: What is the familial situation of children not having any siblings? How does the pandemic affect the upbringing of only children? What conditions for development and opportunities for establishing social contacts does the age of pandemic create for only children? The analytical and synthetic method of the literature approach to the subject has been applied. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: Basing on scientific studies, the specificity of the only child phenomenon has been identified, most important features of the family-oriented educational environment have been distinguished, as well as the nature of functioning of a family having a single child only has been elaborated on. RESEARCH RESULTS: Consideration on the issues raised within the scope of this paper has indicated that the only child’s interactions with adults should have an appropriate form and nature. It is necessary to keep a healthy balance between the world of children and the world of adults. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: It has been noticed that the modern perception of only children is changing, which is the result of expanding interpersonal relations and the development of technology. Contemporary only children do not remain in absolute isolation from the environment.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The main aim is to show the narrative of a woman who experienced critical events in her personal life. THE RESEARCH PROBLEMS AND METHODS: 1. How does the narrator describe critical events based on her family experience? 2. What meaning does she ascribe to the events experienced in retrospect? The presented research is situated in the interpretative research tradition. A descriptive‑theoretical type of case study was used. Empirical data was collected using Fritz Schütze’s narrative interview technique. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The interview began by presenting the narrator’s life story from her childhood to the present day. Attention was paid to her understanding of herself and her life, her relationship with her parents, and critical events that occurred in her family. The empirical material was then interpreted based on Schütze’s process structures, which revealed her current life course, critical events in the family and landmark events in the narrator’s individual biography. RESEARCH RESULTS: The interpretation of the empirical material showed the narrator in the process of change, internal metamorphoses. It revealed poor intra‑family relations, which became the cause of illness, lack of self‑acceptance, and depressive and anxious states. The therapy that she underwent, satisfying professional work and mutual feelings of love allowed the narrator to overcome her limitations, weaknesses and take a critical look at the family relationships that were the cause of her pain and suffering. CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND APPLICABLE VALUE OF RESEARCH: The narrative presented in the paper can become a stimulus for change in people who are currently struggling with family problems, illness or suffering: all those people who experience anxiety and loneliness in the space of family life.

The development of an efficient and aware study method proves to be one of the most demanding educational challenges, even for secondary and university students. With the purpose of investigating the role played by primary school as starting point for practicing and gaining early study skills, this paper illustrates and discusses the results of an exploratory study conducted through a focus group attended by five primary school teachers working at “Don Lorenzo Milani”, a Comprehensive Institute of Montespertoli, Province of Florence, Central Italy—which adheres to the “Backpack-free [Senza Zaino]” project. The discussion was designed to gather insights in relation to five main areas: teachers’ knowledge of reference constructs, daily practices implemented, obstacles to be faced, the contribution given by educational technologies and further enabling steps. The results, serving as a basis for future and broader surveys, reveal the need to act on both teachers and students’ now rooted beliefs and approaches in favour of metacognitive attitudes and informed use of educational technologies.

Economics is often accused of being complicit with much of what has gone wrong with economic life in the last thirty years, such as failing to predict the global financial crisis of 2007‍–‍2008. This and various other problems that have come to light have led even its proponents to question the capacity of the discipline to account for real-world events or for assisting in policy formulation. In this paper, I argue in favour of an alternative conceptualisation for economics and economics education, and discuss the resulting insights and implications for teaching and learning that can enable young people to grasp disciplinary knowledge in economics.

This paper is divided into five parts. Section 1 introduces niche construction theory (NCT) as a viable epistemic tool to cradle education within evolutionary and ecological accounts, inasmuch the latter ones are better suited to tackle the environmental issues recently identified by some key Italian pedagogists. Section 2 outlines NCT and illustrates how developmental niche construction (DNC) – one of its derivative concepts – plays a pivotal role in the evolutionary account of education. Section 3 identifies cognitive science as a further element to be taken into account: prima facie, cognitive research strategies seem to be at odds with an NCT-laden version of education of learning. Thus, this paper endeavours to show that, although a DNC-driven view of education calls for a broader rethinking of the explanatory role of low-level cognitive processes (Section 3.1), cognitive science remains a paramount player in educational practice – provided the extended mind paradigm is embraced (Section 3.2). Once proven DNC’s liaison with cogni-tive science is ultimately non reductionist, Section 4 explores two cases of how DNC-informed NCT influences teaching: firstly, by identifying educators (teachers) as niche-constructors (Section 4.1); secondly, by acknowledging the ability to construct niches is one of the most prominent educational goal learning communities can achieve in order to enhance their fitness. Finally, Section 5 sums up the conclusions.

MIGLIORARE LA COMPRENSIONE DEL TESTO E LE CAPACITÀ DI SINTESI NELLA SCUOLA PRIMARIA: UNO STUDIO QUASI-SPERIMENTALE Abstract The paper reports the results of the evaluation of a programme aimed at improving reading comprehension and summarising skills of fourth graders through a quasi-experimental study conducted with 671 students (421 in the experimental group and 250 in the control group) in Italian schools. Students assigned to the experimental group received three months of the intervention while students in the control group continued with regular teacher practice. Results showed a statistically significant difference between the two conditions on reading comprehension and summarising skills. Students included in the experimental group outperformed students in the control group in both the measures used (dppc2 = 0.32 in the Summarising Test and dppc2 = 0.54 in the Summary Qualitative Assessment). No differences were found between students with different proficiency vocabulary levels in the experimental group. The implications for research practice and limitations of the study are discussed.

En aquest article analitzem la política lingüística en dos països que compten amb diverses llengües oficials, Suïssa i Sud-àfrica, i en els quals el paper de la llengua anglesa ha evolucionat respecte a les llengües "nacionals" locals des de la dècada de 1990. Ens centrem en la política lingüística com a manifestació de les lluites socials i, fent especial èmfasi en l’anglès, estudiem els documents polítics actuals en aquests dos contextos tan diferents. L’ús de la “neutralitat” com a lent analítica ens permet demostrar que la política lingüística va més enllà dels plans d’estudi i de la inclusió o exclusió de les llengües i, al seu lloc, neutralitza les idees socials que estan en consonància amb la concepció d’un futur “d’èxit” en una conjuntura sociohistòrica determinada. Per acabar, reflexionem sobre la neutralitat com a component de les ideologies lingüístiques, en virtut de les quals s’autoritzen llengües específiques per a objectius polítics contingents i canviants, cosa que té conseqüències com ara la inclusió en la política educativa o l’exclusió de la política educativa de determinades llengües i la distribució desigual del coneixement, els recursos i l’autoritat.

This paper illustrates the important contribution of Italian university musicology to the training of future music educators, emphasizing the formative role of the history of music (or musics) not only for future musicians or musicologists, but for the training of all students. It also highlights some problematic aspects of the current regulatory framework for the teaching of music history.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to evaluate usefulness of distance learning courses as a form of learning from participants’ perspective. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: To achieve the purpose, two research methods have been employed: literature review, including rules and regulations concerning distance learning courses, and analysis of the results of a survey conducted among students participating in distance learning course as well as own observations and experiences. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: In the paper it is analysed, how students perceive elearning courses comparing to traditional ones. First, selected Polish Minister of Higher Education and the Senate of Cracow University of Economics (CUE) regulations under which CUE teachers may conduct distance learning courses are presented. Second, the procedure for the preparation of elearning courses at CUE is described. The roles played by individual actors during the preparation of the course are discussed. Next, selected results of the survey conducted among course participants are presented. Finally, conclusions and observations are discussed. Results of the survey confirm that e-learning is a promising type of teaching supporting traditional lessons. RESEARCH RESULTS: Aconsiderable number of participants found this kind of didactic proces useful and attractive. However, an unexpectedly large number stated that they expected more traditional lessons. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The analysis allows to draw interesting conclusions concerning the necessity of selection of participants, problem of systematic work, methods of evaluation, personal contact with a teacher, preparation of teaching materials. All of them will be taken under consideration to improve the course for future participants.

This paper publishes the text of “The Essence of Greek Culture,” the first public address delivered by Werner Jaeger after his immigration to the United States in 1936. It was part of the program of a symposium sponsored by the Trustees of the University of Chicago in May, 1937 and provides important evidence indicating that Jaeger had begun to adapt ideas he had long supported in Ger­many to conditions in the United States. The text of the paper is preserved in the Archives of the University of Chicago and is published with its permission.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the presented paper, which has empirical nature, is to obtain data on how the rights of refugees are perceived today. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM AND METHODS: The research problem of the paper is: How do youth in Germany and Poland evaluate refugee rights and what factors influence their attitude towards refugee rights? The survey method was used in the research. The data collection took place 2013/2014. In Germany, the survey included a total of 2157 students, in Poland 1211 respondents. THE PROCESS OF ARGUMENTATION: The study was based on the assumption that attitudes towards refugee rights are predicted by such factors as: human dignity, empathy, religious beliefs, and socio-political perceptions and convictions. Based on these determinants, a conceptual model was created and used in the research. RESEARCH RESULTS: The findings show that respondents differ regarding refugee rights. German youth show some support for refugee rights and Polish youth are ambivalent. The strongest predictor for support of refugee rights for both groups is the concept of multiculturalism. The capacity for empathy and an advocacy of a politically active Christianity are important predictors, but only for the German sample. CONCLUSIONS, INNOVATIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS: The fact that religious beliefs have hardly positive impact on the support of refugee rights is a desideratum for religious education.

Focusing on the student teachers’ evaluation of the prestige of their future profession is needed to include this aspect of the professionalization process in teacher education and training. Hence, knowledge on student teachers’ perceptions is of fundamental worldwide relevance for universities to make the teaching profession more attractive to a wider pool of candidates. Research has shown that the teaching profession has a low social prestige, especially in the Mediterranean area, but there is no evidence on whether the perceived social prestige of the students’ future profession coincides with the students’ personal esteem of the profession. Therefore, this paper gives new insights in the self-evaluation and perceived external, social evaluation of the prestige of the teaching profession among student teachers in one Italian university (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, N = 154). The results show that student teachers’ self-evaluation and perceived external, social evaluation considerably and significantly diverge. Finally, implications for decision makers and university stakeholders will be discussed in this paper.

This paper tackles the issue of teacher researchers by offering a model for the design of teacher-led inquiries that meets both the theoretical and the practical requirements of scientific research in educational settings. Part 1 focuses on teachers’ reluctance to undertake academic research during the course of their working year. Two practical reasons are identified, which explain teachers’ lack of involvement with scientific investigations: excessive demands on behalf of policymakers and limited availability of resources. Part 2 moves on to the theoretical level and identifies two beliefs about knowledge that are culturally widespread, and which limit the academia’s ability to embrace everyday workplace experiences as a type of scientifically informing educational practice. Drawing on Damiano (2015), the epistemological legitimacy of teachers’ experiences is thus redrafted. Part 3 introduces a model for designing research activities in educational settings, so that no supplementary time or resources is required to pursue scientific goals, despite the manifold constraints of teachers’ everyday work. The chief example described in this paper focuses on early school leaving and the possibility to convert an ordinary career day into an investigation based on visual ethnography, which aims to empower students at risk. Said case is rendered with a diagram, which constitutes a useful tool for designing research according to the model’s guidelines. Finally, Part 4 assesses the viability of the model against a framework conceived for the meta-evaluation of evaluatory practices. research according to the model’s guidelines. Finally, Part 4 assesses the viability of the model against a framework conceived for the meta-evaluation of evaluatory practices.

Nationalism is a product of the modern era and is closely linked to the development of capitalism. In a highly mobile industrial society that emerged in modern Europe, people needed to communicate via a common vernacular language, and the speakers of said language gradually formed a sense of unity. The vernacular was then adopted by the government as a common written national language, in its attempt to establish official nationalism, and propagated through a newly established education system (Anderson, 2006). In Asian societies, which skipped this process, the creation of nation was not a result of modernization, but was instead a part of modernization from the very beginning. Asian nations had to face a gap between modernization, which required them to imitate Western values and systems, and the formation of a nation, which in the West was based on existing linguistic peculiarities that distinguished certain members of society from others. The primary aim of this paper is to explore how Asian governments from different backgrounds dealt with this gap. In particular, this paper focuses on music education in schools across Japan, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan, and argues that the availability of a common language, the change in power holders, the populace’s identification with the government and the historical timing influenced Asian governments’ decisions regarding official nationalism.

This paper deals with the main interpretative models of the instructional design, with particular attention to the specific segment relative to nursery school and primary school. The study begins with an introductory part, trying to find the fundamental bases over which it is possible to build a framework about instructional design. This means designing the context, the levels, the open or closed structure of the project, the conditions for its realization, the evaluation and the ensuring feedback on the design itself. The second part specifically deals with the design of kindergartens and primary schools, after having highlighted the general concepts and the main distinctions behind the subject. It then faces, in a historical perspective, the problem of the models made by the pedagogists and the scholars of educational problems. This paper focuses in particular on the learning goals programming, on the concept based programming (concept maps), on the guided environment programming («sfondi integratori») and on the backward design approach.

Parent engagement programs are in high demand these days, particularly as they pertain to immigrant and refugee families. But working with families entails purposeful communication with families (Valdés, 1996). Yet, often families are caught in cross-cultural divides that forces them out of engagement with those running the program (Machado-Casas, 2012). Cultural disconnections often times become ways in which minority families find themselves trapped (Nieto & Bode, 2011). Some researchers have looked at non-traditional pedagogical spaces to challenge future and practicing educators and community members to examine how the process of normalization privileges dominant groups while simultaneously oppressing ‘others’ (Cary, 2006). When this happens the process of «pimping families» through discourses that «talk» at them rather than to/for them lead to furthering hegemonic practices often aimed at minority families. Through interviews with families, and educators, this paper will highlight the «cultural confessions» of educators, and families who utilize non-traditional spaces to expose how prejudice and privilege have influenced their perceptions of «legitimate knowledge», legitimate spaces, and legitimate cross-cultural communication. This paper will present data obtained form Communities United for Education (CUPE) a family involvement and education program that nurtures a strong sense of community among students, teachers, and families. The program focuses in the empowering of families through developing support, leadership, advocacy, and activism, in addition to working with parents on bridging the digital divide among family members. Data presented will expose how families have educators have experienced and dealt with cross-cultural communication issues.

Attempting to explore and push the margins of philosophy of education, this article describes Virginia Woolf’s The Waves and its characters, staying inside the and observing the education of their consciousness. The description offered is limited to educational reflections on what happens, avoiding normative questions and concerns. However, the conclusion hints towards ways in which philosophers of education who are interested in normative questions and concerns might approach this text in ways which this article does not. The expressions used in this paper – dispositions, consciousness, unconscious– are gestural and figurative rather than exhaustive and scientific. The argument is not concerned with what these words mean in general but rather with what they might mean and might elucidate for educational thought in the context of reading The Waves. This article rejects the need to do something un-literary by comprehensively elucidating key concepts, saying why they are important, relating them to everyday life, and defending claims like «dispositions are in-educable». The educational resonances of the text itself are presented as evidence, context, and point of interest. Implicit to the argument of this paper is a critique of limited and institutionally biased conceptions of experience as education.

University education has adapted to the prevailing circumstances and that it is even proving to be an essential resource in the optimization of the reality. Otherwise, the university is a very important part of the social system in which it is, and the training of excellent professionals is a cardinal issue for the proper functioning of such a system. Yes it is, today various professional profiles, classics and currents, are demanded to be formed in the classrooms of our universities. However, that is not all, and depending on how you look at it, is not even the most important. However, at the same time and internationally speaking, we have also witnessed the emergence of concerns about the nature of this education, above all in relation to the personal, ethical, and civic development of today’s student populace. It is logical to think, that is not enough to train excellent professionals, indeed, reality shows that this is not enough when personal and ethical training is insufficient or does not live up to the current circumstance. The aim of this paper is to focus on this aspect, and in doing so it revisits a past in which essential philosophical ideas were being formulated, ideas which this paper argues are highly pertinent to the current reality.

The paper is devoted to ethical awareness which has become one of the main concerns in medical education and healthcare nowadays. The paper discusses empathy development in medical students as a significant element of their professional training. It is reported that empathy should be implemented in the academic curriculum of medical schools and universities as a part of a multidisciplinary approach. The authors argue that empathy could be developed in a foreign language classroom. They illustrate their statement by providing real class examples in which empathy-developing content is incorporated in English for specific purposes (ESP) for medical students. The students’ empathy level was measured at the beginning and at the end of the course with a balanced emotional empathy scale (BEES) questionnaire. The analysis of the results of the comparative assessment indicate positive dynamics of empathy levels in the medical students tested, after the course was completed. The authors conclude that ESP can be effective in supporting and improving the required empathy levels of future healthcare workers to help them to deliver their humanitarian services successfully.

The proposals follow the key competences approach and pretend to face everyday teaching practices with the range of options ICT offers. The paper starts with the description of some actual teaching practices in order that the reader can value the potential they have. Then, learning and knowledge technologies will be treated through a reflection of the challenges that Google Sites offers to the society. A reflection about the actual possibilities of working with these web environment tools will close the paper.