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The use of digital devices in education is increasing. The literature, however, reveals a disadvantage of digital compared to paper in performing specific learning tasks, in particular text comprehension, which is probably sustained by a different cognitive load and a tendency to use digital for superficial and fast reading. The present study investigates possible differences between paper and digital text comprehension in children of school-age by analysing the role of Executive Functions (EF) as mediating factors in performance. 175 children in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade were assessed for text comprehension in the two modes and assessed with EF tests. The results show that there are no differences between digital and paper text comprehension. However, dividing the sample into children with low and children with high levels of text comprehension, the former group is seen to benefit from digital compared to the latter group, which shows an opposite trend. Furthermore, the low performers score worse than high performers in the EF measures which show a mediating role between performance level and differences between paper and digital modes in text comprehension. The present study has important educational implications for the use of digital devices in education.

The paper aims at dealing with didactics of Resistance through the relationship between the historical wtnesses and younger generations. As the first has lived the historical events he is going to narrate, younger generations constitute ideally the depositary of a rich and fragile set of informations. Based from this perspective, the paper is going to speak about a students' cycle of meetings organised in some schools in the province of Pistoia, between 2016 and 2018: the vocational institute "Martini" and the technical institute "Marchi". Meetings were held by SIlvano Sarti, who fought as partisan in the "Brigata Sinigaglia" in 1944 and who was appointed ANPI provincial president in Florence.

The paper attempts to give some useful coordinates to start reconstructing the history of Resistance experiences (meetings, educational and teaching activities) as told at school by its protagonists. The paper also puts forward some educational and didactic proposals for the future. The privileged point of observation is the activity of the National Association of Italian Partisans (ANPI), the main Italian resistance association founded in 1944 to bring together the protagonists of the armed struggle against Nazi-fascism.

The paper shows how the University of Florence interpreted the relative autonomy granted by the numerous reforms of the last 30 years, focusing on the three main functions of the university: teaching, research and public engagement. The continuous reforms weakened the processes of innovation introduced at the beginning of the 90s, with the experience of the Diploma, and forced the closure of many quality degree courses. The lack of financial and instrumental resources and the “autonomy without responsibility” limited the enhancement of the resources and knowledge present in the University, hindered the pursuit of strategic lines that reward structures and sectors of excellence and strengthen the weakest areas. The public engagement is still relatively marginal.

The paper aims to give some coordinates on the dialogue between the Athenaeum and a particular school-educational experience well rooted in Florence and recognised for its merits on an international scale, namely the Scuola-Città Pestalozzi. This is a very significant case to describe the relationship between the University and the school world because Scuola-Città was born and grew up in that laboratory of ideas nourished by the synergy between the cultural, political and pedagogical circles of the city, especially those close to liberal-socialism, and those similar to the University.

Within the context of a reflection on learning from a lifelong and lifewide perspective, this paper intends to highlight the pedagogical need to focus on the individual and her or his resources as a prerequisite for starting and maintaining a fruitful “learning career”. For this purpose, the construct of “learning identity” is explored in depth. Within the field of the “technologies of the self” it has been possibile to identify dedicated strategies and tools that can support the growth and evolution of this form of adult identity in support of a leaning that can nourish the different stages of life.

The historical phase we are living, which is characterized by change management and the continuous redefinition of skills (Fiore et al. 2021), invites the university to question itself on the central role it plays for the formation of current and future. The work of the European Commission to address the improvement and adaptation of the skills of European citizens provides clear guidelines on which Higher Education is also called to commit. Among them, this paper focuses on the development of entrepreneurial skills, i.e. the ability to act on opportunities and ideas and to transform them into value for others. The Commission calls for the development of these competences at all levels of education, giving rise to entrepreneurial education training offers (Lackéus 2015). For this reason, and in order to respond to this need, since 2013 the Italian Ministry of University has established the Contamination Labs, places of contamination between students, teachers and local stakeholders aimed at developing interdisciplinary entrepreneurial education, which is also the subject of this research.

The paper resumes the outcomes of the literature review conducted from the general theme regarding the city as an educational context and subject in the twenty-first century and presents a summary of the research design undertaken. The aim is to investigate the city as a ‘learning city’ where educational and training processes can become engines of regeneration. It is also intended to survey some examples of generative transformations traceable to the development trajectories drawn by Agenda 2030 that emerge in the learning city model, in order to understand their impact on the communities involved, the policies and the professional figures required to govern the processes.

This paper investigates the potential of data-mediated reflective practice for teachers, members of the eTwinning professional community, within a research strategy that explores big data in education. The chapter begins by emphasising the potential of online communities for the professional development of teachers. It provides an example of a qualitative research method used, in conjunction with a data-driven strategy in order to identify significant challenges and recommendations for the advancement of the eTwinning online community in Italy. Finally, it focuses on the analytical explanation of the findings and offers some concluding remarks on the significance of the emerging development dimensions.

The paper illustrates the application of the national experiment, promoted by ANVUR, and called TECO, to the Bachelor of Science in Education and Training at the University of Florence. The analysis developed in the article emphasizes how this application has effects on the overall architecture of the bachelor course to support the provision of a solid and quality education, based on professional knowledge and skills, but also on individual components of the course and on the learning outcomes.

The volume contains a collection of contributions presented at the conference “INVALSI data: a tool for research”, held in Rome the 20th September 2016. On this occasion, scholars from different professional contexts (school, university, research) and selected through a call for papers presented their scientific works, using INVALSI data. The book is divided into two parts: the first part devoted to the use of INVALSI data in didactic research, the second focused on INVALSI data as a tool for supporting policy and decision makers. The eighteen chapters cover in-depth analyses that, starting from different angles and using several methodologies, offer the reader a rich and structured view of the different possible uses of the data that INVALSI gather each year.

The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems worldwide by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students. This volume contains a collection of contributions from multidisciplinary fields and working environment (school, university, research). The contributions have been selected through a call for papers and submitted to peer review by qualified experts.