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Early childhood educational centers (ECEC) are contexts where young children make their first contact with specific, culturally determined rules, practices, and values. Only a few studies have analyzed in-depth the practices through which the educators direct the children's action and attention while they are performing routine educational activities. By means of detailed transcription of educators-children conversations and Conversation Analytic methodology, this work examines a set of videorecorded interactions collected in one Italian ECE center ("nido"), particularly focusing on the verbal and multimodal resources employed by ECEC teachers as they manage episodes, where the children diverge from an expected course of action. Analyses reveal that the educators employ a variety of multimodal resources to orchestrate the child's attention and actions toward the desired course of activity, which open spaces where the child's agency, however more or less strongly reprimanded, is admitted and negotiated.

This article investigates miscommunication in sequences of talk where an oncologist asks about patients' co-morbidities, that is, their other illnesses beyond cancer. Using conversation analysis, we examine ways in which the participants identify and manage two sources of miscommunication: a divergence in the doctor's and the patient's understandings about the scope of the question; and a divergence in the doctor's and the patient's (and sometimes their companion's) understandings about the matters that the question targets. Our findings have implications for practice, highlighting ways in which clinicians and patients can manage these sources of miscommunication. These include practices to retrospectively or pre-emptively manage ambiguities and to check the accuracy of patients' answers. Additionally, our study addresses some theoretical and methodological problems in the study of miscommunication. Our data consist of 25 video-recorded first consultations in an Italian hospital; the participants speak Italian.

This paper analyzes the impact of adults' interactive moves and strategies on children's participation and agency at dinnertime in two Italian residential care facilities, one of the most widely used alternative care life-context for children and youth coming from vulnerable families. Participants are 14 children and 11 educators living in two residential care facilities in Rome (Italy). Adopting an interactional and multimodal analytic approach, this paper focuses on two dinnertime activities: the routine activity of praying before eating and the very frequent one of talking about rules and transgressions. The comparative analysis of the two facilities shows how, in stable patterns of adult-child interactions recurring across different activities in the same facility, adults' strategies and interactive maneuvers differently impact on children's participation and agency and consequent socialization practices. In the conclusion, we emphasize the relevance and implications of this study for either research in educational sciences and for professionals operating in alternative care and related fields.

Under the rapid advances of digital technology, traditional paper-based forms of reading and writing are steadily giving way to digital-based literacies, in theory as well as in application. Drawing on a study of literacy in a medical workplace context, this article examines critically the shift toward computer-mediated textual practices. While a considerable body of research has investigated benefits and issues associated with digital literacy tools in medicine, we consider the affordances of paper-based practices. Our analysis of verbal interaction and textual artifacts drawn from a qualitative study of oncology visits indicates that the uses of pen and paper are advantageous for both doctor and patient. Specifically, they allow doctors to process and package information in ways that are favorable to their personal modus operandi, and they enable patients to participate in the medical visit and take an active role in managing their medical treatment. Understanding the affordances of paper-based literacy provides insights for refining digital tools as well as for motivating the design of possible hybrid forms and digital-analog intersections that can best support medical practices.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyze the organization of storytelling and its role in creating and sharing practical knowledge for cancer diagnosis in a medical community in Italy. Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative analysis draws upon different interactional data sets--naturally occurring diagnostic conversations among physicians in the ward, research interviews, video-based sessions in which physicians watch and discuss their diagnostic work. Findings: The results highlight: the specific organization of storytelling practices in medical diagnostic work; three main functions that such storytelling practices play in supporting collaborative diagnostic work in the community of our study; and how storytelling practices are resources on which participants rely across settings, including "ad hoc" reflexive meetings. Originality/value: This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the role that storytelling plays in the diagnostic work in an understudied and yet life-saving site such as oncology.

With the rapid advances of digital technology, computer-mediated medical practices are becoming increasingly dominant in medical visits. However, the question of how to ensure effective, patient-centered communication in this transition remains crucial. In this mini-review, we explore this topic by reviewing quantitative and survey-based studies, as well as discursive-interactional studies that focus on the visit as a communicative event. The review is organized into four sections: the introductory section provides a brief synthesis of the two main models used in medical practice and describes the effects of patientcentered communication practices on patients' health and well-being. The second section presents and discusses qualitative and quantitative studies that assess the effect of technology on medical interaction and its impact on patientcentered communication. The third section focuses on whether and how the digital medical record represents a "potential communication risk" during doctorpatient interactions and explores how certain pen-and-paper literacy practices could help mitigate these challenges. In the concluding section, we outline and analyze three key considerations for utilizing technologies to foster and enhance patient-centered communication during medical visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Good communication is key in cancer care, especially when doctors and patients come from different cultures or speak different languages. We studied 42 videos of doctors talking to Italian and foreign cancer patients during their visits. We looked at how they talked to each other, whether they misunderstood anything, whether there were interruptions, and how much trust and emotion were shown. The type of appointment and the doctor's personal style mattered more than whether the patient was Italian or foreign. This tells us that even when foreign patients can speak the language well, doctors cannot only rely on this to communicate effectively. Doctors should pay attention to interruptions and focus on taking care of the patient as a whole person. The methods we used in this study could help doctors improve their communication skills, which will lead to better care for all patients. Effective communication is crucial in cancer care due to the sensitive nature of the information and the psychosocial impact on patients and their families. Patient-centered communication (PCC) is the gold standard for providing quality cancer care, as it improves patient satisfaction, treatment adherence, clinical outcomes, and overall quality of life. However, doctor–patient communication can be complicated by ethnic, linguistic, and cultural differences. This study employed the ONCode coding system to investigate PCC practices in oncological visits (doctor's communicative behavior, patient's initiatives, misalignments, interruptions, accountability, and expressions of trust in participants' talk, Markers of uncertainty in doctor's talk, markers of emotions in doctor's talk). Forty-two video-recorded patient–oncologist encounters (with 22 Italian and 20 foreign patients), including both first and follow-up visits, were analyzed. Three discriminant analyses were conducted to assess differences in PCC between patient groups (Italian or foreign patients) according to the type of encounter (first visit or follow-up) and the presence or absence of companions during the encounters. Multiple regression analyses were performed to evaluate the PCC differences by oncologist age, patient age, and patient sex, controlling for the type of encounter, the presence of a companion during the visit, and patient group on ONCode dimensions. No differences were found in PCC by patient group in discriminant analyses and regressions. Doctor communication behavior, interruptions, accountability, and expressions of trust were higher in first visits than in follow-ups. The disparities in PCC were primarily linked to the type of visit and the age of the oncologist. However, a qualitative analysis showed notable differences in the types of interruptions during visits with foreign patients compared to Italian patients. It is essential to minimize interruptions during intercultural encounters to foster a more respectful and conducive environment for patients. Furthermore, even when foreign patients demonstrate sufficient linguistic competence, healthcare providers should not solely rely on this factor to ensure effective communication and quality care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the case of an innovative project on the transition between university and work. The project examined sustains two social dimensions of learning: education as a shared social institution in which university studies and work can be productively interconnected and alternated in order to enhance learning, and learning as identity projects and significant participation in situated activities. Working actively at the boundaries of communities provides relevant learning "loci" for both students participating in the project and the communities involved (university and firms). Implications for the design of complex activity systems which take account of the learning value of work are discussed.

Presents results of a study of six kinds of linguistic education software. Discusses treatment of language as an object rather than as a means of communication. Reports that the software promotes reflection on language and metalanguage awareness in a social and educational context by stimulating children's interest in playing with language. (DK)

Impact of situated work practices in enabling group decision making of computer engineers is analyzed in an internet design company setting.

This article investigates miscommunication in sequences of talk where an oncologist asks about patients' co-morbidities, that is, their other illnesses beyond cancer. Using conversation analysis, we examine ways in which the participants identify and manage two sources of miscommunication: a divergence in the doctor's and the patient's understandings about the scope of the question; and a divergence in the doctor's and the patient's (and sometimes their companion's) understandings about the matters that the question targets. Our findings have implications for practice, highlighting ways in which clinicians and patients can manage these sources of miscommunication. These include practices to retrospectively or pre-emptively manage ambiguities and to check the accuracy of patients' answers. Additionally, our study addresses some theoretical and methodological problems in the study of miscommunication. Our data consist of 25 video-recorded first consultations in an Italian hospital; the participants speak Italian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within a perspective that views groups as communities of practice and sites of construction of knowledge, learning, and identity, this article aims to explore the contribution that participation in different groups over the course of one's life provides to the development of the professional practices of psychotherapist trainees enrolled in the C.O.I.R.A.G. school, an Italian graduate program in group psychotherapy. Through qualitative analyses of 10 semi-structured interviews, our study empirically shows that by participating in groups, the trainees not only learn the practices of that group but also develop a sort of meta-learning which takes place across groups. The results highlight that: (1) Transversality, duration, and informality are found to be the group properties with the highest formative value; and (2) Learning practices across different groups have common characteristics: are organized around complex topics of group life (e.g., how to manage conflicts, how to join and leave groups, etc.), began in early group experiences, are in continuous evolution, are associated with a critical event, and a negative affect. At the same time, it seems that these critical events are exactly what triggered and sustained the learning practices. Data from the interviews also showed how professional identities are constructed as the outcome of learning in different communities of practice. The study outlines how the experience made in different groups is elaborated in and through meaningful self-narratives, highlighting them as a fundamentally collective and culturally shaped sense-making process. Overall, these results contribute to a better understanding of learning processes as situated and jointly constructed through multiple group participations over time. Furthermore, they contribute to highlighting the role of self-narratives as a primary way through which trainees shape their identity as self-reflexive professionals who are competent in reading group dynamics. Directions for future research and suggestions for psychotherapist training paths are outlined in the conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formative intervention is a participatory methodology that supports organizational change by means of an interactive and systematic dialogue carried out by researchers and participants. In this process, the researchers contribute to expanding the conversational space in the organization by supporting participants in examining and reflecting on their own work practices, as well as in modeling, shaping, and experimenting with innovations. Drawing on transcripts of videotaped sessions, this study analyzes how change is discursively sustained by the researchers who conduct the meetings within a formative intervention in a Mexican hospital. The quantitative and qualitative analysis focuses on the collective pronoun "we" as a membership categorization device deployed by the researchers for rhetorical and pragmatical aims, such as questioning about the state of necessity for the intervention, engaging the participants, or introducing a proposal of innovation with the participants. Results show how group membership and social identity markers are used by researchers to support emerging forms of collaboration, involvement of participants and the creation of common ground during the intervention process. In terms of the practical implications of the study, an informed and strategic use of membership categorization devices used by the researcher can increase the effectiveness of their formative and expansive role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes an emic-oriented system for coding doctor-patient communication in oncological consultations (ONCode). The system aims to capture patient-centered communication practices, with particular attention to ethnically discordant interactions. ONCode is squarely focused on interactional aspects, assessed through seven dimensions. Video consultations with three oncologists and 19 patients (10 native Italians and nine non-native Italians) were coded with ONCode by two coders and with VR-CoDES by a different coder. Inter-rater reliability was tested by using ICC. Group differences (native vs. non-native) were assessed with linear mixed model analyses. This pilot study showed that the ONCode is fairly reliable, sensitive to patients' characteristics and contextual variables, and does not overlap with an established coding system such as the VR-CoDES. Moreover, the system enabled the identification of differences in communication in consultations with native and non-native patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnomethodology research has systematically investigated discursive practices of categorisation, looking at the various ways by which social actors ascribe both themselves and others to identity categories to accomplish various kinds of social actions. Drawing on a data corpus of oncological visits collected in an Italian hospital, involving both native and non-native patients, the present work analyses how participants in these intercultural medical encounters invoke and make relevant social identity categories by the marking of collective pronouns in their talk. Our results showed that whilst institutional identities (e.g. those of the doctors, the local hospital or the Tumour Board) prevailed, categorial formulations related to cultural or linguistic identities were rarely displayed in interactions with non-native patients. Conversational participants made very little of their linguistical or cultural background and when they did so, their cultural and linguistic identities were deployed for rhetorical and pragmatical aims, such as testing and negotiating common knowledge and epistemic authority. This study shows how even speakers' minimal lexical choices, such as marked pronouns, impact the negotiation of meanings and activities in life-saving sites such as oncological visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research indicates that social support is beneficial to cancer patients in adjusting to the stress of the disease. Drawing on a qualitative content analysis of 36 semi-structured interviews, this article explores sources and types of social support in Arab-Palestinian women with breast cancer. Results show that members of the immediate family, husbands in particular, are reported to be the most supportive social sources. Given the limitations that characterize access to cancer care in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) and the collectivistic values of the society, women with breast cancer seem to rely mainly on their husbands to handle emotional, functional and informational needs. Emotional support includes the provision of care, trust, reassurance, and companionship. Functional support includes the practical assistance that the cancer patients receive in terms of financial support, attendance during treatment or help with domestic chores and childcare. Accessing appropriate informational support can be quite challenging in the OPT since available information is not always reliable. The family plays a key role in mediating communication with doctors. Contact with breast cancer patients and survivors is also a source of supporting information, with however a possible negative impact in terms of emotional coping. In this context, the immediate family becomes a fundamental resource for coping and a relational space that mediates connections with others, including doctors, acting as a "proxy" between the patient and the social environment. Findings are discussed in light of the historical and sociocultural context of the OPT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Companions to medical visits have been alternatively viewed as members who "support" or "inhibit" and "interfere" with the doctor-patient interaction. One way of looking at the companions' contribution to medical visits is by coding roles or functions of their communicative behavior. Our paper aims at reconsidering these findings and analyzing how the companion participation is a local and sequential accomplishment, changing from time to time in the consultation. The paper relies upon an overall collection of 58 videorecordings of first oncological visits. Visits were conducted in two different hospitals, one of which a University hospital, and by different oncologists, including both senior professionals and (in the second setting) medical students in oncology. Visits were fully transcribed according to the Jeffersonian conventions and authors examined the transcripts and video according to the methodology of Conversation Analysis. The aim of the paper focused on how patient's companions orient and contribute to the accomplishment of the different aims and activities at different stages of the visit as an institutional speech event. The multimodal analysis of turns and actions (such as, gaze shifts, prosodic modulation, bodily arrangements), and the close examination of the sequential and temporal arrangements of companions' and their co-participants' turns revealed that companions finely attune to the multiparty framework of the encounter and the institutional constraints that govern the oncological first visit. Overall, results show two relevant features: that companions act as to preserve the doctor-patient interaction and to maintain the patient as the most responsible and legitimate agent in the interaction; that companions' contributions are relevant to the activities that sequentially unfold at different stages in the consultation (e.g., history taking, problem presentation, treatment recommendation etc.). The study complements earlier findings on the companion's roles, showing how these are highly mobile, multimodal and multiparty accomplishments, and they are tied to the specific contingencies of the visit. The results solicit to consider the value of multimodal analysis in understanding the complexity of multiparty communication in medical setting, and make it usable also in medical education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On March 9, 2020 attendance classes in Italian universities were suspended due to Covid-19 Pandemic. Thanks to the fast actions put in place by Sapienza University Governance and to the efforts made by all components of the university, the face-to-face courses were turned into on-line courses in only one week. This sudden change has been an even more exciting challenge for the Faculties of Medicine, whose members were also involved in the frontline battle against the virus. Anatomy academics, recognizing the challenges as opportunities to innovate anatomy teaching, set up at the same time: a specific survey to investigate students' perspective on educational preferences and their mood; a longitudinal quantitative study to compare, for the first time in the same student's population, exam grades after face-to-face classes and after online classes. The students, although with different motivations, considered valid both modes of attendance. Exam grades statistical analysis showed that anatomy exam marks after the online course had a higher average value (statistically significant) and with an excellent correlation factor, compared to the marks obtained at the end of the face-to-face course. Considering our data as a whole, we can suggest that face-to-face classes and online classes, rather than being interchangeable education modes, should be considered as modes with different characteristics that offer different educational benefits. These advantages may have different relevance for individual students, depending on their specific needs and individual preferences. This suggests the opportunity to propose customizable courses, centered on the student's needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concludes that, at the beginning of their school careers, children are quite different as far as reading and writing are concerned, and that there are certain universal prerequisites to reading and writing that may be termed "metalinguistic skills." (FL)

Examines beginning readers' story dictation processes and products over a 16-month period. Investigates level of story structure, conventional expressions, internal responses, spatial-temporal setting, verb tenses, variety of tenses, connectives, anaphora, and dictation process adapting to a scribe. Finds overall development in ability to contextualize the language in the text. (RS)

Reports an interview with Clotilde Pontecorvo, founder of the International Center for the Study of Early Literacy, and Renzo Titone, chairman of the Department of Developmental, Social, and Educational Psychology at the University of Rome, Italy. Presents responses to questions about teacher training, literacy problems, and standardized testing in Italy. (MM)

Digital natives are growing up in a new media ecosystem, where the use of the net and social media is a daily practice. Even if there is a growing interest in the use of social media in university education, there is a paucity of outcome based, empirical studies assessing the impact of social media in medical education, in particular in the Human anatomy field. To facilitate human anatomy learning and teacher-student relation, a Sapienza university of Rome human anatomy teacher (HAT) created a professional Facebook profile (HATPFP) and a You Tube channel dedicated to human anatomy topics (HATYTC). In order to assess the usefulness of social media not only in human anatomy learning but also to get in touch with the human anatomy teacher, at the end of each course a survey was created than distributed to the students of health professions and medicine and surgery degree courses. Our data, the first referring to the Italian context, show a useful and positive opinion by most students on the use of social media Facebook and You Tube in the teaching of Human Anatomy. Although within the limits of an exploratory study, we have highlighted how social media can be an effective support for anatomy teaching by facilitating social interactions (in terms of time reduction, simplification, immediacy, less formality), improving learning (in terms of memorization and understanding of concepts: and notions of anatomy), and making students autonomous in their search for new knowledge of anatomy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cancer communication, most of the literature is in the realm of delivering bad news while much less attention has been given to the communication of uncertain news around the diagnosis and the possible outcomes of the illness. Drawing on video-recorded cancer consultations collected in two Italian hospitals, this article analyzes three communication practices used by oncologists to interactionally manage the uncertainty during the visit: alternating between uncertain bad news and certain good news, anticipating scenarios, and guessing test results. Both diagnostic and personal uncertainties are not hidden to the patient, yet they are reduced through these practices. Such communication practices are present in 32 % of the visits in the data set, indicating that the interactional management of uncertainty is a relevant phenomenon in oncological encounters. Further studies are needed to improve both its understanding and its teaching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on conversation analyses of oncology consultations collected in Italy, the article examines the communication practices used to recommend treatments. We found that the oncologist formulates the treatment recommendation ( TR) for high-risk patients in terms of a 'mandatory' choice and for low-risk patients as an 'optional' type of decision. In the first case the doctor presses to reach a decision during the visit while in the second case leaves the decision open-ended. Results show that high-risk patients have less time to decide, are pressured towards choosing an option, but have more opportunities for involvement in TR during the visit. Low-risk patients instead have more time and autonomy to make a choice, but they are also less involved in the decision-making in the visit time. Moreover, we document that TR is organised through sequential activities in which the oncologist informs the patient of alternative therapeutic options while at the same time building a case for the kind of treatment she/he believes to be best for the patient's health. We suggest that in this field risk plays a key role in decision-making which should be better understood with further studies and taken into account in the debate on shared decision-making and patient-centred communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the rapid advances of digital technology, traditional paper-based forms of reading and writing are steadily giving way to digital-based literacies, in theory as well as in application. Drawing on a study of literacy in a medical workplace context, this article examines critically the shift toward computer-mediated textual practices. While a considerable body of research has investigated benefits and issues associated with digital literacy tools in medicine, we consider the affordances of paper-based practices. Our analysis of verbal interaction and textual artifacts drawn from a qualitative study of oncology visits indicates that the uses of pen and paper are advantageous for both doctor and patient. Specifically, they allow doctors to process and package information in ways that are favorable to their personal modus operandi, and they enable patients to participate in the medical visit and take an active role in managing their medical treatment. Understanding the affordances of paper-based literacy provides insights for refining digital tools as well as for motivating the design of possible hybrid forms and digital-analog intersections that can best support medical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a corpus of 35 videorecordings of cancer consultations collected in a medium-size public hospital in Italy, our analyses show how anamnesis, rather than being an automatic sequence of brief and polar (yes/no) questions addressed by the doctor to the patient, results as a challenging interpretative joint activity; in this activity, the doctor and the patient need to collaborate in order to build a shared sense of salience of what compels attention in the actual clinical situation. Results show the interplay of doctor's and patient's different knowledge systems and classification practices, involved in defining what an illness is. Anamnesis proves to be a suitable site for patient's socialization in medical encounters, and a highly collaborative activity due to the amount of interaction and negotiation between the doctor and the patient (higher than those in other stages of the visit). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon the concept of practice, the article explores diagnostic decision making in oncology through the analysis of informal conversations between doctors in an Italian hospital. The analysis shows that doctors rely on three collaborative practices: (a) joint interpretation, (b) intersubjective generation and validation of hypotheses, and (c) postponing the diagnostic decision. Through such practices, doctors jointly handle tough issues such as managing complexity, dealing with cognitive difficulties and limits of knowledge, and avoiding diagnostic errors. The article addresses some lacunae in the literature by providing empirical access to how decision making is done in an understudied and specialized branch of medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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