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The European Union has set as one of the European Education Area initiative’s goals the promotion of an inclusive high-quality education. In pursuance of its aims the EU has acknowledged the relevance of the promotion of language learning and the creation of a multilingual community (EU). The importance and challenge of a multilingual mind was observed not only from a bureaucratic point of view, but also and especially from an academic perspective; over the years, more and more researchers (E.g., Volterra e Taeschner, 1978; Genesse, 1989; Romaine, 1995; Guasti, 2007; Atkinson, 2011) have conducted studies on bilingual development at an early age. Nevertheless, the creation of a multilingual and multicultural scenario raises some obstacles; in a country, such as Italy, which, in the last quarter of the 20th century, experienced an accelerated spread of the national language that led from a situation of widespread dialect monolingualism, to extensive bilingualism and in recent years back to a common Italian monolingualism (Berruto, 2021), offering an efficient pedagogical approaches and foreign language teaching methods represents a challenge to overcome. The problem of foreign language teaching grows even more complicated at pre-school age. When working with young children, rather than carrying out a traditional didactic second language teaching and learning method, which may lead to stress associated to the second language, it might be more efficient to nurture a positive attitude towards foreign languages through the implementation of a Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) approach. Ellis (1994), Arnold (1999) and Daloiso (2009) have noted that negative emotions related to the second language acquisition proses might jeopardize the language performance and, therefore, the creation of a multilingual mind. On the other hand, Coyle (2006) claims that a CLIL approach can motivate both language learners and teachers (ivi.), becoming a strategy for exploring d

In the three years since the pandemic struck, teaching styles and methodologies have transformed considerably in all educational agencies: from pre-school to university. The research in the education field has carefully monitored the phenomenon [1,2,3,4] analysing the strategies implemented and the effects on teaching and learning linked to screen-mediated distance or, subsequently, to hybrid forms in educational/training contexts. This contribution is a review on what has happened so far and questions what considerations can draw from the experiences of the Image Education course aimed at third-year students in the Primary Education degree course. Among the elements that have always characterised the programme (even before the pandemic) is the specific attention to and use of the practices of observation, exploration, discovery, interpretation and reflection to be carried out with cultural heritage, both material and immaterial, if possible, through direct contact. In this paper, we will present two paths, one carried out at a distance in synchronous form, the other in hybrid form. Both used virtual sharing tools to reproduce a participation form analogous to the workshop form. In the two cases, the photographic language and graphics (drawing) were the medium through which training processes aimed at keeping the link between discipline, students and teachers meaningful.

What does black carbon mean? How would you explain it to another child/young person? Where is it found? How do you measure it? What effects does it have on people? Can you do something about it? What is the most beautiful place in your neighbourhood? The ugliest? Why? These are some of the questions that accompanied the first year of participatory research involving two classes from a primary school and three from a secondary school in the Milanese suburbs. The participatory science project that we are presenting here aims to involve the children and the educating community in an experiential type of journey that aims to raise awareness of the value of the scientific method and its applicability in everyday life. At the end of the period of confusion in which the population was exposed to the debate between science and fake news amplified by the pandemic emergency. To achieve these objectives, three different actors shared their expertise: through the application of IVAC methodologies -Investigation, Vision, Action, Change (Reid, A, Jensen, B.B, Nikel, J., & Simovska, V, 2008), fielded by the educators of the social cooperative ABCittà, the experience of investigation and data collection with a researcher from the toxicology department of the State University of Milan, finally, the educational researchers of the University of Milan Bicocca oversaw the application of metacognitive methodologies (Colman, A. M. 2018; Albanese, O, Doudin P. A. & D. Martin, 2002) aimed at participatory content construction and knowledge exchange between learners and a collaborative design approach with teachers (Desgagné, Bednarz, Lebuis, Poirier, & Couture 2001, Lyet 2014) to design and monitor development actions. At the end of the project's first year, the outcome was efficient knowledge of the phenomena, a greater sense of empowerment on the part of the students and active participation on the part of the educating community.