Le percezioni degli insegnanti italiani di scuola secondaria sull'insegnamento della storia.

This article presents the results of a research aimed at finding out how Italian (Sicily) teachers perceive the teaching of history at the upper secondary level. The study was conducted on the basis of a questionnaire that was completed by 96 practising teachers. The research has an educational diagnostic purpose and is based on a quantitative approach. Descriptive (frequencies) and inferential (non-parametric tests) analyses were carried out to determine whether there are differences between the sexes. The results indicate there are significant differences in the teaching staff according to gender, with men generally showing a perception of history teaching that is close to traditional models (master class and textbook). The main difficulties reported by teachers are methodological in nature, as well as excessive content syllabi and high student/class ratios. The study concludes that there is a need to promote teacher training in active methods and strategies for teaching history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]