The systemic thinking of the school middle-manager. Ideas for professionalization

Middle-management is taking an increasingly central role in the school considered as an adaptive complex system because it assists the school leader in the organizational processes and the distributed leadership procedures. This article examines the complex framework of the middle management as analyzed in literature and available in the Italian educational system. It also supports the reflection on its professional development. Through the comparison between the proposals by the Italian professional associations’ debate and the well-established experience of the English National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership, a professional profile of the middle-manager is outlined, focusing on the systemic thinking, as a characterizing common trait. The characteristics of the systemic thinking described by some recent international studies are put in relation to the different staff roles and to the specific characteristics of 95 expert teachers involved in a recent survey, carried out through a questionnaire. The aim is to gain evidence capable of addressing further investigations and supporting the scientific debate on middle-management’ competences as well as the effective professional training interventions.   Il pensiero sistemico del middle-manager scolastico. Spunti per la professionalizzazione In una scuola intesa come sistema complesso adattivo, il middle-management assume un ruolo sempre più centrale poiché coadiuva la dirigenza nei processi di organizzazione e nelle procedure di leadership distribuita. Il presente articolo prende in esame il quadro composito del middle-management esistente in letteratura e nell’ordinamento scolastico italiano e invita a riflettere sul suo sviluppo professionale. Attraverso il confronto tra le proposte dell’associazionismo professionale italiano e l’esperienza ormai consolidata del National Professional Qualification for Middle Leadership inglese, verrà delineato un possibile profilo di competenza del middle-manager e focalizzata l’attenzione sul pensiero sistemico, quale tratto comune caratterizzante. Le caratteristiche del pensiero sistemico del middle-manager – individuate in alcuni recenti studi internazionali – verranno messe in rapporto ai diversi ruoli di staff e alle caratteristiche specifiche di 95 docenti esperti coinvolti in una recente indagine conoscitiva tramite questionario. Lo scopo è di ricavare evidenze in grado di indirizzare indagini ulteriori e di ampliare il dibattito scientifico sulle competenze professionali del middle-management di tipo sistemico nonché sugli interventi efficaci sul piano della sua formazione professionale

Prove di verifica nella scuola primaria. Analisi documentale delle prove carta-e-matita e tratte dai libri di testo

Riassunto: L’articolo focalizza l’attenzione sulle prove di verifica carta-e-matita in uso nelle scuole e su alcune questioni connesse alla preparazione dei docenti. Dopo aver richiamato alcuni criteri e tassonomie di qualità suggerite dalla ricerca, il lavoro presenta i primi esiti di un’analisi documentale condotta su un corpus di 15 prove di verifica comuni di area geometrica in uso presso una scuola primaria della provincia di Lecco. I risultati fanno emergere alcuni errori - consegne ambigue, disallineamento agli obiettivi, iconografia non adeguata - che conferma la necessità di formare docenti alla costruzione e alla scelta di prove di valutazione di qualità.   Parole chiave: strumenti per valutare, prove di verifica, analisi documentale   Abstract: The article focuses on the paper-and-pencil assessment tests used in schools and on some issues related to the preparation of teachers. After resuming some quality criteria and a taxonomy suggested by the research, the work presents the first results of a documentary analysis conducted on a corpus of 15 Geometry assessment tests that are used in a primary school in the Lecco district. The results bring out some errors - ambiguous stem, misalignment with the objectives, inadequate iconography - which confirms the need to train teachers in writing and select quality assessment tests.   Keywords: assessment tools, tests, documentary analysis

Interventi didattici personalizzati e accoglienza di alunni e alunne provenienti da contesti migratori e scenari di guerra

Dopo aver richiamato specifiche posizioni argomentative della ricerca pedagogico-didattica riguardo la distinzione tra ‘personalizzazione’ e ‘individualizzazione’, l’articolo analizza il significato di alcune pratiche di intervento didattico personalizzato a scuola suggerite nei più recenti documenti ministeriali per l’accoglienza di alunni e alunne provenienti da contesti migratori e da scenari di guerra. In questo ambito, il lavoro si sofferma, in particolare, sul legame logico-operativo tra il dispositivo progettuale dell’Unità di apprendimento e quello valutativo dei compiti autentici, con una esemplificazione.  After recalling specific argumentative positions of the pedagogical-didactic research regarding the difference between 'personalization' and 'individualization', the article analyzes the meaning of some personalized didactic intervention practices at school suggested in the most recent ministerial documents for integration of pupils from migratory backgrounds and from war scenarios. Within this, the work focuses, in particular, on the logical-operational link between some planning (Learning Unit) and evaluation (authentic task) devices, providing an example.

Remote Support through Technologies: A Research-Training on Teachers’ ‘Sophisticated Knowledge’

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the process of transforming teaching practices, such as remotely supporting students through innovative technological means. After a reflection on the impact of COVID-19 emergency on teachers’ skills, on the basis of a series of professional resources made available to teachers in order to support remote participation and learning of students, the work presents methodologies and results of an intervention-research, which involved 108 teachers in service, aimed at develop the teachers’ ability to integrate remote teaching technologies resources, with a view to personalizing interventions and effectiveness of learning content. The survey highlighted that relationship with students has been the teaching practice aspect most influenced by technologies/digital resources in the period of the pandemic. Such results offer support for didactic research to integrate the well-known explanatory model of TPACK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) with further aspects relating to ‘sophisticated’ knowledge, more linked to adaptation and re-shaping of knowledge to be taught with reference to the students needs

La competenza progettuale dell’insegnante. Esplicitazione della componente abduttiva

The paper aims at offering a description of the teacher design analysing theabductive component.After a brief presentation of the design competence, from the descriptivepoint of view and taken from the literature, the work focuses the attentionon the underlying processes, in reference to the ‘Purpose-Variables-Path’model (F-V-P).Starting from the original definition of Ch.S. Peirce and with the support ofexamples taken from the educational field, the abductive inference - typicalof the initial design phase - is analyzed in its internal dynamic.On the basis of the adduced arguments, the paper ends underlining theneed to elaborate epistemic tools able to explain the ‘complex’ competences,as the design one.L’articolo intende offrire un contributo alla descrizione della competenzaprogettuale dell’insegnante attraverso l’approfondimento della sua componenteabduttiva. Dopo una breve presentazione della competenza progettuale dal punto divista descrittivo, sulla scorta della letteratura, il lavoro focalizza l’‘attenzionesui processi sottesi, in riferimento al modello ‘Finalità-Variabili-Percorso’ (FV-P). Partendo dall’originaria definizione di Ch.S. Peirce e col supporto di esemplificazioni di ambito didattico, viene analizzata nella sua dinamica internaun’inferenza abduttiva, propria della fase avviativa della progettazione.Sulla base delle argomentazioni avanzate, l’articolo conclude sottolineandola necessità di elaborare strumenti concettuali esplicativi delle competenze‘complesse’, come quella progettuale

What can challenging reproductive contexts tell us about the rat’s maternal behavior?

Maternal behavior in mammals encompasses a complex repertoire of activities that ensure the survival of the offspring and shape their neural and behavioral development. The laboratory rat has been employed as a classic model for investigating maternal behavior, and recently with the use of advanced techniques, the knowledge of its neural basis has been expanded significantly. However, the standard laboratory testing conditions in which rats take care of a single litter impose constraints on the study of maternal flexibility. Interestingly, the reproductive characteristics of this species, including the existence of a fertile postpartum estrus, allow us to study maternal behavior in more complex and ethologically relevant contexts, even in laboratory settings. Here we review how maternal and sexual motivations interact during the postpartum estrus, shaping the behavioral response of females according to the presence of the pups and males. Next, we describe how impregnation during the postpartum estrus creates a new reproductive context in which mothers simultaneously care for two successive litters, adapting their responses to different behavioral and physiological demands of pups. These findings illustrate the behavioral adaptability of maternal rats to pups’ needs and the presence of other reinforcers, as well as its dependence on the context. In our view, future perspectives in the field, by incorporating the use of cutting-edge techniques, should analyze maternal flexibility and its neural substrates in models that incorporate complex and challenging contexts. This approach would allow a more comprehensive understanding of brain circuits involved in the adaptive and flexible nature of parenting

Training the design skills based on the Agire educativo paradigm. The laboratories at the Sciences of Education Degree courses (L19)

The design is assumed as the ability to adapt the models learned to the context and the situations in an intelligent way and a complex competence within the Agire educativo (Perla & Riva, 2016) since it implies global-analytical approach, clinical intuition and know-how. The article deals with how to train this complex competence in view of the explanatory models – Terzo educativo (Perla, 2016a) and Finalità-Variabili-Percorso (F-V-P) (Rossi & Toppano, 2009) in the specific abductive component of them, and describes the organizational structure as well as the operating devices of the laboratories (EduLabo and Interventions on developmental disabilities) held at the Science of Education Degree courses, at the University of Bari and Giustino Fortunato Open University. In this way, some clarifications regarding the complex nature of the design ability, exemplifications of the didactically educational method as well as arguments on the didactic coordination of the Science of Education Degree courses are offered.Formare l’abilità progettuale alla luce del paradigma dell’agire educativo. I laboratori nei CdL-19 Il lavoro assume la progettazione come capacità di adattare in maniera intelligente modelli appresi in ragione del contesto e delle situazioni e la rilancia come competenza complessa dell’Agire educativo (Perla & Riva, 2016) che implica approccio globale e analitico, intuizione clinica e tecnicalità. L’articolo pone la questione su come formare tale competenza complessa attraverso la ripresa dei modelli esplicativi del Terzo educativo (Perla, 2016) e della Finalità-Variabili-Percorso (F-V-P) (Rossi & Toppano, 2009), nella specifica componente abduttiva, e descrive l’impianto organizzativo nonché i dispositivi operativi dei laboratori (EduLabo e Interventi nelle disabilità dello sviluppo) adottati nei CCdSS Scienze dell’educazione e della formazione dell’Università degli Studi di Bari e Scienze dell’Educazione dell’Università Telematica Giustino Fortunato. Vengono, così, offerti alcuni possibili chiarimenti circa il carattere complesso dell’abilità progettuale, un’esemplificazione di metodo didatticamente educativo nonché argomenti sulla necessità di una regia didattica dei CdL-19

Valutazione in pratica: Il rapporto tra tirocinio e conoscenze e abilità valutative dei tirocinanti

The practicum is the training activity that characterizes the qualifying degree courses as it supports, with the laboratories, the ‘practical knowledge’ construction that is necessary for future professionalism to grow. Specifically, practicum should encourage the reflection on the activities, in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation of teaching interventions. The work reports a study conducted at the Universities of Bergamo and Reggio Calabria on the practicum of the Primary Education Sciences degree course. The study aimed to explore how the practicum achieved by students affects the basic concepts of assessment knowledge; it involved a sample of 130 students and attended the evaluation courses. The investigation allows to confirm that students with more hours of practicum carried out tend to: a. develop assessment knowledge more related to real circumstances, less abstract and generic; b. be more adept at grasping aspects of formative assessment, not just summative. The proposal therefore offers evidence confirming the importance of the practicum in initial teacher training, also with regard to assessment skills.Il tirocinio è l’attività formativa che caratterizza i corsi di laurea abilitanti in quanto favorisce, con i laboratori, la costruzione del ‘sapere pratico’ necessario alla crescita della futura professionalità. Nello specifico, il tirocinio dovrebbe favorire la riflessione sulle attività svolte, riguardo la progettazione, l’implementazione e la valutazione degli interventi didattici. Il lavoro riporta uno studio condotto presso le Università di Bergamo e di Reggio Calabria sui tirocini del CdL in Scienze della Formazione Primaria. Lo studio ha voluto esplorare quanto l’esperienza di tirocinio realizzata dagli studenti influisca sui concetti di base delle conoscenze valutative e ha coinvolto un campione di 130 studenti frequentati i corsi di valutazione. L’indagine consente di affermare che gli studenti con all’attivo più ore di tirocinio svolte tendono a: a. sviluppare conoscenze valutative più legate alle circostanze reali, meno astratte e generiche; essere più inclini a cogliere aspetti di valutazione formativa, non solo sommativa. La proposta, pertanto, offre evidenze a conferma dell’importanza del tirocinio nella formazione iniziale degli insegnanti, anche per quanto riguarda l’abilità valutativa

JCV-specific T-cells producing IFN-gamma are differently associated with PmL occurrence in HIV patients and liver transplant recipients

Aim of this work was to investigate a possible correlation between the frequency of JCV-specific T-cells and PML occurrence in HIV-infected subjects and in liver transplant recipients. A significant decrease of JCV-specific T-cells was observed in HIV-PML subjects, highlighting a close relation between JCV-specific T-cell immune impairment and PML occurrence in HIV-subjects. Interestingly, liver-transplant recipients (LTR) showed a low frequency of JCV-specific T-cells, similar to HIV-PML subjects. Nevertheless, none of the enrolled LTR developed PML, suggesting the existence of different immunological mechanisms involved in the maintenance of a protective immune response in LT