Reading aloud as a stimulus and facilitation for children's narratives

Any intentional initiative aimed at the possibility of giving space and paying attention to the children's narratives must necessarily consider the theme of possibility. In the absence of sufficient materials to "think" and "tell", children, by definition, have other perspectives, run the risk of not being able to take the advantage of the space and opportunities provided to them to share their narratives and self-narratives. About this aspect, the approach based on reading aloud presented here has shown to have a twofold beneficial effect: it not only offers and implements a space to socialize narratives, but also contributes to providing all children with learning material. to construct these narratives

Misurare l'omonegatività: validazione italiana della Multidimensional Scale of Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men

This work outlines the Italian validation process of the Multidimensional Scale of Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men, developed by Gato, Fontaine and Carneiro (2012). The tool was administered to a non-probability sample of 960 Italian participants aged between 18 to 88 years and self-identified as heterosexual. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and cross-validation strategy was used. Internal validity was tested by measuring the single item reliability, the composite or construct reliability as well as the convergent and discriminant validity. Although the factorial structure of the original model has been replicated, limits arose in the discriminant validity of the factors. An alternative second-order factorial model is then proposed. This model better fits and protects the discriminant validity. Concurrent validity was confirmed by a positive correlation with the Modern Homophobia Scale Revised (Lingiardi, Falanga, & D'Augelli, 2005). Finally, evidence of the instrument's construct validity was obtained by correlational and differential analyses, based on several factors related to homophobia, such as sex, age, educational level, religious and political orientation and contact with homosexual people. Results suggest the applicability of the tool in the Italian context, in order to measure homonegativity, as well as its usefulness in comparing traditional and modern aspects of prejudice

Competenze: sistemi in dialogo

Il contributo presenta una ricerca azione tesa ad indagare quali possano essere pratiche e linguaggi comuni necessari a consentire la transizione da un sistema all’altro dei soggetti in apprendimento, all’interno di un percorso di formazione per docenti del sistema dell’istruzione, dell’IDA (istruzione degli adulti), della formazione professionale. La ricercaazione si è svolta all’’interno di un progettoteso a sviluppare modalità di valutazione delle competenze (con ovvia retroazione su una didattica coerente). L’azione formativa si èsvolta in più zone della Provincia di Grosseto (progetto Cer.co). Il progetto, realizzato attraverso la particolare modalità formativa deicircoli di studio, in cui agli incontri con esperti si alternano momenti di scambio ed autoformazione ha valorizzato lo scambio intragruppo ed intergruppo tra i docenti dei differenti sistemi sino a condividere modalità e capacità di progettare la didattica e gli strumenti di valutazione per competenze. L’esito è stato quello dell’avvio di un alfabeto e una strumentazione comuni, sul territorio, tali da consentire una maggiore leggibilità e permeabilità dei sistemi tra loro

Do Board Games Make People Smarter? Two Initial Exploratory Studies

In recent years, the authors have witnessed the rebirth of board games. This contribution aims to investigate the educational potential of non-random board games in two ways: the comparison of performances of “expert adult players” and “adult non-players” through a correlation study (n=45) and the comparison between the results achieved by a group of children after 26 hours of game training (n=10) and those of a control group that carried out traditional educational activities (n=10) by using a nonrandomized control group pretest-posttest. Specifically, the findings relating to fluid intelligence, analytical and converging cognitive processes and creativity were compared. The results suggest that non-random board games can be an important stimulus for the cognitive functions, with a particular focus on the creative side, and therefore have an important educational function

Strategie e tecniche per leggere ad alta voce a scuola: 16 suggerimenti per insegnanti del primo e del secondo ciclo

La lettura ad alta voce, quando è praticata in modo quotidiano, sistematico e progressivo, è un’attività didattica che facilita lo sviluppo di abilità linguistiche e di comprensione, arricchisce il patrimonio lessicale, sviluppa le funzioni cognitive di base, incide sulle competenze emotive, su quelle relazionali e sulla capacità di comprendere gli altri. A partire da questa consapevolezza, e dalla convinzione che la scuola pubblica sia l’ambiente di apprendimento ideale per fornire davvero a tutte e a tutti la possibilità di sviluppare le proprie potenzialità, questo libro propone suggerimenti pratici per la realizzazione di una didattica della lettura ad alta voce all’interno del curricolo, per tutto il percorso scolare del primo e del secondo ciclo (6/19), con cadenza quotidiana, per un tempo ideale di un’ora al giorno e comunque con sessioni di lettura mai inferiori ai 30 minuti, se non nelle fasi iniziali. Il volume è uno degli esiti di un percorso di ricerca complessivo e si basa su un’analisi della letteratura scientifica internazionale sulle pratiche di lettura ad alta voce e sul confronto e coinvolgimento attivo, attraverso interviste, di decine di insegnanti che hanno sperimentato l’utilizzo della lettura ad alta voce nelle scuole toscane. Nel libro vengono presentate 16 diverse strategie o tecniche che ogni docente di scuola primaria e secondaria può applicare prima, durante e dopo la lettura ad alta voce, allo scopo di migliorare l’efficacia dell’attività in modo graduale e piacevole

Tecniche per la lettura ad alta voce

This book presents 27 operational techniques useful for making the practice of reading aloud as effective as possible in the educational structures dealing with children up to 6 years of age, by following a bottom-up approach. The methodological proposals are organised in three sections: Gaining and Developing Attention, Creating Interest in Stories and Encouraging Participation and Book Culture. The research took into account hundreds of suggestions formulated by scholars, educators and teachers who are experts in reading aloud, as well as by a group of researchers. It explored the specialised bibliography and websites dedicated to reading aloud and involved, through interviews, educators and teachers of nursery schools and preschools from the 35 Education Zones of the Region of Tuscany. The aim is to promote, in all children and youth, the development of the basic skills needed to achieve academic success of each and every one

Dispersione scolastica. Ascoltare i protagonisti per comprenderla e prevenirla

A fact-finding research conducted together with college students to listen to secondary school students, teachers and directors about the issue of school dispersion. Which are the motivations behind the school dispersion? What we can do to prevent it? What is its consistency? How many students have failed the exams? These are some of the questions on which the perception of the participants has been solicited, with a particular focus on the students' voice, received by other older students.Publishe

Paper or Facebook? An experiment on the comprehension of texts with a group of dropouts

Reading texts on the web using technological devices is a practice that is increasing, especially among the younger generation, and this raises questions about the skills that are required to do this, the role and effects of the distractors present around the text, and the cognitive reorganisation that involves a change in the tools used for reading. It appears possible to hypothesise that the meaning of texts is destined, in time, to be more accessible through technological devices rather than via paper. This article presents the results of an experiment conducted with a group of dropouts, a category identified for placement outside the classic route of education, and therefore further removed from the daily use of traditional, printed texts encountered in a professional training course. Using evidence from the survey released by OECD-PISA, our intention is to compare the understanding of these texts when presented on paper compared to when they appeared on Facebook

Pas-sando attraverso la didattica

The paper suggests key issues on the role of the evaluation dimension in relation to educational planning. It addresses such issues by reporting and reflecting on in-service teacher training as implemented in Padova and in Perugia during the academic year 2013- 2014 through the PAS courses. Within such courses evaluation was introduced to teachers as a dimension that supports teachers themselves to monitor their work in progress towards agreed aims and objectives. In this way evaluation becomes mainly a practice to facilitate learning and to improve the learning context. The paper follows up on a previous paper (Batini, Surian, 2011) centred on what was termed as the “Russell paradox”. Such paradox is especially noticeable during teacher training on educational methods. It can be summed up according to the – implicit – recommendation: “Don’t behave as I am behaving with you”.L’articolo presenta alcune riflessioni sul ruolo della dimensione valutativa all’interno della didattica, in particolare nella formazione di insegnanti, ed un percorso di ricerca relativo a corsi PAS realizzati a Padova e Perugia nell’a.a. 2013-2014. La valutazione viene qui proposta soprattutto come un orientamentoche possa servire a chi partecipa a percorsi di apprendimento per situarsi rispetto un punto del percorso negoziato: una pratica, quindi, di monitoraggio e miglioramento delle stesse situazioni e dei contesti organizzati per facilitare l’apprendimento stesso. In tal modo, l’articolo riprende la riflessione e l’analisi della didattica universitaria sviluppate in un contributo precedente (Batini, Surian, 2011) rilevando contraddizioni che rimandano al paradosso di Russell come cifra metaforico-interpretativa. Si tratta di un paradosso che trova, nei percorsi di formazione degli insegnanti, il proprio apice: “non fate come sto facendo io” è, in genere, il sottotesto delle lezioni sulle didattiche e sull’apprendimento che proponiamo agli insegnanti