The qualification of e-learning for higher education through the development of affective usability, self-evaluation test and virtual laboratory

[EN] This contribution presents some aspects of the Department Interdisciplinary Research Project (PRID) of Roma Tre University. The main aim of the project is to define an innovative e-learning integrated didactic model that can promote the acquisition and development of skills for Lifelong Learning (European Parliament & European Council, 2008). To this end, the implementation of the following essential variables and components of the Integrated Model is a priority: 1) the learners’ motivational involvement; 2) the quality of the experience of immersion within a virtual environment; 3) evaluation and self-evaluation practices. Considering the original model successfully experimented in the Degree Course in Education Sciences at “Roma Tre” University (Domenici, 2016) and particularly focused on evaluation and self-evaluation processes, we propose an implementation of so-called affective usability of the e-learning platform by creating relaxing, stimulating and aesthetic online environments, promoting a greater immersive capacity. To this must be added the students’ use of advanced ICT programs enabling them to experience scientific demonstrations and experiments in order to acquire a scientific mentality through the use of Context Simulation Tests and Virtual Didactic Laboratories (VDLs). The effectiveness of implementing the FAD e-learning system in acquiring the scientific thinking modality will be empirically assess.http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/HEAD/HEAD18Biasi, V.; Ciraci, A. (2018). The qualification of e-learning for higher education through the development of affective usability, self-evaluation test and virtual laboratory. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 415-423. https://doi.org/10.4995/HEAD18.2018.8006OCS41542

Didattica digitale e relazione educativa virtuale. Una indagine empirica sull’efficacia dei sistemi audio-video nella didattica on-line per la scuola secondaria di secondo grado e l’università

This paper examines the role of cognitive, affective and relational components in online teaching to facilitate the learning and qualify the educational relationship that can be established to a virtual level.Components such as the positive emotional involvement may appropriately be increased through the education technologies (ICT), which enable to expand the personal ability to teach, providing a greater experience of interpersonal contact, something that more needs to be reinforced and promoted in training online.As part of an empirical investigation conducted to verify the effectiveness of audio-video systems in on-line learning, it has been made a movie by mounting various clips from the relevant film work, classic or newer, for a total of 30 minutes. It was evaluated the level of learning by counting the learning of the concepts learned and remembered after watching the instructional video by 160 university students of courses of pedagogical and psychological disciplines.In line with the working hypothesis, the results confirm the existence of a positive correlation between learning and positive emotional involvement. Learning is greatly favored by the ability to read their own and others’ emotions, being emotionally involved in the virtual interpersonal perception and to maintain a good emotional self-control.These results can be taken into account for setting up experiential laboratories to promote - through the development of positive emotional involvement and expressive sensitivity - better levels of learning in the use of materials and subject content offered in the curricula of secondary schools and higher university courses.Questo contributo prende in esame il ruolo delle componenti cognitive, affettive e relazionali nella didattica on-line volte a facilitare gli apprendimenti e qualificare la relazione educativa che si può instaurare a livello virtuale.Componenti quali il coinvolgimento emotive positivo possono risultare opportunamente incrementabili attraverso le tecnologie dell’istruzione (ICT), le quali permettono di espandere le dotazioni personali del docente, provvedendo ad assicurare maggior vissuto di contatto interpersonale, aspetto che più ha bisogno di essere rinforzato e promosso nella formazione on-line.Nell’ambito di un’indagine empirica condotta per verificare l’efficacia dei sistemi audio-video nella didattica on-line, è stato realizzato un filmato montando varie sequenze tratte da lavori cinematografici pertinenti, classici o recenti, per complessivi 30 minuti. E’ stato valutato l’apprendimento attraverso il conteggio dei concetti appresi e ricordati dopo la visione del filmato didattico da parte di 160 Allievi di Corsi universitari e di discipline pedagogiche e psicologiche.In linea con l’ipotesi di lavoro, i risultati confermano l’esistenza d’una correlazione positiva tra apprendimento e coinvolgimento emotivo positivo. L’apprendimento risulta sensibilmente favorito dalla capacità dileggere le emozioni proprie e altrui, di essere emotivamente coinvolti nella percezione interpersonale virtuale e di mantenere un buon auto-controllo emotivo.Questi risultati possono essere tenuti presenti per l’allestimento di laboratori didattici esperienziali volti a favorire - attraverso lo sviluppo del coinvolgimento emotivo positivo e della sensibilità espressiva - migliori livelli di apprendimento nella fruizione dei materiali e dei contenuti disciplinari offerti nei curricola dellascuola secondaria superiore e dei corsi universitari

Per lo sviluppo del pensiero creativo e la formazione dei talenti attraverso l’educazione all’immagine e ai linguaggi artistici

The article traces the psychometric studies on the measurement of creative thinking in an interdisciplinary and through a brief historical overview.A different line of research has also been presented that has historically concerned the study of creative talent conducted with the so-called “historiometric method” aimed at understanding and forecasting individual levels of creativity and the conditions that favor them. activation and development or which, on the contrary, produce its inhibition.For the purposes of the development of this kind of research, once we have traced the significant variables regarding the creative abilities both from the psychometric point of view and from the sociometric point of view, the problem of entering into the optics not only of measurement but of development of individual creative talent. This means paying attention to the construction of training profiles geared to the development of creative talents and the level of individual creative talent of each student.Educational directions are provided for the development of creative thinking and the training of talents through image education and artistic languages.L’articolo ripercorre in un’ottica interdisciplinare e attraverso una breve panoramica storica centrata gli studi psicometrici sulla misurazione del pensiero creativo.Viene presentato anche un differente filone di ricerca che ha riguardato storicamente lo studio del talento creativo condotto con il cosiddetto “metodo storiometrico” volto alla comprensione e alla previsione dei livelli individuali di creatività e delle condizioni che ne favoriscono l’attivazione e lo sviluppo o che, al contrario, ne producono l’inibizione.Ai fini dello sviluppo di questo genere di ricerche, una volta rintracciate le variabili significative in merito alle abilità creative sia dal punto di vista psicometrico sia dal punto di vista sociometrico, si apre il problema di entrare nell’ottica non solo della misurazione ma dello sviluppo del talento creativo individuale. Ciò significa porre attenzione alla costruzione di profili formativi orientati allo sviluppo dei talenti creativi e del livello di talento creativo individuale di ciascun allievo.Vengono fornite indicazioni educative per lo sviluppo del pensiero creativo e la formazione dei talenti attraverso l’educazione all’immagine e ai linguaggi artistici

Valutazione dei livelli individuali di resilienza negli studenti della scuola secondaria di primo grado: adattamento e validazione del Questionario di Valutazione dell’Atteggiamento Resiliente (QVAR)

Resilience and socio-emotional skills play a central role in promoting individual’s general and academic well-being and supporting a positive adaptation to the context. The school can play a strategic role in the evaluation of these aspects. The Questionnaire for the Assessment of Resilient Attitude at school (QVAR), derived from the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment, was developed for the assessment of resilience and socioemotional skills in lower secondary school students. The questionnaire recalls the perspective of strength-based assessment, focusing on the individuals’ resources. The purpose of this contribution is to offer an overview of the theoretical framework on the relevance of resilience and socio-emotional skills and to present the procedure for constructing, adapting and validating the QVAR. The sample of schools that participated in the validation of the QVAR belongs entirely to the three-year period of lower secondary school and is distributed throughout the country. The classes participating in the survey were 88 for a total of 1401 students, consisting of 698 female students and 703 students. The statistical analyzes conducted confirm the good psychometric properties of the Resilient Attitude Assessment Questionnaire (QVAR): this will allow the application to plan and monitor interventions to improve the student’s coping skills

Processi di auto-valutazione dei Nidi e delle Scuole dell’Infanzia: il ruolo della formazione metodologica di base dei docenti e dei dirigenti

In recent years we have witnessed the development of internal evaluation (Self-evaluation in the first place) and external evaluation of school structures of the 0-6 level. In 2016/17 a Research-Training project was promoted on the theme of self-evaluation of the Nursery and Kindergartens of the Municipality of Rome, which involved 36 Heads of educational services and 93 educationalfacilities. We describe here the activities of the training and research path carried out by the participants in blended mode and the results obtained. The evaluation model adopted considers self-evaluation activities as an interaction between the indications of the legislator (top-down) and the territorial needs (bottom-up), also taking into account the perception of the professional identityand the effectiveness of the school organization.Negli ultimi anni si è assistito allo sviluppo della valutazione interna (auto-valutazione in primis) ed esterna delle strutture scolastiche di fascia 0-6. Nel 2016/17 è stato promosso un progetto di Ricerca-Formazione sul tema dell’auto-valutazione dei Nidi e delle Scuole dell’Infanzia del Comune di Roma, che ha coinvolto 36 Responsabili di servizi educativi e 93 strutture educative.Descriviamo in questa sede le attività del percorso di formazione e ricerca svolte dai partecipanti in modalità blended e i risultati ottenuti. Il modello di valutazione adottato considera le attività auto-valutative come interazione tra le indicazioni del legislatore (top-down) e le esigenze territoriali (bottom- up), tenendo anche conto della percezione dell’identità professionale e dell’efficaciadell’or ganizzazione scolastica

Il Questionario Comprensivo sul Clima Scolastico (QCCS): adattamento e validazione sul campione italiano

Il contributo presenta la procedura di adattamento e validazione del Questionario Comprensivo sul Clima Scolastico (QCCS), tratto dal Comprehensive School Climate Inventory (McCabe, Michelli, M. & Pickeral, 2009), per studenti di scuola secondaria di primo grado. Sono stati coinvolti 114 insegnanti di un corso di specializzazione per le attività di sostegno i quali hanno interessato 1396 studenti (708 femmine e 688 maschi) nella valutazione del clima di classe percepito. Vengono confermate le buone proprietà psicometriche del QCCS composto dalle seguenti scale: Educazione alla cittadinanza; Sostegno e inclusione tra gli studenti; Sostegno dei docenti alla relazione; Percezione della sicurezza fisica ed emotiva; Coinvolgimento delle famiglie e degli studenti; Adeguatezza dell’ambiente scolastico; Comportamento antisociale, come scala inversamente correlata. Si aggiunge la dimensione Sostegno dei docenti all’apprendimento e personalizzazione della didattica. Questo strumento standardizzato permette ai docenti di monitorare l’efficacia di interventi didattico-organizzativi e socio-relazionali verso un miglioramento dell’ambiente scolastico

Formazione e-learning degli insegnanti e pensiero creativo

E-learning Teacher’s Training and Creative ThinkingThis paper deals with the complex theme of assessing teachers’ professional competencies. It illustrates an empirical study conducted in 2012/2013 by Domenici, Biasi and Ciraci, for the Department of Education of «Roma Tre» University. The study involved 287 inservice primary school teachers in the Lazio region who graduated in Education through «Roma Tre» University’s e-learning platform. It aimed to assess whether the distancelearning degree course the teachers had completed had increased their professional skills and in what directions. We used a specific on-line instrument, the CDVR questionnaire, in order to evaluate their teaching and relational competencies. The results show that the above e-learning university courses, conducted through an active didactics based on selfassessment and on innovative strategies for simulation environments, produced an increase in the teacher’s perception of educational and evaluative skills, and in the teacher’s perception of the ability to understand others, together with a greater mental flexibility, which means creativity. These active teaching methods, thanks to new technologies, have promoted the development of attitudes underlying the expert teacher, who is mentally flexible and creative in finding novel solutions to many educational problems. A better understanding of the challenges along with improved communication skills (thanks to better teaching and evaluation strategies and more in-depth psychological knowledge) led to a special effect on the ability to interact and develop a positive attitude in the context of the educational relationship, a functional attitude to enhance the learning process and thus the achievement of the learning outcomes pursued

The "Colour Family Drawing Test": Assessing Children's Perception of Family Relationships. Studies on Mental Health and Cross-Cultural Comparisons

We apply the Colour Family Drawing Test, as a development of the traditional black and white test, for cross-cultural comparison. The participants, aged 7 - 10 years, both genders, were examined individually. Each subject sat at a single table with a white rectangular card of standard size, 24 well-sharpened colour pencils, a black pencil, an eraser and other appropriate tools. S/he received this verbal instruction: "Draw your family". The procedure was firstly applied to 120 participants attending primary schools of Rome (Biasi, Bonaiuto and Levin, 2014). The families were evaluated through a semi-structural interview conducted with the children's teachers and divided into: Harmonious versus Very Conflictual Families. The drawings made by children of Harmonious Families consistently used "Reassuring and Playful Colours" (Pink, Orange, Sky Blue, Light Green, Light Yellow, other pastel colours); and were larger, tidier and more proportioned to respect the opposite group. Children belonging to Conflictual Families used mostly "Alarming and Serious Colours" (Grey, Black, Dark Bleu, Violet, Olive Green) and their drawings were less extended, more often disordered and had typical deformations such as figures too thin. A second investigation examined 120 participants belonging to Asian immigrant families residing in Italy. A third investigation examined 120 participants belonging to Russian families of Moscow. Both last two investigations obtained very similar results on the use of colours, and gave a confirmation of the relevance of the Colour Family Drawing Test