Aldo Capitini, l'Educazione Nuova e la pedagogia del Novecento. Un confronto con Dewey e Montessori

Il pensiero pedagogico di Capitini viene messo a confronto con quello di Dewey e di Montessori; oltre ai molteplici aspetti di affinità si segnala soprattutto, nell'Autore, l'inedita visione dell'infanzia come espressione di una realtà liberata. Tale visione appare per certi versi anticipata, ma non raggiunta da Dewey e Montessori

A modern political education. Nonviolent perspectives

The article deals with a nonviolent perspective of political education and with some theories that may conjugate these two domains: Nonviolent Culture and Political Education. Methodologically an approach rooted in the theoretical and bibliographical research has been privileged. The discourse investigates the causes of the actual political disaffection, and follows the purpose to highlight the irrevocable role of a structured nonviolent perspective (like Gandhi’s one), in the rehabilitation of politics. Nonviolence does not remove Marxist elements of legitimation in their entirety – as Gramsci’s theory will highlight – provided that they correspond the “conquest of violence” that needs to succeed first and foremost in the “intimate” individual’s awareness. Moreover, the importance of contemporary ecological theories, which embed the nonviolent perspective in a general epistemological view, will be also discussed to reaffirm the crucial significance of the latter. Through this path, different authors, hailing from diverse backgrounds, such as philosophical, pedagogical and anthropological studies, show meaningful affinities and matching points, presenting, in some case, political education in terms of education and training of the “political emotions”. The reflection highlights the relevance of an expanded political participation and experimentation through praxis, as ways of an actual political education, in the belief that emphasizing the pedagogic dimension of political activity, means nothing less than searching for its deepest fundament

La scuola popolare: esperienza peculiare dell’educazione degli adulti in Italia. Significati storici e prospettive future

Partendo da un esempio di scuola popolare nella Cagliari degli anni Settanta, si ripercorre la rilevanza storica nell'educazione degli adulti di questo genere di spazio educativo in riferimento alle teorie sull'apprendimento in età adulta e alla riflessione gramsciana. lo spazio conclusivo è dedicato alle possibili prospettive future di una scuola per adulti in condizioni di svantaggio, nell'epoca della solitudine e dislocazione per certi versi, dalle nuove tecnologie, che non vanno, tuttavia, sminuite nelle loro potenzialità

"Build yourself a levee deep inside": Perspectives on violence in female songwriters music

The article deals with the possibility of a connection between popular songwriter’s music and pedagogical reflection and lifelong education, drawing inspiration from authors, that, starting from different branches of knowledge, have confronted the issue. The focus is on female songwriting: taking the cue from a comparison between four songwriters, a point of view on violence is investigated, in which various existential and cultural views surface, but also a possible common female perspective. It emerges from the musical expressions, in particular from the lyrics, that female, as much as male identity, has to tackle the issue of violence in order to achieve a mature perspective of oneself and of their relationship with the other. This requires a soul-searching, not as much therapeutic as authentically educational, therefore not episodic but permanent, that can be supported by the mirroring and the inspiration to their own storytelling induced by the enjoyment of songwriting

Cinema, educazione e memoria storica

Il cinema racconta la Storia (si usa questo termine nel suo senso più ampio, che abbraccia tutto ciò che “accade”, socialmente e individualmente) a molti livelli: un livello “superficiale” può essere quello di raccontare fatti di cui lo spettatore non era a conoscenza, assolvendo a una funzione informativa/formativa essenziale; un livello più profondo è quello di formare, assolvendo al compito di tenere viva una certa memoria storica, consentendo allo spettatore di appassionarsi a personaggi – attraverso dei meccanismi identificativi – e vicende storiche che altrimenti rimarrebbero mute e indifferenti alla coscienza dello stesso, come cose che si sanno approssimativamente, ma che non si vivono e sono senza un vero richiamo per la persona

Analfabetismo funzionale: definizioni e problematiche. Verso una prospettiva critica

The article is about the topic of literacy as specific Italian issue; it is briefly introduced in its numerical and quantitative terms and its geographical distribution in the Italian regional territories. Moreover, the focus is set on the meaning of the distinction between alphabetization and literacy, whereas the importance of specific alphabets and cultures is highlighted as well as a perspective of continuity between the forementioned situations, that is also historically defined. The topic is resumed in light of the concepts of “returning illiteracy” and “multiple literacies” and as main question in the development of adult education, to which many important authors have contributed. In the conclusions, we face the question of the orientation and validity of the survey, on which background a certain perspective of functionality is outlined. The question posed claims if it might be necessary to reconsider a survey’s perspective that represents a view on alphabetic competencies that is too strictly focused on productivity

L’apprendimento in età adulta: visioni storiche e prospettive teoriche

Il tema dell’apprendimento attiene a un ambito di riflessione della didattica, in quanto riguarda i processi dell’imparare e dell’insegnare, che si collocano a buon diritto in tale disciplina; esso si colloca, altresì, in una prospettiva psicologica, dato che sottostà alle leggi e alle teorie riguardanti il funzionamento della psiche umana. In questa lettura, tuttavia, senza minimamente disconoscere il valore e la funzione degli ambiti disciplinari appena menzionati, e, anzi, in connessione con essi, si privilegerà un approccio pedagogico sul problema dell’apprendimento, ovvero si considererà quest’ultimo come inscindibile dall’educazione.An historical path is followed, aimed at identifying the notion of adult learning and its evolution from the ancient times until nowadays. With especial reference to the contemporary age, the concept of learning is considered in relation to the notions of education, lifelong construction of the subject, comprehension and development, as it appears in some philosophical, pedagogical and psychological perspectives. Particular attention is moreover pinned on the contribution of humanistic psychology and of andragogy

Autori e scuole di pensiero nella dimensione educativa internazionale

Author tells about the important rule of UNESCO around educational theory. It’s necessary reading again the category of care in education and the essay presents many interesting stud-ies in deep about three authors: Maritain, Freire and Morin

Binocular Rivalry Measured 2 Hours After Occlusion Therapy Predicts the Recovery Rate of the Amblyopic Eye in Anisometropic Children

Recent studies on adults have shown that short-term monocular deprivation boosts the deprived eye signal in binocular rivalry, reflecting homeostatic plasticity. Here we investigate whether homeostatic plasticity is present also during occlusion therapy for moderate amblyopia.PURPOSE. Recent studies on adults have shown that short-term monocular deprivation boosts the deprived eye signal in binocular rivalry, reflecting homeostatic plasticity. Here we investigate whether homeostatic plasticity is present also during occlusion therapy for moderate amblyopia. METHODS. Binocular rivalry and visual acuity (using Snellen charts for children) were measured in 10 children (mean age 6.2±6 1 years) with moderate anisometropic amblyopia before the beginning of treatment and at four intervals during occlusion therapy (2 hours, 1, 2, and 5 months). Visual stimuli were orthogonal gratings presented dichoptically through ferromagnetic goggles and children reported verbally visual rivalrous perception. Bangerter filters were applied on the spectacle lens over the best eye for occlusion therapy. RESULTS. Two hours of occlusion therapy increased the nonamblyopic eye predominance over the amblyopic eye compared with pretreatment measurements, consistent with the results in adults. The boost of the nonamblyopic eye was still present after 1 month of treatment, steadily decreasing afterward to reach pretreatment levels after 2 months of continuous occlusion. Across subjects, the increase in nonamblyopic eye predominance observed after 2 hours of occlusion correlated (rho =-0.65, P =0.04) with the visual acuity improvement of the amblyopic eye measured after 2 months of treatment. CONCLUSIONS. Homeostatic plasticity operates during occlusion therapy for moderate amblyopia and the increase in nonamblyopic eye dominance observed at the beginning of treatment correlates with the amblyopic eye recovery rate. These results suggest that binocular rivalry might be used to monitor visual cortical plasticity during occlusion therapy, although further investigations on larger clinical populations are needed to validate the predictive power of the technique

Synthesis and biological evaluation of anti-Toxoplasma gondii activity of a novel scaffold of thiazolidinone derivatives

We designed and synthesised novel N-substituted 1,3-thiazolidin-4-one derivatives for the evaluation of their anti-Toxoplasma gondii efficacy. This scaffold was functionalised both at the N1-hydrazine portion with three structurally different moieties and at the lactam nitrogen with substituted benzyl groups selected on the basis of our previous structure-activity relationships studies. Using three different assay methods, the compounds were assessed in vitro to determine both the levels of efficacy against the tachyzoites of T. gondii (IC50 = 5-148 μM), as well as any evidence of cytotoxicity towards human host cells (TD50 = 68 to ≥320 μM). Results revealed that ferrocene-based thiazolidinones can possess potent anti-tachyzoite activity (TI =2-64)