Joint attention in the first year: The coordination of gaze and affect between 7 and 10 months of age

We used a multilevel growth model to describe the developmental trajectories of infant’s coordinated attention between people and objects between 7 and 10 months of age. Additionally, we assed whether the coordinated attention looks were accompanied by smiles as infants interacted social partners. These results confirm the emergence of visual joint attention skills before the end of the first year. These results will be useful in the construction of robotic systems that engage in joint attention

Early sensitivity to interpersonal timing

Sensitivity to timing in interaction was assessed in mother-infant interaction. In Study 1, three-month-old infants were presented with an image of their mother interacting with them on television, which was either live or temporally delayed by 1 second. Infants detected the temporal delay and were more attentive when the mother was presented live compared to delayed by 1 second. In Study 2, mothers interacted with an image of their three-month-old infant, which was either live or temporally delayed by 1 second. Mothers did not respond to a 1-second delay in their infants' behavior. In Study 3 and 4, the results were replicated with six-month-old infants

PhD Studies in Education in Italy within the European Research Framework and the Bologna Process: an Overview

A partire da una analisi delle sfide e degli orientamenti che cararerizzano la ricerca educativa a livello internazionale, l’articolo presenta una panoramica dell’offerta formativa dottorale nell’ambito delle scienze dell’educazione in Italia evidenziandone limiti e potenzialità. Starting from an analysis of the international framework for educational research as well as of the doctoral education sytem within the Bologna process, the article presents an overview of the educational offer for doctoral training in educational research in Italy, highlighting its limits and potentialities

Riflessione e riflessività

Il contributo intende esplorare la struttura profonda dell’agire educativo e delle pratiche in cui si traduce focalizzandosi sul rapporto tra conoscenza ed azione in esse implicato. Verrà inoltre esplorata la posizione epistemica degli attori attraverso il paradigma riflessivo delineato da D.Schön e verrà evidenziata la funzione dei processi di riflessione nel corso dell’azione all’interno dei contesti di pratica educativa. Il costrutto di riflessione verrà infine messo in relazione con quello di riflessività inteso come “formula di contingenza” a forte impatto sui sistemi educativi, secondo la prospettiva di Luhmann e Schorr

Dimensioni trasformative dell'apprendimento adulto

Il contributo esplora le dimensioni trasformative dell'apprendimento adulto e le sue valenze creative

Dewey's View of Philosophy as An Educational Device

The paper focuses on the deep relationship existing in Dewey’s work between philosophy and education; this relationship is grounded both in the existential, educational, cultural and social role given to philosophy as well as in the role given to education as a “social function”. In Dewey’s thought, education is a medium term, and plays therefore a pivotal function in the architecture of his argumentation, which starts with a deep analysis of human existence and ends with the assignment of a new task to philosophy, passing through a sound process of “reconstruction” (of the individual and collective experience as well as of the inner structure of philosophical speculation itself) which can be understood to some extent as an “educational” process. From this perspective, it is possible to talk, in Deweyan terms, of Philosophy and Education, on the basis of their having a common ground of individual and collective growth, which allows us to acknowledge them as devices aimed at promoting social change and social development

Reflexivity and educational professions

The reflective paradigm in educational research has been mainly inspired by two parallel approaches: a pragmatist approach-developed on the basis of Dewey’s idea or reflective thinking and Schön’s notion of reflection in action-as well as on an approach inspired to Critical Theory, with particular attention to the work of Habermas and his analysis of the relationship between knowledge and interest. The two approaches have been often contrasted and not explored within a continuum which has determined an empasse in the exploration of educational agency. In order to overcome this empasse, it is useful to refer to a perspective internal to educational practices, aimed at highlighting their complex phenomenology. This leads us in identifying the different forms of intentionality as well as the structural dynamics that shape educational practices as specific forms of social agency inscribed within educational systems, and explored focusing on the forms of relexivity imbedded within those system