INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND CONSOLIDATION OF THE METACOGNITIVE COMPETENCE

Studying difficulties observed in teenagers do not appear at once, but they are the result of a process that parents and teachers do not perceive immediately. In order to gain good results in the study, teenagers should learn to reflect on the positive influence of self-regulating cognitive, metacognitive, affective and volitional processes within the learning process. If students know how to communicate effectively with their adult partner, this turns out to be a winning goal in the educational process. The risk of social exclusion and of school failure, for students that feel uncomfortable with standard education parameters, is remarkable. Diversity within the school context represents a challenge that involves all the main agents of change: teachers, school administrators, families and extracurricular educational agencies, each with specific functions. In order to achieve the social inclusion of these students, teachers should adopt new teaching methods, original solutions, tailored to individual pupils and contexts, new educational-pedagogical activities customized for the individual students and the different contests. Social exclusion can be overcome by activating learning centred \u2018educational paths\u2019, taking into account all the dimensions of the student\u2019s personality (cognitive, metacognitive, practical-operational, affective, motivational, relational and social) in \u2018authentic\u2019 contexts, where communication and social interaction take place with other people, peers and adults (teachers or experts), facilitators, coaches, counsellors or tutors, even through new technologies. We believe that deep thinking and independent learning are more likely to occur when effective learning and thinking strategies are explicitly discussed and employed by the teacher and students. Reflection and metacognition are key skills used in this process. Students who employ reflection and metacognition know how to approach learning and are aware of/able to evaluate and regulate their own thinking. The present research-intervention aims at examining the communication process between Sicilian teenagers, their parents and their teachers within the context of the Sicilian territory. The research has been focused o the perception educators have of teenagers\u2019 educational needs, in particular those concerning study difficulties. A training methodology has been tested with 454 teenage students, to support and implement individual study and improve communication with their parents. In particular, the biennial (2011 -2013) research project has been articulated into two actions: a) the exploratory investigation in order to collect data on the educational needs of teen-agers; b) the formative intervention on the learning strategies and on the communication in the family in order to promote an effective dialogue between teen-agers and their parents

ANALYZING VIDEOGAMES TO LEARN HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY

The reflections contained in this research work deal with the educational challenge launched by the cultural and social phenomenon of videogames, which have become more than pure forms of entertainment and fun, more and more metaphors of the big game of the reality of life. Many of the earliest scholarly studies emanated from the research laboratories of pedagogical departments were typically concerned with the possible effect of games and young players. For a long time videogames have been forgotten as educative medium because they have been considered as mere trifles \u2013 low art \u2013 carrying none of the weight, gravitas or credibility of more traditional media. The seemingly bewildering variety of game types makes it almost inevitable that game theorists, journalists and marketers have attempted to find ways of classifying and making more manageable the object of their attentions. By far the most frequently used tool has been genre. The generic classification of videogames is so widely employed that it is often easy to overlook it altogether or merely consider it as natural. One of the possible forms of videogame education is that of promoting its understanding and educative usage. The present work, starting from the construction of an evaluation grid, aims at analyzing videogame products in order to learn how to think critically. From an educational point of view, the data presented are meant to be functional tools to stimulate thinking activity and to activate appropriate mental processes in children. The research dealt with the analysis of 50 video games designed for children aged 3 to 10 years of age

Consapevolmente intelligenti: un\u2019indagine esplorativa sull\u2019uso dei social network nella scuola primaria

I Social Network sono una preziosa occasione per costruire una societ\ue0 pi\uf9 attenta e responsabile, una pra-tica che si assimila imparando a utilizzare il Web in maniera consapevole. La competenza digitale si configu-ra come competenza alla partecipazione attiva alla Rete e alla societ\ue0. L\u2019attenzione \ue8 posta sulla necessit\ue0 di acquisire un know-how per sfruttare i media, con particolare riferimento ai Social Network, in modo intelli-gente cos\uec da farli diventare strumenti intelligenti. Dal punto di vista educativo i Social Network offrono diver-se potenzialit\ue0 in quanto: sono in grado di supportare le funzioni di socializzazione, condivisione e coordi-namento; di incoraggiare il dialogo, promuovere la condivisione di risorse e migliorare lo sviluppo di capacit\ue0 comunicative; di sostenere l\u2019apprendimento facilitando il supporto tra pari nello svolgimento dei compiti. Le criticit\ue0 maggiori derivano dal contrasto tra i modelli d\u2019impiego dei Social Network aperti nei contesti educati-vi formali e le pratiche d\u2019uso degli alunni in ambito informale. Sul tema del rapporto tra i Social Network e i processi di insegnamento/apprendimento, se da una parte si rileva l\u2019urgenza di utilizzarli per potenziare l\u2019intelligenza, per trovare le risposte pi\uf9 efficaci a problemi complessi, dall\u2019altra parte \ue8 necessario che si im-pari a farlo con consapevolezza, con senso critico, con rispetto e responsabilit\ue0. Il lavoro documenta un\u2019indagine esplorativa sull\u2019utilizzo critico e consapevole dei Social Network nella scuola primaria. L\u2019indagine, che si \ue8 svolta nel corrente anno scolastico, ha coinvolto 2399 alunni, 100 insegnanti e 50 diri-genti di 50 scuole primarie della Sicilia occidentale. La ricerca ha inteso esplorare, da una parte, se e in che modo gli alunni di classe quarta e quinta primaria utilizzano i Social Network; dall\u2019altra parte, in che modo insegnanti e dirigenti possono orientare i bambini all\u2019uso consapevole e critico dei social. Gli strumenti utiliz-zati per lo studio sono: il questionario ICRTDIG (Digital Critical Thinking and Intelligence), appositamente costruito e validato per gli alunni, e un\u2019intervista semi-strutturata per gli insegnanti e i dirigenti. I risultati la-sciano intravvedere piste di ricerca e ambiti applicativi interessanti.Social Networks are a noteworthy opportunity to build a more caring and responsible society, a practice that is assimilated by learning to use the Web in a conscious way. The media competence takes the form of ex-pertise both to active participation to the Web and to society. The focus is on the need to acquire the know-how to exploit the media, with particular reference to social networks, in a clever way so as to make them in-telligent instruments. From an educational point of view, Social Networks offer a different potential because they are able to support the functions of socialization, of sharing and of coordination; to encourage dialogue, promote resources sharing and improve the development of communication skills; to support learning by fa-cilitating peer support in the performance of tasks. The main critical issues arise from the contrast between the patterns of use of social networks in formal educational settings and their use within the informal educa-tional settings. As to the relationship between social networks and the teaching/learning processes, on the one hand, there is an urgent need to use them to increase intelligence as well as to find the most effective solutions to complex problems; on the other hand, it is necessary to learn how to do so consciously, critical-ly, with respect and responsibility. The present work documents an exploratory survey on the critical and conscious use of Social Networks at school. The survey carried out during the scholastic year 2016-2017, involved 2239 pupils, 100 teachers and 50 Head Teachers of 50 Sicily Primary schools. The research aimed to explore whether and how students actually use social networks; it explored on how future teachers and educators can guide the young towards a conscious and critical use of Social Networks. The tools used for the study are a questionnaire specially constructed and a semi-structured interview. The results reveal new avenues of research and interesting application areas

Social network, texting e solitudini verbali. L\u2019analisi linguistico-espressiva delle interazioni tra gli studenti universitari su fb

Nowadays, social platforms play a leading role in the ways of social communication and knowledge building. Young people are the main recipients and users of these means, both with positive effects in the learning and cognitive field and also with negative consequences in the social-relational field. Considered in terms of linguistic-communicative analysis, when used in the teaching do-main, social networks have both the advantage of providing ac-cessible corpora of conversational exchanges and that of contin-uously re-proposing the operational and pragmatic centrality of the subject/user. Starting from the parallel between the models of real conver-sation and the realizations of virtual communication, this contri-bution reports on the exploratory survey conducted in the aca-demic year 2018/2019 with students of the 3rd year of the courses in Educational Sciences and Community Education of the Uni-versity of Palermo. The survey focused on the linguistic-expressive analysis of 6,500 Fb students\u2019 discussions conveying states of loneliness and socio-relational gaps

Knowledge and degree of training of Primary Education teachers in relation to ICT taught to disabled students

The integration of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) into the inclusive classroom requires competent teaching staff from both the technological and pedagogical points of view. Within this context, and with the aim of looking at one of these theoretical premises, this study aimed to identify the degree of training and technological knowledge of primary school teachers in Spain with respect to the use of ICT with individuals with disabilities (functional diversity). A descriptive ex post-facto research method was used, where the sample comprised 777 teachers. An ad-hoc questionnaire was used as the data-collection instrument. The results revealed the low skill levels of the teachers with respect to the use of ICT with students with disabilities, where the level of training of the teaching staff was determined by personal (gender, age), professional (teaching experience) or educational (qualifications) variables. The findings of this study point to the need for teacher training that instructs teachers on the use of ICT in order to favour the learning and educational innovation of students with disabilities

Polycapillary based μXRF station for 3D colour tomography

The “Rainbow X-Ray” (RXR) experimental station at XLab Frascati of the Frascati’s National Laboratories (LNF) INFN is a dedicated station for X-ray fluorescence studies based on the use of polycapillary lenses in a confocal geometry. The flexible RXR layout allows investigating specimens of the dimensions ranging from several millimeters up to half meter and weighting up to several tens of kilograms. Compared to similar existing XRF stations, apart of the possibility for investigating large samples, the main advantage of this equipment is the detection system with two spectrometers optimized to work separately at high and at low X-ray energie

Gender-specific associations of short sleep duration with prevalent and incident hypertension : the Whitehall II Study

Sleep deprivation (5 hour per night) was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in middle-aged American adults but not among older individuals. However, the outcome was based on self-reported diagnosis of incident hypertension, and no gender-specific analyses were included. We examined cross-sectional and prospective associations of sleep duration with prevalent and incident hypertension in a cohort of 10 308 British civil servants aged 35 to 55 years at baseline (phase 1: 1985-1988). Data were gathered from phase 5 (1997-1999) and phase 7 (2003-2004). Sleep duration and other covariates were assessed at phase 5. At both examinations, hypertension was defined as blood pressure 140/90 mm Hg or regular use of antihypertensive medications. In cross-sectional analyses at phase 5 (n5766), short duration of sleep (5 hour per night) was associated with higher risk of hypertension compared with the group sleeping 7 hours, among women (odds ratio: 2.01; 95% CI: 1.13 to 3.58), independent of confounders, with an inverse linear trend across decreasing hours of sleep (P0.003). No association was detected in men. In prospective analyses (mean follow-up: 5 years), the cumulative incidence of hypertension was 20.0% (n740) among 3691 normotensive individuals at phase 5. In women, short duration of sleep was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in a reduced model (age and employment) (6 hours per night: odds ratio: 1.56 [95% CI: 1.07 to 2.27]; 5 hour per night: odds ratio: 1.94 [95% CI: 1.08 to 3.50] versus 7 hours). The associations were attenuated after accounting for cardiovascular risk factors and psychiatric comorbidities (odds ratio: 1.42 [95% CI: 0.94 to 2.16]; odds ratio: 1.31 [95% CI: 0.65 to 2.63], respectively). Sleep deprivation may produce detrimental cardiovascular effects among women. (Hypertension. 2007;50:694-701.) Key Words: sleep duration blood pressure hypertension gender differences confounders comorbiditie

Qualità della didattica universitaria e sviluppo della capacità decisionale. Il modello ADVP per garantire i passaggi da L-19 a LM-85bis.

Il presente contributo intende offrire una riflessione sulle competenze attese individuate attraverso la formulazione dei descrittori di Dublino dei CdS in Scienze dell’Educazione (L-19) e Scienze della Formazione Primaria (LM-85bis) istituiti presso l’Ateneo di Palermo e nello stesso tempo proporre un modello per lo sviluppo della maturità professional e necessaria a garantire scelte consapevoli, mature e responsabili. L’analisi condotta ci ha permesso, in una seconda fase di individuare gli obiettivi formativi finali scelti seguendo il modello proposto dalle Linee Guida dell ’Anvur, e di scegliere il modello dell’Activaction du Developpement Vocationnel et Personnel quale strumento per lo sviluppo della capacità decisionale che permetta un passaggio consapevole e responsabile degli studenti dal corso L-19 al corso LM-85bis salvaguardando le competenze professionali specifiche che devono acquisire i giovani che intendono dedicarsi all’insegnamento nella scuola primaria e dell’infanzia

Recurrent Endometrial Cancer: Which Is the Best Treatment? Systematic Review of the Literature

Background: Endometrial cancer is the most common gynaecological tumour in developed countries. The overall rate of relapse has remained unchanged in recent decades. Recurrences occur in approximately 20% of endometrioid and 50% of non-endometrioid cases. The aim of this systematic review is to compare different therapeutic strategies in the treatment of endometrial cancer recurrence to evaluate their prognostic and curative effects based on site and type of recurrence. Methods: This systematic review of literature was conducted in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. The study protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020154042). PubMed, Embase, Chocrane and Cinahl databases were searched from January 1995 to September 2021. Five retrospective studies were selected. Results: A total of 3571 studies were included in the initial search. Applying the screening criteria, 299 articles were considered eligible for full-text reading, of which, after applying the exclusion criteria, 4 studies were selected for the final analysis and included in the systematic review. No studies were included for a quantitative analysis. We divided the results according to the location of the recurrence: locoregional recurrence, abdominal recurrence and extra abdominal recurrence. Conclusion: the treatment of choice should be assessed according to the relapse location and to the presence of single or multiple lesions. A crucial role in the decision-making algorithm is also the type of adjuvant treatment received at the time of the first diagnosis

Association between C-reactive protein with all-cause mortality in ELSA-Brasil cohort

Background: High-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) has been proposed as a marker of incident cardiovascular disease and vascular mortality, and it may also be a marker of non-vascular mortality. However, most evidence comes from either North American or European cohorts. The present proposal aims to investigate the association of high-sensitive C-reactive protein with the risk of all-cause mortality in a multi-ethnic Brazilian population Methods: Cohort data from baseline (2008–2010) of 14 792 subjects participating in the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Adult Health were used. HsCRP was assayed with Immunochemistry. The association of baseline covariates with all-cause mortality was calculated by Cox regression for univariate model and adjusted for different confounders after mean follow-up of 8.0 ± 1.1 years. The final model was adjusted for age, sex, self-rated race/ethnicity, schooling, health behaviours and prevalent chronic disease. Results: The risk of death increased steadily by quartiles of hsCRP from 1.45 (95% Confidence Interval: 1.05, 2.01) in Quartile 2 to 1.95 (1.42, 2.69) in Quartile 4 compared to Quartile 1. Furthermore, the persistence of a significant graded association after the exclusion of deaths in the first year of follow-up suggests that these results are unlikely to be due to reverse causality. Finally, the hazard ratios were unaffected by the exclusion of participants that had self-reported past medical history for diabetes, cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Conclusions: Our study shows that hsCRP levels is associated with mortality in a highly admixed population, independently of a large set of lifestyle and clinical variables