"The Art(ist) is present": Arts-based research perspective in educational research

A growing interest in the concept of practice within workplace settings has been seen in the last two decades in a variety of fields. Although some authors highlighted the importance of this type of research, there is still a poor scientific understanding of this process. The first serious discussion and analysis of the construction of knowledge emerged during the 1900s. In the field of humanities, questions have been asked regarding the use of traditional research paradigms in terms of its limitation of understanding complex subjects. In line with this perspective, the current article provides an opportunity to advance the understanding of new research paths. Specifically, after an overview on the traditional research paradigms, particular references are devoted to the Arts-Based Research (ABR) approach and to the use of arts within the research processes. Then, this contribution provides a deep exploration of dance-based methods for educational research. As a transdisciplinary approach, the ABR can be used in different fields. For this reason, the current article tries to provide insights about the use of dance-based methods in the educational context. An in-depth literature review will highlight the issues linked to the use of dance in research paths highlights different connotations of it within the research process. The author identified and explored three main uses of dance in academic field

Teachers’ and students’ conceptions of assessment within the Italian higher education system

Nowadays, higher education systems are being called to reconsider the aims of assessment if we want that students develop skills and competencies for their future personal and professional life. Although assessment holds an essential position in the higher education field, educational research still seems inchoative. Current studies, especially on an international level, are moving towards the revision of traditional modalities of testing, the individuation of alternative forms of assessment, and above all, the analysis of representations and conceptions that teachers and students have about assessment. The present research is oriented towards this last point: the case study, conducted at the School of Education at University of Bari, Italy, analyses teachers’ and students’ conceptions of assessment. Main results indicate a great level of confusion about assessment both for teachers and students. Several suggestions are discussed for further improvements in the higher education context

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT AND TEACHERS’ PRACTICE: IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Within the last few years of the 21st century, the renewed interest in formative assessment has been matched with curricular reforms as well as the development of cognitive psychology. Actual studies provide a multidimensional image of assessment: the attempts to define the components of formative assessment are matched with the enquiries for the individuation of the interconnection modalities between assessment and the teaching-learning process. To arrange an assessment design aimed to guide students towards an even more accurate activity of exploration of one’s own knowledge and abilities represents a difficult step. To obtain benefit form formative assessment new development should focus on conceptualising well-specified approaches built around process and methodology rooted within specific content domains. It is important to understand how formative assessment is intended and consequently implemented in a specific educative system. Starting from this assumption the present paper reports results of a survey aimed to investigate Italian primary teachers’ representations on formative assessment. Although the context of this paper is the Italian school system, we thought the paper highlights issues of formative assessment and forms of teacher training. It has relevance to international debate on teaching, learning, and formative assessment practices and artefacts. KEYWORDS: formative assessment; teachers’ representations; professional development.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15181/atee.v1i0.65

L\u2019approccio dell\u2019Arts-Based Research: quali spunti per la ricerca educativa?

Tra i temi che piu\u300 si sono imposti, negli ultimi anni, all\u2019attenzione dei ricercatori, e\u300 il problema dei processi di costruzione della conoscenza ad aver catalizzato su di se\u301 la maggior parte degli studi; e\u300 soprattutto in ambito umanistico che cresce l\u2019idea secondo cui i classici paradigmi di ricerca non siano in grado di comprendere ed indagare la complessita\u300 dei fenomeni esplorati. Sulla scia di tali necessita\u300, il presente contributo intende approfondire l\u2019approccio dell\u2019Arts-Based Research (ABR) ed in particolare dei dance-based methods nel campo della ricerca educativa che negli ultimi anni sta contribuendo a capovolgere l\u2019impostazione classica del processo di ricerca a favore di nuovi percorsi in grado di utilizzare le potenzialita\u300 dell\u2019Arte secondo nuove prospettive

One Step Forward: Advancing Knowledge on Italian VET-Laboratory Instructional Practices

The instructional practices implemented by the teacher in the Italian initial Vocational Education and Training (VET) system has rarely been the subject of empirical studies. Indeed, an exploratory literature review showed no results. Often, this kind of instructional practices risks being confined in the VET-laboratory framework, leaving unexploited their potential that could be able to cross boundaries between the classroom and the workplace. In order to provide transferable and reusable information on instructional practices of both VET teachers and the teachers of general school, ethnography and the Grounded Theory approaches were combined. Despite the data analysis is not yet finished and the model still to be elaborate, the principal findings of the present contribution represent a set of suggestions for VET teachers (both those who teach practical subjects and those who teach cultural subjects) and the teachers of the general school. Further analysis will aim to design a model which represent a middle-range theory of VET-lab teachers’ instructional practices and a set of instruments that could be useful for VET teachers’ (and for school teachers too) training and teaching practices

The Arts-Based Research’ approach: hints for educational research

The last two decades have seen a growing interest on the different ways of knowing in all the fields. Although some research has highlights the importance of this topic, there is still very little scientific understanding about this process. The first serious discussions and analyses of the construction of knowledge emerged during the 1900s. In Humanities field, questions have been raised about the use of traditional research paradigm considered unable for the understanding of these complex subjects. In this perspective, this article provided an important opportunity to advance the understanding of new research paths that not only overturn the classical perspective of research, but also allow us to reformulate and reinvent strategies, tools, and forms of representations of research findings. This article considers the implications of the approach of Arts-Based Research (ABR) and deeply of dance-based methods for educational research.L’approccio dell’Arts-Based Research: quali spunti per la ricerca educativa?Tra i temi che più si sono imposti, negli ultimi anni, all’attenzione dei ricercatori, è il problema dei processi di costruzione della conoscenza ad aver catalizzato su di sé la maggior parte degli studi; è soprattutto in ambito umanistico che cresce l’idea secondo cui i classici paradigmi di ricerca non siano in grado di comprendere ed indagare la complessità dei fenomeni esplorati. Sulla scia di tali necessità, il presente contributo intende approfondire l’approccio dell’Arts-Based Research (ABR) ed in particolare dei dance-based methods nel campo della ricerca educativa che negli ultimi anni sta contribuendo a capovolgere l’impostazione classica del processo di ricerca a favore di nuovi percorsi in grado di utilizzare le potenzialità dell’Arte secondo nuove prospettive

THINKING IN TERMS OF MOVEMENT The Arts-Based Research Perspective of Teachers Professional Practice

Educational research, in recent years, in focusing its attention on the different ways of acquiring and transmitting knowledge within educational contexts, has focused special attention on practical-operative experience of teachers. But, what does it means to focus on practical experience of work? The perspective of sociomaterialism has been provided an arena in which we can reflect on the nature and on the role of materiality and its relationship with social phenomenon. In short, what we can learn from the perspective of these theories is the crucial role of the focus on activities and practices in the determination of professional work and learning. The questions now become: what are the elements that constitute professional practice? How we can study and explore these elements? Based on this corpus of literature there are four essential dimensions that an analysis on professional practice must consider: times; spaces; bodies; things (Schatzki, 2001). This paper takes start from this assumption considering (specifically) the body as the metronome and the wheel on the teachers\u2019 professional practice. The study of body and its relationships in the workplace becomes a turning point in the educational research (but not only). What it could mean to be, to practice, and to learn as a professional become significant questions for researchers. Body has often avoided in educational research reducing the term choreography just as metaphor of practice and/or logical connection among steps and things. This is a crucial aspect in these studies if we think about the sociomaterialism perspective of practice and the Schatzian identification of the body as one of the four essential key elements for the study of professional practice. In this study, dance and choreography (Foster, 2011) have been used as concepts to interpret teachers\u2019 work. The aims here are to see what kind of information we can gather using this perspective and to explore a new ways to investigate teachers\u2019 practice. For the first step of a wider project we observed four Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers during their daily work. The second part of the project includes 25 secondary school teachers. Later, we extended the protocol to a wider sample of secondary teachers in order to identify common teachers profiles. Results synthesize different \u201cchoreographic styles\u201d that represent teachers of different disciplines: math; science; lab.; second language; literature; philosophy; art; physical education. Contrarily, with what we expected to observe disciplines do not necessarily entail different movement qualities (such as the use of space). However, different didactic actively are characterised by some specific qualities of movement. The importance of a study on body and its role in a working practice becomes relevant if we consider the meanings that the body might convey in today\u2019s society. The focus on the body awareness could have important implication for the teacher education paths. This kind of studies could change the way in which teacher education is thought and practiced. Theories of movement and analyses of body could open up new understandings of work and practice as they can reveal intimate and unconscious aspect of human thoughts, beliefs, and ways of being

One Step Forward: Advancing Knowledge on Italian VET-Laboratory Instructional Practices

The instructional practices implemented by the teacher in the Italian initial Vocational Education and Training (VET) system has rarely been the subject of empirical studies. Indeed, an exploratory literature review showed no results. Often, this kind of instructional practices risks being confined in the VET-laboratory framework, leaving unexploited their potential that could be able to cross boundaries between the classroom and the workplace. In order to provide transferable and reusable information on instructional practices of both VET teachers and the teachers of general school, ethnography and the Grounded Theory approaches were combined. Despite the data analysis is not yet finished and the model still to be elaborate, the principal findings of the present contribution represent a set of suggestions for VET teachers (both those who teach practical subjects and those who teach cultural subjects) and the teachers of the general school. Further analysis will aim to design a model which represent a middle-range theory of VET-lab teachers\u2019 instructional practices and a set of instruments that could be useful for VET teachers\u2019 (and for school teachers too) training and teaching practices

“Another brick in the wall”? Concezioni degli insegnanti sulla valutazione: il punto di vista di chi è in formazione

Nowadays, educational research points out how teaching-learning quality is interwoven with teachers’ conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment. Starting from a preliminary review of main international inquiries on teachers’ assessment conceptions, this paper tries to reflect on teachers’ trainees conceptions about assessment.La ricerca educativa più recente ribadisce come la qualità dei processi di insegnamento-apprendimento sia connessa alle modalità con cui gli insegnanti considerano e concettualizzano l’insegnamento, l’apprendimento, il curricolo e la valutazione. Sulla scorta di una preliminare rassegna delle principali indagini internazionali sulle concezioni dei docenti, il presente contributo prova a riflettere, in particolare, sulle concezioni che della valutazione hanno i docenti in formazione

“Another brick in the wall”? Concezioni degli insegnanti sulla valutazione: il punto di vista di chi è in formazione

Nowadays, educational research points out how teaching-learning quality is interwoven with teachers’ conceptions of teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment. Starting from a preliminary review of main international inquiries on teachers’ assessment conceptions, this paper tries to reflect on teachers’ trainees conceptions about assessment.La ricerca educativa più recente ribadisce come la qualità dei processi di insegnamento-apprendimento sia connessa alle modalità con cui gli insegnanti considerano e concettualizzano l’insegnamento, l’apprendimento, il curricolo e la valutazione. Sulla scorta di una preliminare rassegna delle principali indagini internazionali sulle concezioni dei docenti, il presente contributo prova a riflettere, in particolare, sulle concezioni che della valutazione hanno i docenti in formazione