Action-Research project at "Spallanzani" school

The first phase (2018-2020)

This action-research project started on 1 September 2018, responding to the request made by the Headteacher of the primary and secondary school "Vladimiro Spallanzani" (in the provinces of Modena and Reggio Emilia). The school asked for an academic assessment of its educative project and its teaching practice, in order to gather a scientific evaluation of what had been experienced in over forty years of activity. The school is characterized by the specific use of artistic expression in the basic activities of the school, together with a strong interdisciplinary approach and a particular focus on the dimension of personalized learning.

During the first year (1 September 2018 - 31 August 2019), the project included participant observation within the school, alongside interviews with all teaching and educational staff. In the second year (1 September 2019 - 31 August 2020) we moved to a “second-level” observation by activating several DL (distance learning) internships due to the closure of schools caused by the covid-19 health emergency.

 

Goals

In this stage, the first group of goals was related to the pedagogical evaluation of the school’s educational and didactic project, as well as of the school practices. On the one hand, the research focused on analyzing the curriculum (as expressed above all by the PTOF) both in its declarative aspects and in its educational and methodological implications. On the other hand, a set of observations of teaching practices in different contexts and of the methods of organization and management of the school was carried out.

 The second group of goals consisted in the activation of metacognitive processes in the school staff members about relevant topics, such as the institutional educational project, and the strengths and critical aspects of school practices (continuity, stability of the teaching staff, etc.). The original and innovative school’s features were formalized on the pedagogical level.

The second phase (2020-2021)

The research carried out at the “Spallanzani” schools made it possible to focus on a particular declination of the concept of “community of practice”. In particular, numerous observations highlight the positive and generative role of the pedagogical principle of personalization, which is connected to the "world view" at the basis of the school's educational project. By this fact, the principle of personalization could be considered as a strength shared by anthropologically oriented schools, and it would represent a valid scientific contribution in designing more effective training courses for teachers, recognizing the importance of direct internships in schools characterized as “communities of practice”.

 In light of this, a third and final year of research (September 1, 2020 - August 31, 2021) was activated, and the research work was extended to various lower and upper secondary schools in the Emilia region.

 

Goals

The new set of goals for this third year of research is configured as follows:

  1. detection of the principle of personalization in the educational project/practices of the participating schools;
  2. analysis of the teaching staff’s dynamics and detection of pedagogical characteristics through semi-structured interviews and focus groups;
  3. Investigating the presence/absence of “underlying vision/s” (even if implicit) of the didactic-educational actions of the schools;
  4. Observation of methodological-didactic approaches eventually related to this/these vision/s.

The aforementioned goals required the implementation of some additional research actions:

  1. implementation of action-research and participant observations in other schools, both state and private;
  2. carrying out interviews and/or focus groups with teachers of other state and private schools.

A long-term goal is to encourage the building of a schools’ network for educational innovation and the development of the “principle of personalization”. This perspective is attentive to the transcendent dimension of the person's development beyond any psychosocial reductionism. Another long-term goal is related to the spread of internship courses for pre-service and in-service teachers’ training.