Italian High Schools Research Articles

Cosmic rays Monte Carlo simulations for the Extreme Energy Events Project

The Extreme Energy Events Project (EEE Project) is an innovative experiment to study very high energy cosmic rays by means of the detection of the associated air shower muon component. It consists of a network of tracking detectors installed inside Italian High Schools. Each tracking detector, called EEE telescope, is composed of three Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs). At present, 43 telescopes are installed and taking data, opening the way for the detection of far away coincidences over a total area of about 3 × 105 km2. In this paper we present the Monte Carlo simulations that have been performed to predict the expected coincidence rate between distant EEE telescopes.

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION OF THE 17TH CENTURY. THE ASPECTS CONNECTED TO PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY: AN EDUCATIONAL ITINERARY IN SEVEN LESSONS

In the period 2012-2013 I got the qualification (abilitazione) to teach history and philosophy in the Italian high schools. The course I followed was called TFA (Tirocinio Formativo Attivo, Active Formative Training). The final examination was constituted by various proofs. Two of them were the written presentations of one educational itinerary in history and one in philosophy. Both of them had to be structured in a series of interconnected lessons. In this editorial I will expose, with some minor modifications, the translation of the educational itinerary I prepared for philosophy. It concerns the scientific revolution of the 17th century. The interest of this itinerary is not limited to the schools in which philosophy is taught, but it can also provide ideas useful in a course of physics at the high school or of history and philosophy of science at the university. What follows is divided into two parts: 1) a general presentation of the aims and methods followed in the lessons; 2) the lessons of the educational itinerary. In my training in philosophy – developed in September and October 2013 in an Italian scientific high school – I presented the following lessons concerning the scientific revolution.

Two years later: assimilation process of children of immigrants in Italy

Using two-wave panel data drawn from the Itagen2 Survey, we analyse the assimilation process of a sample of 11–13-year-old children of immigrants enrolled in Italian junior high schools, comparing them to children whose parents are both Italian. In seeking to adapt the traditional segmented assimilation theory to the Italian context, and using a dynamic and multidimensional approach, we consider four aspects: linguistic preferences, scholastic performance, friendship with peers, and sense of belonging in Italy. We synthesize a crude index of assimilation level, analyse its changes in a 2-year period and define its main determinants. The results demonstrate that generation status (place of birth of the children and of their parents, and length of stay) and the family’s socio-economic condition are closely related to assimilation level. These findings provide information useful for a better understanding of these children and their way of life.

Per una didattica della letteratura araba nell'età globale: progetti e proposte

The purpose of this article is to raise some questions on the teaching of Arabic Literature in Italian high schools. This teaching is scheduled to be launched in the next years, although the courses’ organization are still far from being fully structured. The Arabic literature teaching requires a profound renovation. The teachers have to cope with a variety of problems: which syllabus, which methods, which authors and texts to choose for courses? But, more importantly, which teaching approach is to be adopted in the global age, where literature has not only an aesthetic significance but is also of considerable importance from an intercultural and ethical point of view? Through the presentation of two projects, the author offers some theoretical suggestions to create a learning environment which can be engaging and meaningful for students. The Arabic literature teaching needs to emancipate itself from its orientalistic tinge and become dynamic, student-oriented and up to the standards existing for other European foreign languages teaching. The Arabic literature teacher cannot be only an arabist, he has to know how to teach literature – i.e. he has to be a 21th-century pedagogue, a literary critic of the global age, a cultural-linguistic mediator and a passionate reader.

E-learning in teacher professional development in innovation and formative guidance on modern physics: the case of IDIFO Master’s Programs

The professional development of in-service teachers is becoming an increasingly “hot” research topic internationally. Innovations in both methodologies and content are a challenge for schools wishing to respond to the demands of the knowledge society. The second level biannual IDIFO Master’s Program, offered as project of the national plane for scientific degree (Piano Nazionale Lauree Scientifiche-PLS) by the Research Group in Physics Education of the University of Udine, in collaboration with 20 other Italian universities, provides teacher formation in modern physics and formative guidance to in-service teachers in Italian high schools and is now being run for the fourth time. Based on research into the teaching and learning of physics, it started in 2006 was activated in e-learning every second year. The course is wide-ranging (it is worth 165 CTS) and allows for customized study paths to suit the needs of individual participants, both regarding content and length of study period: single modules (worth 3 CTS) and an annual Specialization Course (15 CTS) are run alongside the Master’s. The organization of the e-learning formation, carried out using uPortal, is as follows: analysis of physics education research materials; web-forum discussions of content and methods; the compiling of teaching materials, both collaboratively and in personal project work; doing experimentations (teaching intervention modules) in high school students, analizing and discussing online with peers and with professors-tutors- experts. The program has undergone continual revisions - based on feed- back and reflection on the overall outcomes of the formation – while retaining its original structure. Analysis of project work and of the dissertations presented in the final exams has demonstrated the contribution of e-learning formation to capacity building through: access to research material and proposals; peer debate; a critical review of traditional approaches. The flexibility of the formative model is a key element for its implementation nationally in a wide variety of situations. The commitment required of the participants, particularly in the first two versions of the program, while resulting in an excellent preparation, also prompted the course designers to create more flexible study paths in order to allow participants to complete their training in a number of stages following coherent pathways. The educational research on the Master’s is not just a source of materials and training content, but also a context for what concern teacher formation. The analysis of participants’ learning processes in each module - like that on quantum mechanics – revealed both the characteristics of an effective educational innovation formative model, and the part played by peer interaction on web-forums in building participants’ integrated expertise both regarding content (CK) and its teaching/learning (PCK). An analysis of the school experiment written reports high-lighted the role of the Master formative path in the didactic design.

Aspects of Homophobia in Italian High Schools: Students' Attitudes and Perceptions of School Climate

This study investigated Italian high school students' negative attitudes toward gay men and lesbians and their exposure to aspects of homophobia in their schools. Female students viewed gay men and lesbians in similar ways. Male students, on the other hand, held more negative attitudes toward gay men than toward lesbians. Participants reported widespread experiences of homophobic behaviors in their schools, especially verbal abuse. Students' perceptions of a homophobic school climate and respondent sex predicted homophobic attitudes among participants. Homophobic school climate mediated the relationship between respondent sex (male) and homophobia against gay men.

Migrant friendships, migrant loves – taking the sociability of second generations seriously

The children of immigrants, both foreign- and Italian-born, have become a sizeable presence in Italian high schools – one with which other students, teachers and administrators must interact on a regular basis. This paper presents findings – complemented by ethnographic observations – of the first two waves of a longitudinal survey among classi from high schools in Trento, Italy. It explores the sociability patterns and categorical identifications of both native- and foreign-born students at a phase of the life cycle when the changes brought by immigration interact with the social and psychological changes triggered by adolescence. The data reveal the possible existence of a weak form of ethnic hierarchy, but there is an absence of any significant processes of social closure. The length of stay is the key variable, associated both with having heterogeneous personal networks and with identification with Italy.

How to evaluate the effectiveness of ICT in teaching

This paper aims at finding a way to evaluate the impact of ICT on teaching. It is taken for granted, in the light of previous studies,that regular control of teaching and learning processes helps improve these same processes. Secondly, the use of ICT does not automatically improve the quality of teaching and learning. Therefore it is necessary to constantly evaluate how effective the use of ICT in the classroom really is. Five models will be illustrated into which any teaching project can fit. Finally, the application of the five-model theory to a sample group of Italian Junior High Schools will be illustrated.

Value-Added Measures in Italian High Schools: Problems and Findings

Students’ competencies are influenced by a host of factors, including the individual school’s effectiveness. Measuring this contribution is extremely difficult. One way of circumventing the problem is by focusing on changes in competencies over time, i.e. value-added measures. Using the results of an INVALSI survey of high schools, this paper implements these measures for Italy, in an attempt to identify a general pattern of value-added among schools. Purging the sample of measurement errors – which require the exclusion of schools with too few students tested – and taking into account the selection bias implied by the non-compulsory nature of schools’ participation in the survey, we find that the positive gap in favour of general programs (licei) when looking at the level of competencies tends to vanish (in maths and science) when focusing on value-added measures. By contrast, in the maths and science field schools located in the Southern regions are characterized not only by a lower starting level of competencies but also by a lower value-added. For maths at least, there is also a general tendency for teachers’ turnover to have a negative effect on student improvements.

Learning About Our Shameful Past: A Socio-Psychological Analysis of Present-Day Historical Narratives of Italian Colonial Wars

A computer-assisted content analysis (Bolasco 2000) of seven textbooks currently used for history teaching in Italian high schools was carried out to ex- amine to what extent past atrocities perpetrated during Italy’s African colonial wars are acknowledged and taught. More specifically, we investigated the relative importance these texts devote to teaching established historical facts or to achieve socio-psychological aims, such as advancing reconciliation processes and protecting the in-group’s social identity. Social psychologists working in the field of intergroup reconciliation usually consider these two aims as partially competing. The models reviewed by Nadler et al. (2008a) all consider the need to protect personal social identity as a source of biases, which the search for historical truth has to accommodate. In contrast, a recent work by Pratto and Glasford (2008) stresses that social identity can play a positive role as a powerful motivation for reconciliation. They suggest that acknowledging historical faults may assist the difficult process of finding a balance between the need for self-esteem and self-integrity and the need to belong. Our results seem to confirm certain aspects of the first group of models, and other aspects of Pratto and Glasford’s review. The crucial point seems to be the use of abstract or concrete terms to describe in-group wrongdoings. Strikingly, more than seventy years after the Italian colonial wars only three textbooks out of seven fully describe atrocities perpetrated by the in-group using clear, concrete terminology; this is consistent with the idea of a tension between reconciliation and justice. On the other hand, the more concrete descriptions, although less frequent, seem better able to protect the in-group’s self-integrity by showing their young readers a clearer acceptance of moral responsibility for the historical faults of their group.

I "lacci e gli sbadigli": Pascoli, Martini, Giolitti, e l'insegnamento di latino e greco nell'Ottocento italiano

Before the great Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli (1855-1912) was appointed University Professor of Latin and later of Italian, he taught in several Italian high schools. In 1893, the Secretary for Education, the journalist and writer Ferdinando Martini, wishing to improve the teaching of Latin in Italy, appointed Pascoli as a member of a committee of specialists in this field. Pascoli, who was elected president of the committee, wrote a famous report criticizing the excess of grammar and erudition and the lack of a true reading of authors. The paper shows that Pascoli's statement must be understood within the framework of the cultural struggle concerning the teaching of Latin and Greek in the first decades of the recently unified Italy: the local tradition (i.e. practical teaching of Latin, particularly in Central Italy and Catholic schools) was challenged by a different approach, particularly in the North of the country. This was of German origin and placed the emphasis on grammar and philology. Many years later, in 1922, a letter of Giovanni Giolitti, who in 1893 was Prime Minister, shows the influence of Pascoli's ideas, as well as of other disputes regarding the teaching of Greek in Italian high schools.

Extreme Energy Events Project: Construction of the detectors and installation in Italian High Schools

The EEE Project, conceived by its leader Antonino Zichichi, aims to detect Extreme Energy Events of cosmic rays with an array of muon telescopes distributed over the Italian territory. The Project involves Italian High Schools in order to introduce young people to Physics, also countervailing the recent crisis of university scientific classes inscriptions. The detectors for the EEE telescopes are Multigap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPC) and have been constructed by teams of High School students who went in shift at the CERN laboratories. The mechanics and the electronics were developed by groups of researchers from CERN, the Italian Centro Fermi and INFN. The first group of schools of the EEE Project has inaugurated their telescopes recently. A status report of the Project and the preliminary results are presented.

Multigap resistive plate chambers for EAS study in the EEE Project

The EEE (Extreme Energy Events) Project, conceived by its leader Antonino Zichichi, is an experiment to study very high-energetic air showers (EAS) through the detection of the shower's muon component using a network of tracking detectors, installed in Italian high schools. The single tracking telescope is composed of three large area ( ∼ 2 m 2 ) Multi-gap Resistive Plate Chambers (MRPCs). The data collected by the telescopes will be used for studies of air showers and also for the search of time correlations between sites which are far apart. The first telescope, recently installed in the Liceo B. Touschek in Grottaferrata (Rome), is successfully running, and other telescopes are going to be installed in a short time in other towns, opening up the way for the first search of long-distance coincidences over a total area of ∼ 10 6 km 2 .

An extention of the school moral atmosphere construct, and its association with aggressive behaviours in secondary school

The first aim of this research is to introduce and to validate the new concept of School Normative Context, that revisits the concept of School Moral Atmosphere studied by Brugman and his colleagues through the SMAQ (1999) and validated also in the Italian context (Mancini & Fruggeri, 2005). The School Normative Context entails two new aspects: The first one concerns the interactive dimension of each specific school context and the second one concerns the perception of responsibility (internal vs, external) in the implementation of the norm. The second aim is to study the relation among adolescents perception of School Normative Context, adolescents’ orientation towards social rules and their aggressive behaviours against classmates at school. 268 students (mean age 17,01) attending three Italian high schools of three different educational levels (Lyceum, technical and professional) participated in this research. They filled a questionnaire composed of three parts: School Normative Context Questionnaire (SNC), Normative Orientation Scale (NOS) and Aggression Scale (Orpinas, Frankowski, 2001). School Normative Context has shown an acceptable degree of conceptual and predictive validity. The research has shown that the School Normative Context has an influence on the aggressive behaviours against classmates. Furthermore, it is a mediating factor between the adolescents’ orientation towards social norms and their aggressive behaviours at school.

Protective Factors as Moderators of Risk Factors in Adolescence Bullying

The present study examined the role played by protective factors in moderating the effects of risk factors over bullying and victimization in a sample of 679 male adolescents recruited in Italian high schools. Boys’ involvement in bullying revealed that one in three students has bullied others at least sometimes in the previous three months, and one in six has been victimized at the same rate; victimization decreases with age. The family related risk factor (conflicting parents) was positively associated with bullying and with victimization (together with punitive parenting); the same applied for risk factor related to the individual ways of dealing with problems (emotionally oriented coping skills). Protective factors related to the family context (supportive and authoritative parents) and to the individual (problem solving coping skills) were negatively associated to bullying and victimization. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed a moderating effect of supportive parenting on punitive parenting and on emotionally oriented coping strategies in predicting victimization. Problem solving coping strategies helped buffer the negative impact of emotionally oriented coping strategies over bullying. Implications of results for practitioners and for future studies are addressed.

L'ordinateur dans l'enseignement des langues anciennes et le logiciel SNS-Greek & Latin

The paper presents the latest version of the application SNS Greek & Latin and some experiences made in Italian High Schools with the application itself. The current educational reform and the new technologies have brought to unavoidable changes in teaching ancient languages in Italy, but they could also improve the teaching methods.