The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) might seem something very distant from the world of schools: a theme that is far from today's reality, especially when the education and training system is committed to tackling the problems associated with the pandemic situation. However, the impact that AI is producing in various areas of our life also…

From 2020/2021 the evaluation of students' learning in primary school is no longer expressed through a decimal-based score, but through a descriptive assessment, in a more formative perspective of evaluation. In addition, the widespread use of technological tools in school has changed the teaching/learning process and it has highlighted the need…

The aim of this study is to examine, in an educational context, the influence of chess training on academic performance (written text comprehension and recall and mathematical problem-solving ability) and on meta-cognitive skills (approach to studying and study strategies availability). A sample of 85 children attending primary school participated…

This study aimed to investigate the relationship between different components of active visuospatial working memory and math ability in young children. In a longitudinal study, we compared the contributions of active visual and spatial working memory (WM) tasks in early math performance at two times: the beginning of the first class of primary…

A consistent part of the literature shows the significant role of digital experience in digital natives' cognitive processes. The main goal of the current study was to investigate the impact of digital learning on the improvement of mathematical skills and on some change in cognitive processes in 166 primary school children from schools located in…

In this report we present preliminary results of a study on the relationship between informal out-of-school and formal in-school mathematics and the ways each can inform the other in the development of new mathematical knowledge, in this case concerning computation in base 12, 24 or 60. This study is based on a teaching experiment involving a…

Non-conserver children have been shown to progress in a spatial transformation task if the material is socially marked, i.e., when there is a correspondence between the cognitive relations and some social relation (Doise and Mugny, 1981). The present experiment was designed to assess the efficacy of social marking when the social necessity of…

These studies aim to determine whether a partner's social role and extent of incorrectness were factors capable of interfering with the effects of social marking in spatial transformation tasks. Social marking refers to a condition in which correspondence exists between cognitive relations and some social relation. Experiment 1 assigned 68…

The development of linguistic politeness in 7- and 9-year-old Italian children was examined. A total of 80 subjects, 40 males and 40 females, produced requests according to different contexts which were graphically presented. Factors considered for such contexts were: sex of the speaker; sex of the addressee; status of the addressee, either peer…

In England, a 40-item test of a child's ability to draw the ground floor layout of his or her home was developed. Findings of initial analyses indicated that subjects' drawings improved between the ages of 6 and 12 years. In order to test the cross-cultural validity of the standardization of the test and to see if the order of concept development…

This study investigated factors that contribute to the mathematics and reading achievement of students in Italy. The Walburg Productivity Model (H. Walburg, 1984) served as a framework to analyze the interconnections among family processes, family structure, and socioeconomic status. Campbells Differential Socialization Paradigm (J. Campbell,…

This paper describes the design and results of a study carried out with elementary pupils ages 8-9 years on the topic of sinking and floating, with the aim of checking the validity of a general scheme for classroom activities based on a constructivist perspective. Children's "ways of looking" at buoyancy and the production of materials…