The contribution describes a study on the organizational devices and the professional development programs carried out at the Teaching and Learning Center (TLC) of the University of Siena and at the Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL) of the University of Macerata. The focus is on systemic actions capable to elicit innovation at an organizational…

In the Italian university context, almost all universities offer blended degree courses, digital environments and e-learning systems. In many cases, dedicated centres also provide technical support and, less frequently, teaching and methodological support. The development of digital learning environments often does not correspond to the spread of…

This study aims to understand the impact of a faculty development program emphasizing active learning (innovative teaching) attended by instructors of diverse disciplines at the University of Padova in Italy, which has had an 800-year history of using traditional approaches to teaching and learning. Using a community of practice theoretical…

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are more critical than ever to help societies respond to the complex challenges of our times. Recognising that these challenges require HEIs to adopt holistic innovations in teaching, research and collaboration activities, the European Commission (EC) and the OECD have developed the HEInnovate guiding…

Connecting physics with the humanities is a fascinating challenge and a complicated cultural task. Yet, it is exactly what the Italian secondary-school graduation exam requires in its oral part. Although it has been criticized by teachers and students, here I provide a list of real school life examples and discuss why this can be a great,…

A qualified teaching method is hard to achieve without traditional classroom lessons. For learning purposes, students need to interact and influence each other, like being part of an osmotic process. They need to learn in a stimulating environment, developing the ability to manage conflicts and to compare opinions. How can this be possible during…

The study addresses the phenomenon of science teachers' innovative work activities referring to Rogers' Diffusion theory of innovation (RDI) based on four countries (Sweden, Norway, Lithuania, Italy) TIMSS 2015 data set. The countries were chosen according to different criteria: 1 -- years of teaching; 2 -- gender; 3 -- hours spent for…

The information disciplines are rapidly developing and that development brings twofold challenge for library and information science (LIS) education; in terms of delivering the content, and in terms of the content itself. The former means that, as with any other discipline, it needs to implement new technologies and didactic approaches to provide…

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…

This article concerns itself with the potential for ateliers to disrupt conformist approaches to pedagogy in early childhood education and care. An illustration of the role of the atelier in amplifying the aesthetics of the experience of the educational project of Reggio Emilia illuminates how disruption of conformity can be activated through the…

Purpose: This study explores the factors that explain the adoption of innovative teaching practices within schools and how this is determined by the different perceptions of principals and teachers. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use the self-other agreement to measure the difference between the principal and teachers' rating based on…

Over the last decade, policy makers have urged universities to innovate their teaching methodologies. Although educational research has shown that active methods lead to improvements in learners' performance more than traditional lectures in small classes, some factors impede active methods from spreading in large size classes. In this paper we…

The paper reports the first results of an experience of university teaching innovation in progress. It is based on multiple means of "Engagement", "Representation", and "Action & Expression" in the framework of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach. The action repeats, with some improvements, a previous…

During the education emergency, teachers' leadership was indicative of their capacity to stay resilient and innovative in a changed educational environment. This study analyses their capacity to act as leaders and to promote equity in relation to the specific aspects of the French and Italian school systems. A pool of 16 interviews constitutes a…

At the beginning of the 20th century, there were several women in Italy, who gave pedagogy a new impulse. Among those women, two educationalists, Maria Montessori and Giuseppina Pizzigoni introduced new visions of the school by designing strategies that overcame the barriers to education. The first, with the structuring of a method, arose in Rome…