Strategies to implement innovative ICT based approaches to teach Sciences at Secondary school level.
The guidelines aim at providing science secondary school teachers with the competences to make an effective use of ICT based science teaching learning objects.School Directors’ and Policy Makers’ Guidelines
2 Integration of ICT in Science Teaching: Existing
2 1 Some Perspectives about the Current Use of ICT in Science Education
2 1 Some Perspectives about the Current Use of ICT in Science Education
2.1.3 Italy
In Italy, the National Digital School Plan (2015) was undoubtedly the first important moment of reflection about digital didactical practices at school in the institutional world. It represented the first moment of reflection on the educational processes, but also on the type of organization, school environment, spaces, teacher training and real connection between schools and the world of work. However, like all reforms, it has conflicted with an organisational and educational context, frequently not prepared to absorb and welcome the challenges, resulting in "a series of problems that clash, both with a very cumbersome and demanding organization of the ministry and, with the organization of schools" (policy-maker), impeding the widespread relapse of initiatives that remain occasional experiences, difficult to exploit.
In Italy, at the national level, there are still no clear guidelines and procedures that attend the education system to integrate digital innovations in educational processes and practices. In 2016, the Ministry created the School Single Data Portal for free access to data about schools, students, school staff, school buildings, national assessment system and national operational program (PON). In the same way, there is still no public monitoring and evaluation results regarding the efforts done.
A lot has certainly been produced in recent years in terms of investments, funding and attempts to systematise and improve the macro-processes that affect the school system, and this has given a positive impulse and an opportunity for the emergence and recognition of many experiences and skills spread in a leopard's eye. But there is still much to be done.
However, if it is true that Italy, as the OECD Report 'Skills Outlook 2019' also denounces, continues to present positions behind the OECD countries, it is also true that interest and participation are very high, testifying to the fact that the difficulty of integrating digital tools in the classroom cannot be banally reduced to 'reluctance' or low skills, but must be addressed in terms of the system. The teacher who is confronted with the potential offered by ICT is increasingly required to abandon the traditional habitus to acquire new professional tasks characterized by more complex skills of a design, management, evaluation, communicative, relational and empathic nature. However, in Italy this is a field in which the teacher is often alone and is trained in self-socialization paths played mostly outside formalized contexts.
While in many OECD countries teachers use ICT with the same intensity as other workers with tertiary education, Italian teachers lag behind and use new technologies well below other highly skilled workers. The data also show that 3 out of 4 teachers report that they need further training in ICT to carry out their profession.
In Italy, at the national level, there are still no clear guidelines and procedures that attend the education system to integrate digital innovations in educational processes and practices. In 2016, the Ministry created the School Single Data Portal for free access to data about schools, students, school staff, school buildings, national assessment system and national operational program (PON). In the same way, there is still no public monitoring and evaluation results regarding the efforts done.
A lot has certainly been produced in recent years in terms of investments, funding and attempts to systematise and improve the macro-processes that affect the school system, and this has given a positive impulse and an opportunity for the emergence and recognition of many experiences and skills spread in a leopard's eye. But there is still much to be done.
However, if it is true that Italy, as the OECD Report 'Skills Outlook 2019' also denounces, continues to present positions behind the OECD countries, it is also true that interest and participation are very high, testifying to the fact that the difficulty of integrating digital tools in the classroom cannot be banally reduced to 'reluctance' or low skills, but must be addressed in terms of the system. The teacher who is confronted with the potential offered by ICT is increasingly required to abandon the traditional habitus to acquire new professional tasks characterized by more complex skills of a design, management, evaluation, communicative, relational and empathic nature. However, in Italy this is a field in which the teacher is often alone and is trained in self-socialization paths played mostly outside formalized contexts.
While in many OECD countries teachers use ICT with the same intensity as other workers with tertiary education, Italian teachers lag behind and use new technologies well below other highly skilled workers. The data also show that 3 out of 4 teachers report that they need further training in ICT to carry out their profession.
