Antonella Poce

Evaluating innovation in higher education teaching and learning to improve quality: an experience of blended learning at the Università Roma Tre

Why are the effects of the innovative practices in higher education teaching and learning activities worth evaluating? As it seems higher education is no longer able to carry out ambitious objectives, if it uses only traditional tools. The present contribution regards the analysis of the impact of a particular innovative way of teaching, a blended learning experience that is performed at the Universita Roma Tre (Italia). The study, carried out by a research unit at the Department of Educational Sciences, is part of a national project that was funded by the government (a Project of National Relevant Interest or PRIN), which aimed to define the role of e-learning within higher education environments. In the framework, the Universita Roma Tre has developed its own inquiry, carrying out an experiment in the Experimental Pedagogy and Measurement module of the Faculty of Primary Education.

Enhancing Higher Education Students’ XXI Century Skills through Co-writing Activities in Science Teaching

As many EU documents highlight, to improve competitiveness and professional/personal development, cross-sectional skills are to be enhanced as engines for social innovation: creativity, entrepreneurship, critical thinking and problem solving. The above skills, as many studies mention, are favoured by a cooperative approach. Scientific and technologic culture, relevant element of the shared encyclopaedia and the individual knowledge, also becomes a tool for social and political participation. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that the cooperative approach and the critical use of technology, in particular in the field of science teaching, are the keys to single out solutions able to increase development and growth, from which, in turn, the whole society can benefit. In light of what above mentioned, that of the dissemination of popular science is, today, a duty of public institutions as well as a right of the citizens. Within the above context, the students’ module under investigation has been planned as a set of on-line group activities, with the general aim to provide useful elements to understand the typical characteristics of the language of science and create the structure of a creative text with a scientific topic through cooperative writing. Findings from the data collected after a specific assessment exercise are given and discussed, revealing as successful the combination of creativity and science topics.

Content Analysis and Critical Thinking. An Assessment Study

An important passage in the 2010 OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) report Investing in Human and Social Capital underlines the need for formal education to enter the workplace: In the nations where work is organized to support high levels of employee discretion in solving complex problems, the evidence shows that firms tend to be more active in terms of innovations developed through their own in house creative efforts (OECD, 2010, theme 1, p. 10). The key point is in fact that new skills are needed, because traditional skills learnt at school or at university are disappearing and are not deemed useful in facing the needs for innovation and growth that society today demands. The concept behind our project, Contributions for the Definition of a Critical Technology, is therefore that of verifying the effectiveness of a model constructed to increase critical thinking skills, which are essential in environments such as those described by the OECD, in the above-mentioned document. The present contribution aims to describe the results of the study carried out at DIPED - Dipartimento di Progettazione Educativa e Didattica (Department for Educational Design) - Roma Tre University, where the levels of critical thinking skills of students were assessed through an ad hoc content analysis protocol. The different sections explain why content analysis is considered a valid and reliable technique in the assessment of critical thinking skills and how the procedure was used in the above-mentioned project. The research is set within this context and, though being implemented in higher education, aims to project its results into different settings, in order to improve other areas, such as lifelong learning, and enhance development in various fields of knowledge. The project principally aims to assess the hypothesis that, in providing further cultural insights, according to well-defined models on which to undertake guided discussions coordinated by an experienced tutor, critical thinking skills of students increase. This is made possible through the development of an ad hoc online module, Critical Thinking Skills and Reading of the Classics, available to students in Education (Faculty of Education Sciences). In order to assess critical thinking skills, the students’ written productions were treated with a lexicometric analysis using the Taltac software, and with content analysis, through an adaptation of the Newman, Webb and Cochrane (1997) model. The main categories of the analysis include relevance, importance, introduction of new ideas, information and solutions, reference to personal experience and opinions, clarification of doubts, new knowledge, elaboration of new solutions, critical evaluation, practical use of new solutions, width of understanding. The ability to think critically and therefore to make functional use of what is learnt is what the OECD report itself mentioned as vital if wanting to enhance the development of new skills and in particular skills that are effective for growth and innovation in complex organisations.

Heritage Education and Initial Teacher Training: an International Experience

The great interest and debate on teachers 21st century skills development is closely connected with a “new” approach to education and learning which inevitably affects the present and the future of the whole education system. Roma Tre University Museum Education Centre took part in the Erasmus+ DICHE project (Digital Innovation in Cultural Heritage Education) and carried out activities taking into consideration the project theoretical model: informing primary school teachers of new education practices in cultural heritage fruition which employ technologies and also include the evaluation of their effectiveness in learning in terms of competences development. A web app devoted to integrate technology in heritage fruition within primary school education was designed and implemented as one of the project core activities. This paper presents the development and the piloting of this application for mobile devices as a tool for teachers in training: the MuseTech web app.

Use of webcasting and development of critical thinking skills.

The present contribution describes the results of a research carried out at the Laboratory of Experimental Research Department of Education, Roma TRE University. Main aim of the research is to assess if it possible to increase critical thinking skills in university students, through meaningful online cultural insights in general and webcasting in particular. Students in Education attended part of the course “Methodology of Research” online, through a webcasting activity: cultural insights, guided discussions, videos, built on structured models, prompted reasoning, elaboration of ideas and knowledge connections. Students had the possibility to deepen knowledge and abilities linked to the themes of the course, but also to develop argumentation skill, communication and critical evaluation skill. The data analysis presented in this report were developed along the double diachronic and synchronic dimensions; the evolution of critical thinking skills has been verified by the lexicon-metric analyses of written production.

MOOC Design and Heritage Education. Developing Soft and Work-based Skills in Higher Education Students

The present paper describes one of the pilot activities foreseen by the Erasmus+ project DICHE (Digital Innovation in Cultural and Heritage Education in the light of 21st century learning). The above mentioned pilot activity was carried out at the undergraduate course in Educational sciences – University AUTHOR, as an internal training module for the conception, implementation and evaluation of MOOC courses in museum education. Main objective of the module was to develop design and realisation skills in Educational science students. Those engaged in the module were asked to create cultural and heritage education courses for primary school in training and in service teachers. The two main pillars of the DICHE pilot, “MOOCs conception and delivery” and “heritage education”, are in line with the most recent national and international field literature research and with the Italian education system directions, aiming at integrating museum education in primary school curricula and a more aware use of technology, in order to develop pivotal skills in active citizenship building. The present paper presents the methodology adopted and the results collected during the training module carried out.

Pen or keyboard. An empirical study on the effects of technology on writing skills

The research reported in this article underlines the need to adopt a reflective attitude to the use of digital resources in teaching and learning. This relates to a growing body of research by different scholars in many countries. The present study underlines the need to adopt a reflective attitude to the use of digital resources in teaching and learning. The research starts from the assumption that students can develop their writing and critical thinking skills thanks to specific writing activities. Such activities regard the elaboration of short essays, both by hand and on computer keyboards, with the aim to highlight the difference in results. Within the paper, a specific assessment grid was outlined to evaluate students’ essays. Short essays written by students were produced in two different ways: by hand or keyboard. All data have been collected and analyzed to highlight the different results in skills development, according to the writing tool employed. From the analyses carried out and the results collected, handwritten short essays got higher scores than computer written texts: computer use in writing activities apparently reduces performances level in the majority of students taken into consideration.

Tecnologia critica. Scrittura e dispositivi elettronici

Started in January 2014, this innovative research project focuses on the practice of handwriting in primary schools. Due to the rapid spread and pervasive use of technological supports, normal writing activities as taking notes, writing messages or numbers are more and more brought about with the support of a keyboard rather than through handwriting. One of the effects of this loss of practice is a reduced ability to handle a traditional writing tool (a pen, a pencil) and easily use it. This difficulty is not simply a technical one since it also affects the cognitive domain, where the ability to express thoughts, opinions, ideas and feelings seems to be reduced as well, already in primary schools.

Fostering creativity through assessment and the use of IT: a feasibility study carried out in higher education

To contribute to social progress, within higher education, it is widely recognised that both students and teachers need to use available knowledge in order to create new knowledge. Both Checkland (1999, p.154) and Jupp et al. (2001, p.6) agree that creativity is becoming a key resource for individuals and societies. It is needed to ‘make the most of new opportunities’ and, being part of the knowledge society, we must be aware of the importance of enhancing creativity, especially in higher education. The European University Association (EUA) – in the report of the project, ‘Creativity in higher education 2005–2007’ – initiated to underline the value of creative skills at university and its influences on the welfare of society – states that we should learn to teach creativity, if we want to live in a better society. If creativity is an essential component of a successful higher education, the question is: how to foster and assess creative processes in order to exploit and promote them? The aim of the present contribution is to demonstrate that creativity skills can be enhanced and particularly through the use of ICT.

Tempus Demed project and operational solutions for online distance education

Lps-Diped - Universita Roma Tre chaired the Tempus Demed - Development of Master Study Programmes in Education (2009-2011) - project. The project’s main objective was the renovation of the Masters courses in Education in certain Balkan countries (Macedonia, Albania e Kosovo). The basic intention involved the adaptation of the higher education provided in the cultural reference area to the principles established within the European context. In particular, during the Dublin Conference in 2004, the so-called Bologna follow up group drew a number of indicators. As already mentioned, at different times, EU policy has highlighted the need to carry out actions aimed at a renovation of higher education cycles, but not much was provided in terms of definition of the curricula, especially for the second cycle of studies. The Demed project also attempted to fill a gap in this regard, operating an indepth revision of this level of studies in the Education sector in Albania, Kosovo e Macedonia. This intervention, moreover, was always carried out working in close cooperation with the partner countries, so that the support provided by Lps Diped, as leader, by Cdell - Centre for Developing and Evaluating Lifelong Learning - University of Nottingham (UK) and by DPU - Arhus University (DK) was realized with an actual collaboration programme, and never resulting as an imposition of certain Western models. The present contribution, therefore, is intended to give a general overview regarding the Tempus funding programme, a description of the Demed project itself, a synthetic report of the online seminar broadcasted to Seeu staff during the project period and of the data collected while evaluating the same experience.