Giuseppe Tacconi

Competence-based analysis of needs in VET teachers and trainers: an Italian experience

Purpose – The aim of the research presented here was to detect, in line with the European Union’s “Education and Training 2020” work program, the training needs of teachers and trainers working in the vocational education and training (VET) system in the Italian Region of Veneto to design courses, experiences and other training programs tailored to meet the needs emerged. Design/methodology/approach – Four focus groups were including VET teachers and trainers were created, two before the construction and two after the online administration of an ad hoc questionnaire asking teachers and trainers to rate 67 competencies (43 for teachers, 24 for trainers) on the two dimensions of self-assessment (explicitly defined as the current level of mastery) and importance (explicitly defined as the expected level of mastery). Eight hundred twelve teachers and 166 trainers filled in the questionnaire which also asked them to give suggestions about the courses, experiences and other training programs to be designed. Fin...

Cooperate or Defect? How an Agent Based Model Simulation on Helping Behavior Can Be an Educational Tool

Over the last years, Agent Based Models (ABMs) have become an important instrument to simulate social complex phenomena. At the same time, they have shown interesting implications for learning activities. To this purpose, we report a simulation on helping behavior carried out by means of an Agent Based Model (ABM) based on four types of different virtual agents: Warm-Glow Cooperators (WG), who give help because it makes them feel better; Gratitude Cooperators (GC), who give help because they previously received help; Cooperators (C), who give help because of both the reasons mentioned above; Defectors (D) who do not give help at all. We explore the pro-social behavior of each type of agents and the system where they live for a certain amount of time in different situations. This specific ABM shows, in the most effective way, why we should increase the level of helping behavior in the population. Furthermore, assuming that giving and receiving help can be both considered positive activities, WG and GC agent strategies should be those who allow to derive the greatest benefit overall. Taking also in account the pedagogical implications of ABMs, the present simulation can be considered as a good instrument to explain dynamics of helping behavior in a virtual society.

Business Games and Simulations: Which Factors Play Key Roles in Learning

The paper reports the results of an empirical study on the effects and impact of a specific business game, which is also a team competition, treated as an innovative teaching tool in learning. The paper starts by introducing business games and simulations as methods able to improve learning experiences and goes on by dealing with the specific business game simulation used for the aims of our research. Considering the most relevant empirical studies on business games and simulations, the following four factors were extracted in order to test their importance for learning: Decision-Making Experience (DME), Teamwork (T), Simulation Experience Satisfaction (SES), Learning Aims (LA). Each construct has been investigated by using a questionnaire administrated to 48 participants of the Stock Market Learning Simulation divided into 10 teams. Results show the importance of these factors in detecting critics aspectal of learning using a business game simulation.

Problems Of Vet Governance And Scope For Improvement - A Comparative View

The panel aims at the analysis of problems in VET governance, according to the framework of VET research proposed at the Vocational Skills Week, Brussels. Issues of multilevel coordination were identified as a main challenge. Examples from four countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy) are discussed, to illustrate the challenges in governance of VET. Different methodologies are used, and issues of the relationship of central control and local delivery, and about strategic guidance and operative freedom of action are tackled. The German and Austrian examples point from different angels to issues of cooperation between the many involved stakeholders. The Hungarian and Italian examples both give emphasis to apprenticeship policies and show some pitfalls of VET policies because of too weak or too strong power policies.

ICT integration in teaching practice: can we go beyond the experimentation?

This study aims to analyze the experiences and the voices of the actors involved in the pilot project iCnos in order to achieve a better understanding of the ongoing process of change and to provide transferable and reusable information. This project, promoted and led by the national board of CNOS-FAP Federation, aims at introducing ICTs as support to teachers’ activities and students’ learning processes. Four of the VET centers involved in the project participated in this research. The qualitative analysis of data which were gathered through interviews shows that the innovation process has been taking different forms in each VET center. There are also common features in the transition from an experimental phase to implementation. L’integrazione delle ICT nelle pratiche didattiche: e possibile andare oltre la sperimentazione? Il presente contributo si propone di analizzare e restituire le esperienze degli attori coinvolti nel progetto pilota iCnos, al fine di ottenere una migliore comprensione del processo di cambiamento in corso che fornisca informazioni trasferibili e riutilizzabili in altri contesti. Il progetto iCnos, promosso e guidato dalla direzione nazionale della federazione CNOS-FAP, mira a introdurre le Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) come supporto alle attivita didattiche dei docenti e ai processi di apprendimento degli studenti dei Centri di Formazione Professionale (CFP) aderenti. Lo studio ha coinvolto quattro CFP. L’analisi qualitativa dei dati raccolti attraverso interviste ha mostrato che il processo di innovazione ha assunto forme diverse in ogni CFP ma ha consentito anche di cogliere le caratteristiche comuni del passaggio da una fase sperimentale a una fase di consolidamento dei processi innovativi.