Maria Rosaria Re

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.

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.