Experimental pedagogy for formative digital learning

Elena Mosa has been a researcher at Indire since 2005, where she initially worked on in-service training of teaching staff on the themes of methodological-didactical innovation and digital languages. She currently delves into issues related to supporting school innovation processes.
Since July 2019, she has been in charge of the Indire Research Unit of the PRIN project “Prototypes for living”: new architectural models for the resilient construction, renovation and recovery of the school building heritage and for building the future, in Italy”.
She is a trainer, author of essays and articles on school innovation, and is responsible for the “Sviluppo professionale” column in the magazine “Essere a Scuola” published monthly by Morcelliana.
She is a member of the Academic Senate of IUL and President of the LM57 degree class.
She is lecturer at IUL and part of the IUL research group on the themes of “Social learning and interactive online activities in university didactics”.
She is the Director of the IUL Master “Expert teacher” promoted by IUL and Centro Studi Erickson.

Full profile link: https://www.iuline.it/docente/mosa-elena/

The course is organised in four modules, each of which consists of 4 modules.

• Module 1 – Experimental Pedagogy

The first module is devoted to the topic of experimental pedagogy and aims to provide a general introduction to the basic aspects of educational research.

• Module 2 – From andragogy to transformative learning

In the second module the specificities of adult learning in the directions of life-long, life-wide and life-deep learning are reviewed.

• Module 3 – Digital languages

In the third module, a historical excursus is proposed from the advent of analogue to digital media in a reciprocal relationship of mediation and remediation.

• Module 4 – Professional Development and Communities of Practice

The fourth module addresses the issue of communities of practice and learning organisations.

The course focuses on the study of experimental pedagogy and aims to provide a general introduction to the fundamental aspects of research in the educational field, to plan and implement empirical research, to critically use research results and strategies to improve professional practice. A further objective of the course is to reflect on teaching and learning practices in a life-long, life-wide and life-deep perspective.

A. Knowledge:

• • to know the basic principles of educational research;
  • to know the main approaches to learning in adulthood;
  • to know the basic principles of media education;
  • to know the main features of learning in communities of practice and complex organisations.

B. Skills:

• being able to analyse a problematic situation and derive a research question;
• knowing how to set up a research protocol;
• being able to interpret media messages critically;
• knowing how to use digital languages in a critical and conscious way.

A. Knowledge and understanding
Knowledge and understanding of the main concepts of experimental research in education and didactics, of the main strategies of empirical research in education and of the stages of implementation of quantitative and qualitative empirical research.

B. Applied knowledge and understanding
Knowing how to analyse complex case situations; knowing how to design research questions and how to set up a research design aimed at testing hypotheses.

C. Autonomy of judgement
To critically analyse a scientific contribution of empirical research in education; to choose an appropriate research plan for the empirical study of an educational problem.

D. Communication skills
To be able to outline a research project in written form using appropriate scientific language; to be able to integrate digital languages into multimedia communication.

E. Learning ability
To be able to transfer what has been learned in the course to life and professional situations.

A. Use of advanced textbooks, knowledge of some cutting-edge topics in experimental pedagogy and adult education.
B. Professional approach to work and possession of adequate skills to devise arguments, support them and solve problems within the subject studied.
C. Ability to collect and interpret data useful for making autonomous judgements.
D. Ability to communicate information and ideas and to make analytical contributions for the benefit of specialist and non-specialist interlocutors.
E. Ability to undertake further studies with a high degree of autonomy, while keeping up to date on teaching topics.

DIDACTICS PROVISION

• 8 hours of recorded video lessons available on the platform.
• 4 synchronous meetings on the platform.
• Podcasts of all the above-mentioned video lessons.

INTERACTIVE DIDACTICS

• 1 course orientation forum;
• 4 in-depth thematic forums (1 per module);
• Possibility to carry out work in groups;
• 4 structured e-activities.

SELF-LEARNING

Teaching materials are provided for each module: in-depth thematic studies, articles and slides by the lecturer, open-access readings, online resources, reference bibliography, etc.

• Trinchero, R. (2017) Manuale di ricerca educativa. Milan, Franco Angeli (up to p.177).
• Video lessons, handouts and other materials made available on the platform.

Access to the final examination is subject to the completion of 4 e-activities. The e-activities may be carried out in collaborative mode: the group will document its experience in a blog or wiki, as indicated by the tutor. Depending on whether the activities are carried out in a group or in individual mode, the e-activities may be modified.

• E-tivity for module 1

The group or individual student should analyse a given situation-problem and identify hypotheses of suitable solutions to be developed in the next module.

• E-tivity for module 2

In relation to the analysis made in the first module, the group or individual will have to design a research protocol linked to the solution hypothesis of the situation-problem.

• E-tivity for module 3

Design of one of the survey instruments included in the research protocol and/or peer review activities.

• E-tivity for module 4

Review of the research project according to the indications that emerged from the evaluation and/or administration of the tool implemented and data analysis.

The assessment of learning will take the form of an oral interview on the course contents and on the final report submitted, if any. The grade (min 18, max 30 with possible honours) is determined by the level of performance for each of the following dimensions of the oral interview: mastery of contents, appropriateness of definitions and theoretical references, clarity of argument, command of specialist language.

Italian