Education and training system post Covid-19: results from a probability model to measure students’ learning performance

The Covid-19 affected people regardless of nationality, level of education, income or gender. However, students from privileged backgrounds, supported by their parents could find their way past closed school doors to alternative learning opportunities. This crisis has exposed the many inadequacies and inequalities in our education systems. This article presents the GPU System as a tool for collecting, managing and monitoring. The PON 2014/2020 For the School has been conceived for achieving an intelligent, equal, sustainable, and inclusive growth. In order to measure the learnings performance of students, a probability model was implemented to measure performance improvement. The data refer to the grades attributed to students before and after the delivery of the educational activities. Results show that the probability of registering a training success triggered by the training course is greater for the foreign languages area, generating inclusion and social integration mechanisms, as well as mediation and intercultural understanding. Il sistema di istruzione e di formazione dopo il Covid-19: risultati da un modello per misurare gli apprendimenti degli studenti. Il Covid-19 ha colpito tutti gli individui indipendentemente dalla nazionalità, dal livello di istruzione, dal reddito o dal genere. Tuttavia, gli studenti provenienti da ambienti privilegiati, supportati dai loro genitori hanno potuto intravedere più agevolmente la loro strada oltre le porte chiuse della scuola verso opportunità di apprendimento alternative. Questa crisi ha messo in luce le molte inadeguatezze e disuguaglianze nei nostri sistemi educativi. In questo studio si presenta il Sistema GPU come strumento di raccolta, gestione e monitoraggio. In tale contesto si inserisce il PON 2014/2020 Per la Scuola, concepito per realizzare una crescita intelligente, equa, sostenibile e inclusiva. Al fine di misurare le performance degli apprendimenti degli studenti è stato implementato un modello di probabilità finalizzato a misurare il successo formativo. I dati si riferiscono alle votazioni attribuite agli studenti prima e dopo l’azione formativa. I risultati mostrano come la probabilità di registrare un successo formativo generato dal percorso formativo intrapreso sia maggiore per l’area relativa alle lingue straniere, generando meccanismi di inclusione ed integrazione sociale, nonché la mediazione e la comprensione interculturale.

Design-based research as a framework for developing and deploying augmented reality applications and scenarios for intercultural exchange

This paper delves into the underlying phases involved in designing, developing, and deploying Augmented Reality (AR) applications and game-based scenarios that will be implemented during intercultural exchanges among students in two different academic institutions in Sweden and Cyprus. Building on principles of design-based research (Barab & Squire, 2004; Klopfer & Squire, 2008), the aim is to expand the learning ecology by leveraging instructional tools and developing novel scenarios to broaden the trajectories of collaboration, intercultural understanding and communication, and cultural knowledge. The AR applications and scenarios are in the process of being developed as part of the Digital Methods Platform for Arts and Humanities (DiMPAH) project, where game-based activities will foster intercultural collaboration, exploration of cultural heritage sites, intercultural understanding, knowledge, and interaction. Adopting a bottom-up approach, instructors collaborate with a software developer and an extended research team to design pedagogically and culturally potent scenarios embedded in novel technologies that bring the virtual into the physical world.

The Promotion of Intercultural Understanding in English Language Teaching Textbooks A Content Analysis

The paper centres around the idea that second language learning is an intercultural process. The global role of English as a primary means of intercultural communication has highlighted the need to develop intercultural competences in language learners. Based on these premises, this study will explore the extent to which intercultural aspects are incorporated in course materials and textbooks. A content analysis of 4 textbooks will be conducted. The preliminary results will highlight the limited coverage of intercultural content in most of the textbooks analysed and the need to promote intercultural knowledge and understanding in the language classroom.

Aztecs at Our Place: Meaning-making in an international touring exhibition

<p>While it is claimed that international touring exhibitions are highly valuable in terms of promoting intercultural understanding, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. In particular, there is a lack of visitor research on the subject. “Aztecs at Our Place” addresses this current lack of knowledge by seeking to provide an insight into the impact of touring exhibitions on their audiences. It examines the ways visitors to the exhibition Aztecs: Conquest and glory built impressions and “made meaning” about an unfamiliar culture. The exhibition was on display at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) from 28 September 2013 to 9 February 2014. It was developed by Te Papa in partnership with the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia in Mexico, and the Australian Museum and Museum Victoria. From Te Papa, the exhibition travelled to Melbourne Museum and then the Australian Museum in Sydney. This dissertation studies the visitor experience at Te Papa only but forms part of a broader study which examines two exhibitions across several international venues. “Aztecs at Our Place” draws on recent theoretical and methodological developments in the field of visitor studies including visitor meaning-making, narrative-based methods and long-term visitor insights. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, centering on narrative-based interviews with twenty-three visitors to the exhibition. Follow-up interviews were conducted with eleven of the original participants in order to determine visitors’ lasting impressions of the exhibition. The findings reveal how participants’ impressions of Aztec culture were informed by different aspects of the exhibition. Information and objects relating to everyday life were essential for creating a broader, more sympathetic understanding of Aztec culture beyond human sacrifice. The research also demonstrates that cultural comparisons, objects and emotions including empathy helped participants gain an appreciation for the Aztec way of life, in conjunction with aspects of participants’ identity. The findings shed new light on the way visitors “connect” to another culture through experiencing an international touring exhibition. Considering that cultural diplomacy is reportedly growing in importance, this research has implications for museum professionals seeking to promote intercultural understanding through an exhibition.</p>

Aztecs at Our Place: Meaning-making in an international touring exhibition

<p>While it is claimed that international touring exhibitions are highly valuable in terms of promoting intercultural understanding, there is little empirical evidence to support this claim. In particular, there is a lack of visitor research on the subject. “Aztecs at Our Place” addresses this current lack of knowledge by seeking to provide an insight into the impact of touring exhibitions on their audiences. It examines the ways visitors to the exhibition Aztecs: Conquest and glory built impressions and “made meaning” about an unfamiliar culture. The exhibition was on display at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa) from 28 September 2013 to 9 February 2014. It was developed by Te Papa in partnership with the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia in Mexico, and the Australian Museum and Museum Victoria. From Te Papa, the exhibition travelled to Melbourne Museum and then the Australian Museum in Sydney. This dissertation studies the visitor experience at Te Papa only but forms part of a broader study which examines two exhibitions across several international venues. “Aztecs at Our Place” draws on recent theoretical and methodological developments in the field of visitor studies including visitor meaning-making, narrative-based methods and long-term visitor insights. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, centering on narrative-based interviews with twenty-three visitors to the exhibition. Follow-up interviews were conducted with eleven of the original participants in order to determine visitors’ lasting impressions of the exhibition. The findings reveal how participants’ impressions of Aztec culture were informed by different aspects of the exhibition. Information and objects relating to everyday life were essential for creating a broader, more sympathetic understanding of Aztec culture beyond human sacrifice. The research also demonstrates that cultural comparisons, objects and emotions including empathy helped participants gain an appreciation for the Aztec way of life, in conjunction with aspects of participants’ identity. The findings shed new light on the way visitors “connect” to another culture through experiencing an international touring exhibition. Considering that cultural diplomacy is reportedly growing in importance, this research has implications for museum professionals seeking to promote intercultural understanding through an exhibition.</p>

Storytelling as an imperative to build morals, ethics, character, and a capacity for kindness in Children

Storytelling is touted as an extremely effective medium of communication and selling one’s viewpoint to others. There is a surfeit of resources advocating and teaching storytelling techniques and tools to help sell products and services, attract investors, build organizational brands, cultivate social correctness, build intercultural understanding, run an advertising campaign and express entrepreneurial frames. The predicament of communicating the truth in organizations is frequently between truth-speak and ‘telling a good story or ‘spinning a clever yarn’. Selling ideas, marketing products, obtaining buy-ins from investors can entail ‘stretching the truth’. Recognizing the axiology of this disturbing malaise on one hand and exploring the positive influence that emotional learning through stories can have on the moral, ethical, and character development needs of children, this paper sees an imperative to posit storytelling as a dominant, pedagogic tools to build morals, ethics, character, and capacity for kindness in children.