Mariada Muciaccia
My name is Mariada and I am from Rome, the most beautiful and famous city of Italy. I am currently in the second year of my PhD at SAS in Camerino and my scientific interest is in understanding how and how much Inquiry based Science Education can be effective on high school students’ achievement. During my PhD, I have developed a statistic design to measure the effectiveness of the inquiry-based learning compared to the traditional one. I am now applying this design on students 16- 19 years old, from 4 high schools in Rome in order to understand if there are changes from pre-test and post-test scores.
Before joining SAS, I was Science Teacher at Liceo Mamiani in Rome, where I have been involved as a project planner in projects connected with National and European institutions, such as the Comenius projects. I won several National and International competitions with my students, including first prize for best presentation at the Congress on Science in School (Berlin, 2005), first prize for best documentary at the Doc Scient Festival (Rome, 2011), and second prize for best video at Orvieto Scienza (Orvieto, 2014).
I graduated with honors in Biology from the University of Aquila in 1981. Since then, for the last 30 years I taught high school and I have constantly been working in the field Science Education.
I was a trainer teacher in the SISS (Scuola di Specializzazione all Insegnamento Superiore - University of Roma tre).
I am a certified CLIL (Content and Language integrated Learning) teacher, a member of ANISN (National Association teachers in Natural Sciences), and on the editorial staff of the ANISN magazine "Le Scienze Naturali nella Scuola".
In the last four years I focused my interest on didactic research through Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE). I have been involved as a speaker in several workshops for teachers in Science Education.
Currently, I am a trainer teacher at the Pilot Center in Rome of the SID (Scientiam Inquirendo Discere) program, founded by Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italian Ministry of Education and ANISN.
There are some things that I like the most about being an expert in Science Education: working with young people, discovering something new (almost) every day, feeling happy for their passion and communicating it: spread the word, spread the passion!
Supervisors: Cristina Miceli
Before joining SAS, I was Science Teacher at Liceo Mamiani in Rome, where I have been involved as a project planner in projects connected with National and European institutions, such as the Comenius projects. I won several National and International competitions with my students, including first prize for best presentation at the Congress on Science in School (Berlin, 2005), first prize for best documentary at the Doc Scient Festival (Rome, 2011), and second prize for best video at Orvieto Scienza (Orvieto, 2014).
I graduated with honors in Biology from the University of Aquila in 1981. Since then, for the last 30 years I taught high school and I have constantly been working in the field Science Education.
I was a trainer teacher in the SISS (Scuola di Specializzazione all Insegnamento Superiore - University of Roma tre).
I am a certified CLIL (Content and Language integrated Learning) teacher, a member of ANISN (National Association teachers in Natural Sciences), and on the editorial staff of the ANISN magazine "Le Scienze Naturali nella Scuola".
In the last four years I focused my interest on didactic research through Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE). I have been involved as a speaker in several workshops for teachers in Science Education.
Currently, I am a trainer teacher at the Pilot Center in Rome of the SID (Scientiam Inquirendo Discere) program, founded by Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Italian Ministry of Education and ANISN.
There are some things that I like the most about being an expert in Science Education: working with young people, discovering something new (almost) every day, feeling happy for their passion and communicating it: spread the word, spread the passion!
Supervisors: Cristina Miceli
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www.treccani.it/scuola/tesine/organismi_modello
By integrating different information about the geo-morphological arrangement and the land use of a region, it is possible to reach a complete knowledge of the territory: a multi-scale Landscape approach is even more adopted in the applied research.
The divulgation of scientific heritage, using topics well known and appreciated, may represent one of the new goals for the Territorial Sciences; the GIS are able to synthesize, manage and represent a large amount of data; thanks to GIS it’s almost easy to reach an evaluation of the state of the studied landscapes, referring to the dual risk/resource which characterizes our country. In Italy, one of the projects aimed at conveying a recognition of the territory is the “Map of Nature”, (ISPRA) that analyses the state of the environment following a holistic and multi-scale approach.
The Landscape is also the key factor to connect core ideas of geo-enviromental sciences in a synthetic and systemic way. For that reason, from an educational viewpoint, the research focuses on the experimentation of that systemic approach in classroom. It is a perspective and effective combination developing didactic units about the landscape of the local area, adapted to the Italian contest of high school, by using IBSE (Inquiry-based Science Education) instruction. That new approach enables students to use the local territory as a laboratory, consistently with goals such as the knowledge of the place where students live in everyday life, understanding of its evolution in the space and in the time, the adoption of the right strategies for the management of the territory and making of responsible and sustainable decisions. The analysis of “shapes and materials” is carried out through direct observations, analysis of pictures, analysis of topographic and thematic maps and GIS processing.
Si può dire che dalla nascita della metodologia sperimentale “la scienza è un fatto pubblico”, per questo la scuola ha la responsabilità di formare cittadini in grado di muoversi e di agire in un simile contesto in modo consapevole, ed il mondo accademico ha il compito di interagire con il mondo della scuola per consentire una corretta percezione dei processi che caratterizzano la ricerca scientifica.
A partire dall’anno scolastico 2010/11 alcuni docenti del Liceo Mamiani con le proprie classi hanno aderito a progetti diversi , organizzati nei primi anni dall’EMBL, in collaborazione con L’Università La Sapienza e l’ANISN, quest’anno dall’Associazione “Adamas”, che si avvale delle stesse collaborazioni ed è gestita dagli stessi ricercatori che hanno seguito gli studenti negli anni passati. Il tema delle cellule staminali si presta particolarmente bene per esemplificare le peculiarità e i molteplici aspetti della ricerca scientifica; i progetti, infatti, sono un esperimento di dialogo ed interazione tra il sapere scientifico della scuola e quello delle istituzioni, attraverso il quale si è riusciti a diffondere la cultura scientifica e a creare un contatto costruttivo tra chi fa scienza, chi la insegna e chi deve apprenderla.
Le finalità dei progetti sono:
avvicinare gli studenti al mondo della ricerca, diffondendo la cultura
scientifica e formarli alla complessità del mondo attuale;
stimolare un atteggiamento critico e di consapevolezza del significato della
ricerca;
sollecitare il desiderio di scoperta, stimolando così la voglia di intraprendere
ricerche;
far sì che gli studenti vivano la scienza come un'esperienza globale, da
condividere con altri, abituandosi alla valutazione tra pari;
valorizzare le competenze relazionali e le competenze dinamiche.
A key factor for improvement could be the dissemination at school of new instructional models such as Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE), focused on active learning. Inquiry-based learning comes from constructivist theories. It is an instructional model that centers learning on addressing a particular problem or answering a central question. This means that students learn to construct their own understanding through the reflection on their experiences, based on hands-on activities, focusing on both the contents and the processes of science.
This study focuses on analyzing high school students‘ perceptions about the implementation of IBSE approach in classroom, with the objective to investigate the impact of IBSE, compared to the traditional approach. The preliminary part of the study is addressed to validate a questionnaire which is developed with the collaboration of experts in statistics. The validated questionnaire is then used in a broader survey, now in progress, focused to measure and compare the effects of IBSE and traditional instructions on students’ school achievement.
The new perspective of this study, compared to previous studies, is that the questionnaire has been built in order to elucidate key aspects of both inquiry-based and traditional instructions, in a way that students can compare the two different approaches.
The study involves 87 participants from two high schools. All the participants are students whose teachers took part in the SID (Scientiam Inquirendo Discere) Programme. This programme is a systemic model for IBSE implementation in Italy that provides teacher professional development by their participation to training courses, to supporting actions in presence and on line and by the development of didactic resources.
Although the study is in progress, it already showed students’ perceptions, assessment of motivation and engagement, bringing out strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches. Statistical analysis in data processing was used for a descriptive study. In particular, the t-test and p-value analysis indicated that 26 out of the 36 survey items received statistically different answers. Results showed that in general students gave positive evaluations to their experience with IBSE activities, considered them a successful teaching/learning process, recognizing the value of good practices. These results are more evident among female students, among students from higher socio-cultural level, as well as among those scoring good marks. On the other hand, students did not perceive to achieve a deeper knowledge by IBSE than by the traditional learning and they did not consider IBSE an effective approach for their future careers.
Si tratta di un percorso di didattica ibrida (blended learning), nel quale vengono utilizzate e sovrapposte diverse strategie, considerando la loro comune denominazione nell’ambito della pedagogia costruttivista: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) e Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE). Come ambiente di apprendimento online abbiamo scelto la piattaforma e-learning open source Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), poiché permette di implementare i principi fondamentali del modello costruttivista, che guidano la progettazione del nostro percorso didattico. L’uso combinato di questi approcci e strumenti vede gli studenti al centro del processo di apprendimento e consente di far crescere la loro consapevolezza, potenziando la familiarità con una seconda lingua e le capacità di problem-solving, di pensiero critico e creativo.
problem solving, di pensiero critico, creatività e capacità di valutare, competenze indispensabili per essere cittadini consapevoli e per trasformare i “nativi digitali” in esperti digitali, capaci di usare in modo cosciente e ragionato la tecnologia.
www.treccani.it/scuola/tesine/organismi_modello
By integrating different information about the geo-morphological arrangement and the land use of a region, it is possible to reach a complete knowledge of the territory: a multi-scale Landscape approach is even more adopted in the applied research.
The divulgation of scientific heritage, using topics well known and appreciated, may represent one of the new goals for the Territorial Sciences; the GIS are able to synthesize, manage and represent a large amount of data; thanks to GIS it’s almost easy to reach an evaluation of the state of the studied landscapes, referring to the dual risk/resource which characterizes our country. In Italy, one of the projects aimed at conveying a recognition of the territory is the “Map of Nature”, (ISPRA) that analyses the state of the environment following a holistic and multi-scale approach.
The Landscape is also the key factor to connect core ideas of geo-enviromental sciences in a synthetic and systemic way. For that reason, from an educational viewpoint, the research focuses on the experimentation of that systemic approach in classroom. It is a perspective and effective combination developing didactic units about the landscape of the local area, adapted to the Italian contest of high school, by using IBSE (Inquiry-based Science Education) instruction. That new approach enables students to use the local territory as a laboratory, consistently with goals such as the knowledge of the place where students live in everyday life, understanding of its evolution in the space and in the time, the adoption of the right strategies for the management of the territory and making of responsible and sustainable decisions. The analysis of “shapes and materials” is carried out through direct observations, analysis of pictures, analysis of topographic and thematic maps and GIS processing.
Si può dire che dalla nascita della metodologia sperimentale “la scienza è un fatto pubblico”, per questo la scuola ha la responsabilità di formare cittadini in grado di muoversi e di agire in un simile contesto in modo consapevole, ed il mondo accademico ha il compito di interagire con il mondo della scuola per consentire una corretta percezione dei processi che caratterizzano la ricerca scientifica.
A partire dall’anno scolastico 2010/11 alcuni docenti del Liceo Mamiani con le proprie classi hanno aderito a progetti diversi , organizzati nei primi anni dall’EMBL, in collaborazione con L’Università La Sapienza e l’ANISN, quest’anno dall’Associazione “Adamas”, che si avvale delle stesse collaborazioni ed è gestita dagli stessi ricercatori che hanno seguito gli studenti negli anni passati. Il tema delle cellule staminali si presta particolarmente bene per esemplificare le peculiarità e i molteplici aspetti della ricerca scientifica; i progetti, infatti, sono un esperimento di dialogo ed interazione tra il sapere scientifico della scuola e quello delle istituzioni, attraverso il quale si è riusciti a diffondere la cultura scientifica e a creare un contatto costruttivo tra chi fa scienza, chi la insegna e chi deve apprenderla.
Le finalità dei progetti sono:
avvicinare gli studenti al mondo della ricerca, diffondendo la cultura
scientifica e formarli alla complessità del mondo attuale;
stimolare un atteggiamento critico e di consapevolezza del significato della
ricerca;
sollecitare il desiderio di scoperta, stimolando così la voglia di intraprendere
ricerche;
far sì che gli studenti vivano la scienza come un'esperienza globale, da
condividere con altri, abituandosi alla valutazione tra pari;
valorizzare le competenze relazionali e le competenze dinamiche.
A key factor for improvement could be the dissemination at school of new instructional models such as Inquiry-based Science Education (IBSE), focused on active learning. Inquiry-based learning comes from constructivist theories. It is an instructional model that centers learning on addressing a particular problem or answering a central question. This means that students learn to construct their own understanding through the reflection on their experiences, based on hands-on activities, focusing on both the contents and the processes of science.
This study focuses on analyzing high school students‘ perceptions about the implementation of IBSE approach in classroom, with the objective to investigate the impact of IBSE, compared to the traditional approach. The preliminary part of the study is addressed to validate a questionnaire which is developed with the collaboration of experts in statistics. The validated questionnaire is then used in a broader survey, now in progress, focused to measure and compare the effects of IBSE and traditional instructions on students’ school achievement.
The new perspective of this study, compared to previous studies, is that the questionnaire has been built in order to elucidate key aspects of both inquiry-based and traditional instructions, in a way that students can compare the two different approaches.
The study involves 87 participants from two high schools. All the participants are students whose teachers took part in the SID (Scientiam Inquirendo Discere) Programme. This programme is a systemic model for IBSE implementation in Italy that provides teacher professional development by their participation to training courses, to supporting actions in presence and on line and by the development of didactic resources.
Although the study is in progress, it already showed students’ perceptions, assessment of motivation and engagement, bringing out strengths and weaknesses of the two approaches. Statistical analysis in data processing was used for a descriptive study. In particular, the t-test and p-value analysis indicated that 26 out of the 36 survey items received statistically different answers. Results showed that in general students gave positive evaluations to their experience with IBSE activities, considered them a successful teaching/learning process, recognizing the value of good practices. These results are more evident among female students, among students from higher socio-cultural level, as well as among those scoring good marks. On the other hand, students did not perceive to achieve a deeper knowledge by IBSE than by the traditional learning and they did not consider IBSE an effective approach for their future careers.
Si tratta di un percorso di didattica ibrida (blended learning), nel quale vengono utilizzate e sovrapposte diverse strategie, considerando la loro comune denominazione nell’ambito della pedagogia costruttivista: Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) e Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE). Come ambiente di apprendimento online abbiamo scelto la piattaforma e-learning open source Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment), poiché permette di implementare i principi fondamentali del modello costruttivista, che guidano la progettazione del nostro percorso didattico. L’uso combinato di questi approcci e strumenti vede gli studenti al centro del processo di apprendimento e consente di far crescere la loro consapevolezza, potenziando la familiarità con una seconda lingua e le capacità di problem-solving, di pensiero critico e creativo.
problem solving, di pensiero critico, creatività e capacità di valutare, competenze indispensabili per essere cittadini consapevoli e per trasformare i “nativi digitali” in esperti digitali, capaci di usare in modo cosciente e ragionato la tecnologia.