• it
  • en
Ricerca per l'innovazione della scuola italiana
Innovazione metodologica e organizzativa del modello scolastico

Assessing learning to support the educational success of students

Ambito: Ricerca endogena

Scientific literature has shown that assessing learning significantly affects the educational success of students. Practices that go beyond the idea of assessment as the sole verification of what students know, or know how to do, and which enhance the regulatory and self-regulatory function of the learner’s and teacher’s behaviours, are especially effective.

Objectives

OB1: To identify, document and disseminate learning assessment practices useful for the educational success of students;

OB2: To measure the effects of the new periodic and final assessments in primary school (Ordinance 172 of 2020, Descriptive judgements in periodic and final assessments in primary schools) on curricular design practices and learning situations, on ongoing assessment methods, on the educational relationship, and on the educational success of students;

OB3: To observe and describe the behaviour and experiences of teachers, students and families in order to identify obstacles to implementing learning assessment practices useful for the educational success of students in the first and second cycles of education.

Research questions

Q1: What are the learning assessment methods that contribute most significantly to training success? What is the evidence emerging from scientific literature? What experiences already existing in the Italian school context are useful cases for training teachers?

Q2: How has the learning assessment model introduced by Ordinance 172 of 2020 (Descriptive judgements in periodic and final assessments in primary schools) been implemented by schools? What are the effects of regulatory innovation on the teaching practices and experiences of teachers, students and families? What are the repercussions on training success?

Q3: What are the prevailing assessment practices implemented by Italian teachers in the various schooling levels? What attitudes and values guide these prevailing practices and behaviour, and the guiding values of these teacher practices? To what extent are these consistent with the aims of the education system and with scientific evidence? What is the experience of students and families?

The research is followed by an initial activity of study, identification and dissemination of practices, and lasts two years.

The project is organised in the following actions:

  • A1.1 (OB1) Review of the literature on the main evidence related to the assessment of learning [RS]; A1.2 Creation of the repertoire of cases [RS];
  • A2.1 (OB2) Exploratory investigation into the repercussions of Ordinance no. 172 of 2020 (Descriptive judgements in periodic and final assessments in primary schools); [RI] A2.2 Creation of the repertoire of assessment cases to support training success emerging from the application of the guidelines [RI];
  • A3.1 (OB3) Exploratory research on assessment practices and cultural representations in Italian schools;
  • A3.2 (OB3) A study of critical and paradigmatic cases emerging from the exploratory survey.

Recipients

The action is aimed at teachers and school administrators from across Italy.

Action A1.2 is primarily aimed at schools participating in INDIRE networks (Educational Avant-garde, small schools) or in research projects run by the various structures. Actions A2.1 and A2.2 are carried out as part of the accompanying measures to Ordinance no. 172 of 2020 (Descriptive judgements in periodic and final assessments in primary schools) and, in particular, in the action of training experts and regional training and twinning, which are entrusted to INDIRE and are intended for 200 teacher trainers. Finally, actions A3.1 and A3.2 are carried out on statistically representative samples of the population of Italian primary and lower and upper secondary school teachers. The involvement of INVALSI is of particular importance for the latter action.