The research comes from INDIRE’s involvement, as a partner, in the “Educational Neighbourhood” project, financed by the Fund to counter juvenile educational poverty (Presidency of the Council of Ministers), whose leader is the social enterprise, DPDB Montecalvario Srl (part of the Neapolitan school network “Dalla parte dei bambini” [literally: On the children’s side]).

The research made it possible to highlight the dimensions – within the framework created to evaluate innovation processes – most interconnected with those of Universal Design for Learning (UdL), identifying a way to design inclusive environments in different contexts.

Objectives

• To identify teaching practices functional to inclusion, as an alternative to those traditionally applied in classrooms;
• To identify educational evaluation models, to improve the empowerment of personnel in the entire school.

Research questions

• Does the use of innovative teaching practices, which are adopted in a context of social and cultural deprivation and which make use of spaces outside the school, such as streets, fields, alleys, as actual learning environments (diffused school), promote inclusion and limit school drop-out?
• In the context of the diffused school, what role does assessment play for students in the widest sense of value attribution?

Recipients

Participants belong to schools in the “Dalla parte dei bambini” network, namely:

• teachers, head teachers;
• students;
• parent representatives;
• representatives of associations which collaborate with the network.