General Didactics (2014/2015)

Learning outcomes

Preliminary notes and general learning objectives
The course aims to initiate the acquisition of knowledge and basic skills related to the teaching function in preschool and primary school. In particular, it is proposed to involve the students to the field of complex disciplinary teaching which is a field of theoretical and practical knowledge in order to define the requirements and procedures for implementation of the processes of teaching and learning. This, however, as part of a pedagogical framework not established a priori, but rather defined by the activities in the classroom with the study and personal participation of the students.
During the lessons will be offered a model defined in the Italian school in the Seventies, and still very relevant and feasible: 'the school as a center of research. "
The course aims to make students aware of the importance of knowing the evolution of Didactis, at least in the previous century to the present.

Course program
The training consists of a series of thematic units that will be proposed according to a scan not necessarily linear and consequential as it appears below:

- Didactis and education: reflections based on the combination and the role of the school today
- Teaching how to know complex
- Methods and styles of teaching and pedagogical intentionality / teacher teaching
- The school as a center of research
- Teaching for skills
- The ministry guidelines for the curriculum
- Lineages of teaching in the twentieth century

Teaching methods
The lectures will take place with the aid of film images or audiovisual documents and other media types on the 'do school', and also meetings with witnesses, in order to introduce the different topics and issues covered by the program. The students will be asked to be active participants of the training through a constant dialogue. In particular, the teacher intends to entrust them with a series of audiovisual documents (film and video), and paperless, to be viewed and studied independently and then make them the subject of exposure / classroom discussion. It is planned the use of an electronic platform to which both attending students and those who choose to prepare by studying the exam papers can connect and participate in the activities.
Careful and thorough participation to the activities in such platform will positively influence the final grade.

Reading list
- Agosti A., Pratiche didattiche sullo schermo. Per un pensare riflessivo sull’insegnamento, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2013. (Warning. We recommend very strongly the vision of the following films: Dead Poets Society, Mona Lisa Smile, Diario di un maestro (see below), Conrack, Ricomincia da oggi, To be and to have, Little Red Flowers, The Wild Child. These films can be viewed in the videolibrary 'Pietro Roveda' at the third floor of Palazzo Zorzi, Lungadige Porta Vittoria 17, in the opening hours of the structure).
- Agosti A., Galanti M. A., Franceschini G., Didattica: strutture, evoluzione e modelli, Clueb, Bologna 2009, pagg. 47-151; (asks the student to deepen one of the authors cited in the range of pages, at its option. It is advisable to inspect at least a fundamental author chosen and extrapolate two or three quotes that you can take with you at the examination. The text of this chapter, being out of stock, is located in the platform among the study materials in pdf.)
- Giunti A., La scuola come centro di ricerca, La Scuola, Brescia 2012. Edited by Giuseppe Bertagna.
- Maccario D., A scuola di competenze. Verso un nuovo modello didattico, SEI, Torino 2012.
- Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione (2012), Indicazioni per il curricolo per la scuola dell’infanzia e per il primo ciclo d’istruzione. The text is located in the platform among the study materials in pdf.
- Diario di un maestro, di Vittorio de Seta, Feltrinelli, Milano 2012 (must be viewed carefully and completely contained in the two dvd box set. The DVD can / must also view at the videolibrary 'Pietro Roveda', at the third floor of Palazzo Zorzi, Lungadige Porta Vittoria 17, VERONA, during the opening hours or by appointment with the technical manager of the videolibrary, Dr. Stefano Capuzzo - stefano.capuzzo@univr.it - 045-8028582).

There are no changes in the texts and films, which are to be studied and view in depth, both by attending and not attending students.

Assessment methods
The verification test involves a series of open-ended questions, to be answered in writing, on the themes of the program and about the contents of the bibliography and filmography exam. In the evaluation of the test will be considered the level of understanding and the processing capabilities of the knowledge acquired by the students, as well as the grammatical correctness, especially the aspects regarding the spelling and syntactic competence, which will be assessed for of the final grade. The level of clarity in the handwriting will constitute an element of assessment.
The written examination will eventually, at the discretion of the teacher, be complemented by a short interview on issues of the program, particularly those relating to the examination and the film works viewed.