Programma della conferenza

The integration of a novel teacher portfolio for newly recruited teachers in Italy epitomizes a new approach to meeting the demands of lifelong learning within the teaching profession. This paper explores the deployment and implications of this innovative model, which has been embraced by over 40,000 teachers during their probationary year starting from the 2023/24 school year. Anchored in a set of minimum professional standards, the teacher portfolio promotes self-evaluation across a broad spectrum of teaching competencies, from didactics and engagement in school life to organizational involvement and professional advancement. It encourages teachers to undertake reflective practice by documenting their professional development experiences, thereby fostering growth and facilitating adaptation to the complex realities of contemporary classrooms.

This transformative instrument is pivotal for the systematic documentation of teachers' professional trajectories and serves as an essential mechanism for continuous professional development and self-assessment. Its adaptability, extensive applicability across all educational levels and disciplines and flexibility across professional development phases (from Initial teacher Education, to Induction, to Continuous Professional development) renders it an invaluable tool in sustaining the principles of quality teaching and learning processes.

Leveraging empirical data from the 2023/24 school year, this study articulates the teacher portfolio's potential to markedly influence teachers' professional growth from a lifelong learning standpoint. The widespread adoption of the teacher portfolio by a significant number of educators in the induction phase heralds a shift towards a more introspective, standards-based approach to teacher development in Italy, with the potential for broader implications.

The University of Turin has been experimenting with methodologies and technological innovations in the field of digital credentials using Bestr, Italy's first digital credentialing platform, since 2016. This article aims to illustrate how the University is progressively creating an 'ecosystem' for digital credentials, consistent and complementary to that of traditional certifications, to enhance the skills acquired and relate them to the working reality. Over the years, the service has grown both in terms of the number of digital credentials issued and the number of structures involved, as well as the solutions adopted to meet new needs. Initially, it concerned the certification through Open Badges of skills and knowledge acquired by teaching and technical-administrative staff, with the perspective of enhancing internal training paths. The use of Open Badges then expanded to student users, particularly for certifying language skills and short extracurricular learning experiences. The UNITA project - Universitas Montium certifies international students' participation in select training initiatives as well. Open Badges are also used to certify participation in lifelong learning paths, such as University Courses for Updating and Professional Training and some individual courses, attended by workers for professional upskilling and reskilling. Since 2023, the University has incorporated Blockcerts for certifying certain degrees alongside Open Badges, enhancing authenticity and verification ease. Among the planned developments are the integration between Bestr and the students’ career management information system, for the automated issuance of digital credentials, and the integration between Bestr and the Europass platforms, for the issuance of European Digital Credentials for Learning.

The pandemic period has been instrumental in resulting in noteworthy changes in the way many professions are being organized with the help of technology. One of the professions that have undergone tremendous advancement in terms of adopting technology for functional executions is the Educational field. This is more so important in the case of the teaching fraternity of primary and secondary education who, unlike their counterparts in the higher education arena, experienced the adoption of technology for remote teaching for the first time in their professional life during the pandemic period. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to do a comparative analysis of how technology has impacted the professional lives of school teachers and higher education educators of Indian origin. A qualitative study involving semi-structured open-ended interviews with a sample of 10 school teachers and 10 college lecturers will be conducted to understand the challenges they encountered while adopting technological assistance for teaching, the importance of such technical capability so acquired during the post-pandemic period, and their perception of the future of education in the wake of technological advancements. The outcome of this study will contribute to the existing literature on the technology adaptation of school teachers and college lecturers and will be of greater relevance to the policymakers in the field of education to make strategies that could potentially tap the best of the teaching fraternity for the cause of better education.

The benefits of Virtual Exchange (VE) as an innovative pedagogy have been explored and documented in depth in the literature in both the Higher Education (HE) and Youth fields, yet the focus has predominantly – if not exclusively – dwelled on the students/learners conceived as the target of the Virtual Exchange projects. Yet, in a lifelong learning perspective, little research has so far been carried out that explores the impact of VE on older learners such as non-traditional university students and those in graduate level programmes. Nor has the impact of VE on university staff, be it teacher or administrative as well as technical staff, been deeply investigated, and only few real cases of VE projects addressed to university staff have been documented.

For university staff, participating in a VE is key to develop skills – such as intercultural competences – which are essential in the framework of an overall internationalisation of staff at HEI level, and in the light of institutional policies on Internationalisation at Home.

This contribution endeavours to specifically focus on the potential impact of VE on university staff when it is offered as an opportunity for continuous professional development. By also making references to some of the few real cases available, the major benefits of VE addressed to university staff will be highlighted, especially considering the practical constraints HEI staff often face due to the fact that they have multiple work, family and other social responsibilities, which can restrict opportunities for them to participate in in-person international learning experiences.

In Italy a one-year postgraduate specialisation course called 'special-needs teacher training' is required for support teachers (Ministerial Decree No. 249 of 10 September 2010). The main aim of this course was to develop specific knowledge and skills covering areas like special pedagogy, legal aspects, and the use of educational technology.

During Covid19 pandemic the course devoted to digital technologies (the so-called ICT-Lab) was delivered in asynchronous mode following a supported online video training approach (Andresen, 2009).

The ICT-lab course was developed into nine modules, each of which dedicated to a specific topic. The adoption of online video-supported training was beneficial for the development of teachers' technological skills and computer self-efficacy (Benigno et al., 2024).

Considering the crucial role that technologies play in the educational context with students with special educational needs and eager to understand how teachers have applied what they learned in the online video-supported training in their professional context, a follow-up research, one year later, was implemented. The aim of the present research is to analyze how the approach to technology use and adoption in the educational context has changed and, whether there have been any effects in teaching practices, following the qualification as a support teacher.

This research discusses an analysis based on the comparison of previous research outcomes (Benigno et al. 2024) and the analysis of a follow-up survey, filled in a year after the end of the course. A total of 61 participants took part in this second phase of the study.