Programma della conferenza

In the highly complex and ever-changing framework in which educational institutions find themselves operating, effective leadership must be attentive to understanding and responding promptly to the demands of the context in which it is embedded, capable of combining the increase in technological endowments and the spread of their use, with attention to the more exquisitely pedagogical and didactic aspects and new educational paradigms (Arnold & Sangrà, 2018; Iacono, 2021). The manager is not only required to lead, but also to combine his or her leadership with web-based management (Hamzah et al., 2021. E-leadership can be defined as the effective use of digital technologies to lead, manage and influence the school community toward common goals (Wan Mart et al.2011). It includes the adoption of innovative communication, collaboration and management practices that rely on digital tools and online platforms. School leader e-leadership provides opportunities to improve the relationship with the educational community through the strategic use of digital technologies. Through effective communication, online community building, and the use of digital tools for management and participation, the head teacher can promote an inclusive, collaborative, and student success-oriented school climate (Paletta, 2021).

This presentation aims to present the results of a research conducted during the pandemic period with the focus on head teachers questionnaire on the strategies and tools by which they promoted the relationship and active participation of teachers, students and families even in virtual settings.

The dynamic landscape of teacher education and pedagogy calls for a re-evaluation of educational strategies to ensure they meet contemporary challenges while harnessing the potential of digital innovation. This paper presents an in-depth analysis of the eTwinning initiative within the context of Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Italy, highlighting its contributions to addressing the evolving needs of teacher research, practice, and digital pedagogy. eTwinning, a platform fostering collaboration and project-based learning across European schools, has been integrated into the curriculum of Primary Education Science courses across 26 Italian universities, illustrating a significant paradigm shift towards embracing digital collaboration in educational practices.

By involving teacher candidates in international collaborative projects, eTwinning offers a hands-on approach to understanding and implementing inclusive teaching practices both real and virtual classrooms, addressing the challenges of diversity and differentiation in the classroom. This initiative not only equips future teachers with digital competencies but also fosters a pedagogical perspective attuned to the needs of a diverse student population, promoting equity and inclusion.

Through participation in transnational projects, future teachers gain insights into varied educational systems. This exposure is crucial for developing adaptable, innovative educational policies and practices that respond to the current and future challenges faced by educators worldwide.

The analysis draws on empirical data and case studies from Italian universities to discuss the impact of eTwinning on initial teacher education. The findings suggest that eTwinning represents a forward-looking model of teacher education, offering valuable lessons for empowering future teachers for a digital, sustainable, intercultural and inclusive education.

In the landscape of HE, internationalization has emerged as a cornerstone for fostering global competence and cross-cultural understanding. In this framework, the EU introduced the new tool named “Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs)” which represents a dynamic tool within the Erasmus+ framework, offering a unique blend of virtual and physical mobility experiences.

This abstract delves into the transformative potential of BIPs to enhance the inclusivity of HE mobility programs while simultaneously boosting internationalization efforts, flexibility and scalability of blended learning formats.

BIPs serve as catalysts for inclusive mobility by breaking down traditional barriers to participation. Through innovative pedagogical approaches, including online modules, virtual collaborations, and immersive face-to-face encounters, BIPs accommodate diverse learning styles and needs, thus widening access to international experiences for a broader spectrum of students. By fostering a more inclusive environment, BIPs contribute to the democratization of international mobility, ensuring that students from fewer opportunities can engage meaningfully in global learning experiences.

The integration of virtual components not only enhances accessibility but also facilitates collaboration across borders, support transversal and innovative teaching, achieving educational objectives and promoting intercultural dialogue on a global scale, with reference to the European University Initiative (EUI).

In addition, Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) can be interconnected with Collaborative Online International Learning (COILs) and Microcredentials to further enhance the internationalization and inclusion experience within universities.

In conclusion, by embracing the innovative potential of BIPs, universities can foster a more inclusive and interconnected educational landscape, paving the way for a brighter, more globally engaged future.

How can teaching and learning move beyond the transmission of knowledge from teachers, to engage students inside and outside the classroom? According to Ritchhart (Ritchhart et al., 2011) we learn with others in the midst of authentic activities. However, the acquisition of knowledge in schools is still seen as an individual and highly content-oriented cognitive act, rather than a social, communicative and hermeneutic performance. This paper explores the educational implications of a co-research project based on the MLTV - Making Learning and Thinking Visible approach in four italian schools across educational stages from pre-primary to lower secondary. This approach combines the Visible Thinking (Perkins et al., 2000; Ritchhart et al., 2011) and Making Learning Visible (Krechevsky et al., 2013) frameworks. These methods, developed by Project Zero - Harvard Graduate School of Education, encourage teachers' research approach and collaborative reflection in order to support transformative learning (Mezirow, 1995) and lead students to articulate their own understanding and reasoning, thus promoting a classroom culture of intellectual inquiry. Starting from September 2022 (ongoing), the project involved teachers from different schools in a process of professional development based on recursive teaching activity in class and peer reflection online. Through the presentation of collaborative research design, mentoring process and data collection protocol, the paper will highlight a first contribution provided by the MLTV metodology to the implementation of group learning and social construction of deep knowledge. To this end, both the research strategy and preliminary findings of the project will be described and discussed.

Mentoring between schools is still underused and studied, due to practical challenges and obstacles that often limit its collaborative effectiveness (Armstrong et al., 2021; Rossi et al., 2022). In 2021, EUN, in collaboration with numerous MOE and INDIRE, initiated an international project aimed at studying and experimenting with over 120 schools different forms of mentoring networking capable of intervening in professional development and educational innovation. INDIRE realized 4 clusters in the national territory characterized by the presence of mentor and mentee schools, for a total of 22 institutions (Rossi et al., 2022, Panzavolta et al., 2022). The set of "enabling factors" was obtained through data analysis at multiple levels of action of the school ecosystem: at the level of individual schools and clusters of schools, initially identified at the international level and then validated at the national level. This contribution returns the "enabling factors" identified by the international level through the involvement of a representative number of schools from all MOE, integrating different sources of data (baseline survey, semi-structured interviews, school observation visits, cluster diaries). Subsequently, the factors that contributed to the effectiveness and success of a mentoring-based approach for digital improvement in schools are revisited and validated through an exploratory survey comprising all schools in the involved Italian clusters. The survey allowed to review the priority scale of the factors, identifying the conditions that make some factors more determining, as well as the existence of substantial differences within the various school levels also due to the specificities of the various territorial contexts.

Generally speaking, mentoring in schools is used both as an effective teaching/learning strategy between teacher and learner (Bird et al., 2015 ) and for the support of novice teachers (Mullen & Klimaitis, 2021; Lyons et al., 2019). More rarely it has been used in the context of school communities supporting each other, as in the case of mentoring experienced by the schools involved in the MENSI (Mentoring for School Improvement) project.The project mobilized 120 schools from six countries [Belgium/Flanders, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Portugal] coordinated by the Eun consortium. The main objective of the project was to promote digital innovation in schools through the use of ICT but also, at the institutional level, to achieve some common objectives of the Ministries of Education, such as the involvement of small schools and schools located in marginal contexts with disadvantaged students, and to explore and analyze the effectiveness and sustainability of mentoring approaches. The contribution intends to describe the mentoring models that emerged during the experimentation among the Italian schools, which lasted longer than the European project due to the effectiveness found by the teachers and school leaders involved. Peer-to-peer training took place on-line within the Moodle environment and was supported by INDIRE, which coordinated the methods and fostered the development of a community of practice that is still ongoing, enriched also by visiting moments between schools held in presence.