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The experience of the COVID-19 lockdown has suddenly accelerated the awareness process of the entire university faculty about the need to hybridise their teaching with digital tools (Trentin, Bocconi 2015; Perla, Scarinci, Amati 2021) transforming traditional scholarship of the Italian University in a gigantic field of experimentation of innovative practices (Perla, 2020, p. 562). This has brought out the importance of supporting the quality of university teaching through the commitment to address precise Faculty Development policies, specifically through the development of innovative experiences and the design of paths based on micro-credentials. This contribution reports some actions promoted by the University of Bari aimed at the innovation of university teaching and the results of a pilot course on micro-credentials.

The paper presents a report that discusses the experience of participation of the authors in the EduHack, an online course designed to train university teachers in the use of digital techniques and learning strategies. This study highlights two issues of great interest in pandemic times. The first one is the structure and the organization of the EduHack course with some suggestions related to its improvement; the second one is Drag&Fly, the project idea of an e-learning web platform developed by the authors during the collaborative part of the course. The experience of participation to EduHack course has been analyzed by authors using concepts and categories of analysis widespread in the pragmatic theoretical tradition, enhancing the possibility of changing the teachers' approach to the design and the implementation of a higher education e-learning course.

This paper explores school principals' and teachers' views of the Italian teachers' appraisal system and related indicators. In particular, the research aimed at examining the opinions of school principals and teachers regarding the domains to be considered for teacher appraisal purposes. An investigation involving 37 school principals and 868 in service teachers, from three Italian regions, is presented. The data was collected through a questionnaire and statistically analysed. Findings suggest operationalising new data sources -- specifically students and parent, - is beneficial to evaluate teacher quality as a construct in data- based professional learning communities. They show different positioning: teachers seem to be really inclined to be evaluated, especially by students and parents, while school principals still seem very cautious in entrusting the teachers' appraisal to an external point of view. This paper adds to the existing research showing the perspective of a new teachers' appraisal, inspired by multi-faceted models based on multiple points of view (students, parents, not only principals) and not reduced to simplistic solutions of an accounting type. Furthermore, the study answers the call for research into teachers' appraisal as part of the professional learning actions and in view of more integrated professional leadership.

Letter production through handwriting creates visual experiences that may be important for the development of visual letter perception. We sought to better understand the neural responses to different visual percepts created during handwriting at different levels of experience. Three groups of participants, younger children, older children, and adults, ranging in age from 4.5 to 22 years old, were presented with dynamic and static presentations of their own handwritten letters, static presentations of an age-matched control's handwritten letters, and typeface letters during fMRI. First, data from each group were analyzed through a series of contrasts designed to highlight neural systems that were most sensitive to each visual experience in each age group. We found that younger children recruited ventral-temporal cortex during perception and this response was associated with the variability present in handwritten forms. Older children and adults also recruited ventral-temporal cortex; this response, however, was significant for typed letter forms but not variability. The adult response to typed letters was more distributed than in the children, including ventral-temporal, parietal, and frontal motor cortices. The adult response was also significant for one's own handwritten letters in left parietal cortex. Second, we compared responses among age groups. Compared to older children, younger children demonstrated a greater fusiform response associated with handwritten form variability. When compared to adults, younger children demonstrated a greater response to this variability in left parietal cortex. Our results suggest that the visual perception of the variability present in handwritten forms that occurs during handwriting may contribute to developmental changes in the neural systems that support letter perception.

Parents play a pivotal role in increasing children's physical activity levels and reducing time spent in sedentary activities. Positive role modeling of physical activity behaviors influences the amount of screen time use and engagement in at-home physical activity. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness and perceived usability of a physical activity app designed for children aged 3 to 5. Parents/guardians of preschool-age children were interviewed on the desired content of a physical activity app targeted at children. Following a review of the free physical activity app, participants were asked questions about the content, imagery, resources, and overall user friendliness. Parents suggested that the app be frequently updated with new videos and that more colorful icons that better represent the physical activity videos be added. In addition, they desired access to printable resources such as curriculum cards and coloring pages. Participants identified that the app was easy to follow and they would recommend the app to a friend. The majority of recommendations included improving the presentation of the app so that it looks more appealing and needing the app to be more preschool-age friendly. For the app to remain a resource for physical activity and not a source for sedentary activity, recommendations for more interactive games on the app were not included in the final version.

Questionnaire data from the PIRLS 2006 study in Italy provided a number of indices in order to summarize factors of educational context influencing reading achievement. The aim of the present paper is to study the relationships between school factors, teacher factors, family factors, student factors and reading achievement by means of multilevel regression analysis. Results show that pupils' attainment in reading is significantly related to: (1) home educational resources (home/student level effect); (2) parents' attitudes toward reading (home/student level effect); (3) students' attitudes toward reading; (4) students' reading self-concept; and (5) teacher career satisfaction (school/teacher level). (Contains 3 tables.)

Background: Social norms posters usually contain a normative message, branding, campaign tagline and sponsoring coalition/contact information. There are limited data on which campaign components promote recognition of Campus Alcohol Coalitions (CAC). Purpose: To determine the most effective media channels/incentives to promote recognition of CAC and if time exposed to social norms campaign influenced students' recognition of CAC. Methods: A quasi-experimental, time-series design was used with stratified random assignment of 21 residence units to one of three intervention groups and assessment of awareness of CAC at four phases. A sample of 838 campus residents completed intercept interviews across four time phases and three residence groups. Results: After introduction of campaign materials, the percentage of students reporting awareness of CAC increased significantly from 25% to 77% and remained high across the later three study phases. Posters/flyers were identified as the major source of CAC information across all phases of campaign. Discussion: With limited budgets, it is important to identify cost-saving measures during the implementation of a social norms campaign while providing evidenced-based intervention strategies to address underage/high-risk drinking. Translation to Health Education Practice: Students' awareness of CAC can be effectively promoted via social norms campaigns especially through posters/flyers. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

Previous research has suggested that handwriting letters may be an important exerciser to facilitate early letter understanding. Experimental studies to date, however, have not investigated whether this effect is general to any visual-motor experience or specific to handwriting letters. In the present work, we addressed this issue by testing letter knowledge using three measures in preschool children before and after a school-based intervention. Participants were divided into four training groups (letter-writing, digit-writing, letter-viewing, digit-viewing) that either wrote letters or digits or viewed letters or digits, twice a week for 6 weeks. We hypothesized that the visual-motor experience of handwriting letters or digits would improve letter knowledge more than viewing experience and that this effect would not be specific to training with letters. Our results demonstrated that the writing groups improved in letter recognition--one component of letter knowledge--significantly more than the viewing groups. The letter-writing group did not improve significantly more than the digit-writing group. These results suggest that visual-motor practice with any symbol could lead to increases in letter recognition. We interpret this novel finding as suggesting that any handwriting will increase letter recognition in part because it facilitates gains in visual-motor coordination.

The present study analyzed the factor validity of the Patterns of Adaptive Learning Scale (PALS) to assess students' perceptions of mathematics classroom goal structures. Participants were N = 7,773 Italian students aged from 11 to 15 years (M = 11.97, SD = 0.50). The confirmatory factor analysis replicated a three-factor structure (i.e., mastery, performance-avoidance, and performance-approach goals) of the scale. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses supported configural, metric, and scalar measurement invariance of the scale across gender. Moreover, the students' mathematics achievement was positively related to mastery goals and negatively associated with performance-avoidance goals. The use of the scale may help teachers to understand the relations between classroom goal structures and mathematics achievement during middle school.

This paper reflects upon the relevance of Buddhism to counselling in general and to career counseling in particular by discussing a program implemented at an international school in Hong Kong. The authors provide an analysis of the pertinent literature related to relevant concepts within Buddhism. This topic has not yet been adequately researched and the paper therefore helps to fill a gap in our awareness of how Buddhism might contribute to career counseling in high schools.

This article reports the findings of a qualitative study that investigates why some local Hong Kong parents decide to give up local education and send their children to international schools in Hong Kong. Data were gathered from 25 parents across eight selected school sites grouped as four cases based on the continental origins of those international schools. Data were analyzed by applying the inductive data analysis model of Miles and Huberman ("Qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook." Sage, London 1994). Ten propositions were developed within four emergent fields. The propositions developed led to recommendations for practice and for future studies, which may have the potential to influence changes to education policy to better meet the needs of local Hong Kong students.

The Obama Administration's most recent regulation on designation renewal of Early/Head Start grantees opens opportunities for early childhood programs in some communities to compete with existing grantees for the federal funding. Understanding some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into Head Start may be helpful to centers deciding whether to enter local grant competitions and make the commitment to serving the most vulnerable of all children and their families. The author's aim in this article is to be clear about just what it means to run a Head Start program. She says they welcome to their community those who are committed to excellence in serving the most disadvantaged children and they embrace the President's goal of offering those children the highest-quality early learning experiences possible. For child care and early childhood education centers that are making decisions right now about whether to apply for Head Start grants, it is her hope that they benefit from this transparency and make their decisions, always, in the best interests of children.

Recent social movement activities--in particular, transnationally-coordinated global justice mobilizations--require participants to work across substantial differences in languages, cultural backgrounds, political visions, and organizing traditions. Negotiating such differences is an active, adaptive, and learning-intensive process. In contrast to more institutionalized settings such as schools and workplaces, where tropes like "multiculturalism" figure prominently in treatments of "difference," I argue that knowledge production in social movement settings cultivates a more intensely relational and dynamic disposition towards differences. (Contains 10 notes.)

Research described oral texts produced by second- and third- generation bilingual Chicano Spanish speakers when required to carry out a set of functions in only one of their available codes. Analysis focuses on characteristics of planned, noninteractive spoken language produced in Spanish by university students in a classroom setting, compared with Spanish monolinguals of comparable age, education, social background. (Author/MSE)

Exchange invited some of the leading trend watchers in the arena of director training to share their insights on the current state and future directions in this country. This article presents the authors' insights on the directions in center director training. They also share their views on whether the amount of and quality of training out there now is sufficient to meet the needs of all directors or not.

Raising a child with a disability often makes it difficult to find child care. Many families learn that child care programs are simply unable to meet the special needs of their children, while specialized facilities have limited space, and specialized private care is expensive. To meet the needs of all children, Head Start and Early Head Start programs across the country work to enroll children with disabilities; to screen all enrolling children for physical and cognitive development; to fully include all children in classroom settings; and to support families in advocating for their children. Head Start and Early Head Start programs serve nearly 100,000 children with disabilities every school year. These children face challenges ranging from vision and hearing deficits to physical impairments and emotional disorders. For all of these children, and for their families, Head Start is a window of opportunity for success in school and in life.