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Understanding the variables that promote pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) can be useful for sustainable development. Research has shown that several factors, including emotions, can influence PEBs. Eco-empathy and helplessness beliefs toward the environment (HBTE) can facilitate or discourage PEBs. To understand the role of these factors, it may be interesting to study their connection with different emotion regulation strategies suggested by Self-Determination Theory. The current study sought to test a model that could explain the associations of dysregulation, suppressive regulation, and integrative regulation with eco-empathy, HBTE, and PEBs. In a sample of 305 emerging adults, we found an association between integrative regulation and eco-empathy, dysregulation, and HBTE. The analyses revealed an indirect pathway from integrative regulation to PEBs through eco-empathy, suggesting the need to implement educational and informational programmes that consider the impact of emotional constraints on PEB implementation in the younger generation.

Despite growing interest in evaluating the social and emotional learning of students and the development of standardized assessment tools for this purpose, there remains a dearth of validated instruments for evaluating teachers' social and emotional skills. We set out to address this knowledge gap by investigating the psychometric characteristics of the Social-Emotional Competence Teacher Rating Scale (SECTRS) questionnaire, an instrument originally developed and validated in North America. Participants were 572 teachers from Italy (n=324), Latvia (n=139), and Portugal (n=109) ranging from 40 to 59 years of age. We performed confirmatory factor analysis procedures to validate a four-factor model measuring Teacher-student relationships, Emotion regulation, Social awareness, and Interpersonal relationships. The data supported this factorial structure, with a total of 14 items included in the final model. The outcomes of a multi-group comparison indicated that the model exhibited partial invariance, up to and including metric invariance, across the three cultural settings. We discuss these findings in relation to selecting appropriate instruments for assessing the social and emotional skills of teachers in different cultural contexts.

The present study aims to identify the most productive countries, journals, authors, institutions and the most used keywords in the field of special education during 2011-2020, based on the WoS database. The widespread effects of the papers and how they are related were analyzed with the bibliometric analysis method. The findings of the study showed that the USA is inarguably the most productive country, followed by England and Australia. On the other hand, there was a very strong positive correlation (r = 0.929) between the number of papers published by countries and their h-index, a similar finding was also found to be present between the countries' h-index and GDP per capita (r = 0.790). Moreover, it was found that the journals with the highest quartile (Q1 and Q2) in the field of special education published significantly more papers than the journals with the lowest quartile (Q3 and Q4). Matson, JL (USA), Sigafoos, J (New Zealand) and Lancioni, GE (Italy) were determined as the most prolific authors, respectively. Autism, intellectual disability, and Down syndrome were the phrases most frequently used as keywords. Our findings provide key information regarding the developments that the research direction of special education field has recently taken. This study also serves a potential roadmap for future studies.

Italy has recently and rapidly become a country of immigration with an increase in school contexts, especially of second-generation children, leading to the need to deal with the issue of inclusion. This contribution aims to enclose the scientific literature that addresses the inclusion of children with a migrant background within the national school context. After analyzing the ministerial documents and the literature that address this issue, the school context at the local level will be investigated, emphasizing the challenges that teachers must face within increasingly multicultural school contexts, in which they must cope with the numerous needs deriving from the relationship with CNI families and the management of cultural diversity at school.

Undergraduate teacher candidates participated in a faculty-led, short-term study abroad to Reggio Emilia in Italy to further their knowledge about the educational philosophy used within the school setting and for the purpose of examining how philosophy might be applied in school settings in the United States. The faculty-led, short-term study abroad included two days of travel, two days of sightseeing, and four days of lecture, atelier experiences, visits to infant-toddler centers and preschools, and encounters with atelieristas, pedagogistas, and Reggio educators. Undergraduate teacher candidates (hereafter referred to as teacher candidates) met three times prior to travel to discuss philosophy and travel arrangements. Each teacher candidate was provided a journal to be used for note-taking and reflections while in Reggio Emilia. Teacher candidates used a thinking routine, Wish-Wonder-Wow, to provide structure for notes and reflections. While in Reggio Emilia, teacher candidates shared reflections nightly in a group format. This study examines 12 teacher candidates' perspectives from these study abroad experiences that occurred over a four-year period from 2016-2019. The researchers include a faculty member leading the study abroad for two of the years as well as another faculty member who has experienced the Reggio Emilia setting in Italy. At the time of the study, the teacher candidates who participated in the study abroad were student teaching or had graduated and were teachers with one to three of years of experience. Their responses to a survey (n=12) and focus group interviews (n=7) are viewed through the lenses of the four factors in Lundy's (2007) model of including children in decision-making and focused on space, voice, audience, and influence in reference to Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (United Nations General Assembly, 2002). Through this study, the researchers learned teacher candidates' thinking and philosophical struggles with classroom implementation. Survey and focus group data indicated that short-term study abroad enhanced teacher candidates' understanding and appreciation of the Reggio Emilia Approach to Education. However, teacher candidates felt a lack of support and guidance as a new teacher in being able to incorporate the philosophical beliefs into their classrooms. This proved challenging to them, and the participants lacked confidence in implementing change within a school setting.

In the last decade, Europe has welcomed numerous migrants and refugees from Arab countries. The presence of these migrants and refugees in schools has posed the challenge of unfamiliar realities for teaching staff. The issue has been addressed from the perspectives of sociology to psychology, providing insights into the nature of intercultural education. Few studies have delved into pupils' cultural backgrounds, and the history of one's country of origin is seldom regarded as a decisive factor in the formation of identity. The Arabic-speaking Moroccan and Syrian communities are the most significant and have interesting histories and education systems. Using Nussbaum's (2010) multifactorial analysis, this research aims to better understand the educational background of Arabic-speaking pupils, focusing on humanities and religious education of those from Morocco and Syria. The methodology embodies qualitative empirical research conducted in Europe that addressed the main factor identified by Nussbaum (2010). The results show the education experience of Syrian and Moroccan pupils was affected by their home country education policies, especially where minority and relationship issues with Europe, the West and Israel were concerned.

Nowadays, we face a profound fragmentation of knowledge, which is addressed in distinctive ways, conforming to the specifics of each field of knowledge and having a specific lexicon and ways to interpret reality. To better understand and communicate the complexity of the reality of motor and sports sciences in Italy, it is necessary to study its ontology based on a holistic and comprehensive approach such as System Thinking (ST). So, this preliminary review aimed to verify the coherence of terminology used by Italian academics (who study methodologies related to teaching) and practical communities (who live the reality of daily teaching) in motor and sports sciences, specifically regarding the didactic of physical and sports education. For this purpose, according to Design Based Research (DBR), a first investigation of the interpretative semantics of the discipline's specific terms was accomplished with the support of multiple sources of information such as documents, databases, and brainstorming performed by experts (representing the guiding team and stakeholders from all considered communities). Moreover, the frequency of some terms and keywords considered in European (ERC) and Italian (CUN) legislation was assessed to contextualize better the impact of common practice community keywords on the scientific and regulatory community. Successively, the studies that analyzed the terms from 2000 to 2020 in the leading scientific search engines (SCOPUS and Web of Science) were also investigated. Results indicate that in the CUN and ERC areas, there is a total absence of the most relevant lemma to the community of practice. Furthermore, significant terms such as play, sports education, psychomotricity, and gymnastics are less considered or unconsidered in the specific scientific and didactic fields. Possible solutions for a specific semantic model to reduce the gap are finally hypothesized and presented.

As humanity reaches the 5.0 industrial revolution, education plays a critical role in boosting the quality of human resources. This paper reports bibliometric research on emerging TiP during 1993-2022 in the educational field to analyse its development on any level of education during the last three decades. This study employed a Scopus database. The findings are that the trend of TiP publication in educational fields has tended to increase every year during the past three decades and conference paper became the most published document type, the USA is the country which produces the most publications; "Students" being the most occurrences keyword and total link strength. The publication of the TiP is ranked to the Quartile 1, which implies that a publication with the cited performance is a publication with credibility because the publisher has a good reputation. Researchers can find the topics most relevant to other metadata sources such as Web of Science, Publish, and Perish.

Immunization is a highly cost-effective investment in health, proven to be an effective tool in controlling and eliminating dangerous infectious diseases. Health science students require evidence-based knowledge to tackle challenges in healthcare, particularly in the field of vaccination. The aim of the current study is to asses students' knowledge on vaccinations and further explore their feedback after attending Educating Vaccination Competence web-based course (EDUVAC web-based course). Students from five Higher Educational Institutes voluntarily participated in the EDUVAC web-based course. The course provided various study materials, including PowerPoint presentations, videos, quizzes, texts, and references to reputable websites. It also offered small assignments and self-tests for self-evaluation. An online questionnaire was available to students before and after they completed the EDUVAC web-based course. The mean knowledge score on vaccines increased significantly after the EDUVAC web-based course (p<0.001). The majority of the students (95%) felt that the web-based course has benefitted them for their future career and 96.4% would encourage other students to attend the EDUVAC web-based course. Overall, our findings suggest that EDUVAC is a valuable resource for those seeking to enhance their understanding of vaccination.

In light of the debates on the "feminisation of religion" that have animated historiography, during the Restoration one can distinguish two educational strategies towards the education of women. On the one hand, we can make out a symbolic system in which women, whether religious or married, fulfilled values that the male part of society seemed to deny or have forgotten. The same period, especially through the social action of the new religious congregations, saw an activity and a visibility that could not be attributed to a political dimension, but rather to a pre-political one. The relationship between women and the sacred conferred legitimacy on the reclusion of women, that is, the need for a confinement which constituted the physical and symbolic element of the continuity between the education given in monastic institutions and that of many nineteenth-century boarding schools for young women. Women's action outside the classroom belonged more to the sphere of the symbolic than to that of the useful, and, in any case, were founded on an essentially individual type of relationship.

This article casts light on informal caregiving, an essential aspect of the international postgraduate researcher (PGR) experience, but which is often invisible in literature and discourses on international education. Drawing from qualitative semi-structured interviews with international PGRs in a British university, it highlights their dual role as care recipients and lesser known caregivers across transnational and local spaces. It gives insights into the forms and dynamics of care that they give to and receive from family, friends and others, uncovering the emotional and affective aspects of undertaking a postgraduate research degree overseas which impact on their mental wellbeing. The findings have implications for the improvement of university support for international PGRs which has relevance for the wider international student community.

How did the highly skilled Italians who chose to live abroad benefit from participation in the Erasmus program? How did they define and describe their experience with Erasmus, especially advantages and disadvantages? After conducting 51 semistructured and in-depth online interviews with highly skilled, spatially mobile, emigrant Italians, we used Atlas.ti to analyze each phrase, word, and context in which "Erasmus" appeared. More than two thirds of the interviewees had experienced the program, a substantial number of whom wanted to work in international environments and achieved their goals. A few returned to the city or country of their first Erasmus mobility experience. We argue that the mobility component of the Erasmus program provided the confidence required to be independent and the insight needed to make international comparisons. It also perpetuates the desire to travel abroad (to become spatially mobile) as participants sought additional international environments after the first Erasmus mobility experience, gaining additional self-confidence as a result.

With more and more literature on international student mobility and migration (ISM), one area of focus has often been overlooked: the impacts of student visas and study permits. Examined through an institutionalist framework highlighting the influences of institutions on individuals and their agency, this study describes how visa and study permit policies pervades international students' lives in a variety of ways. Interview data collected from 40 international students who study in Australia, Canada, and the United States were analyzed to uncover themes from these host countries. Drawing on these interviews to outline the concept of ISM policy pervasion, the findings of this study show that visa policies affect international students in wide ranging ways. In addition to providing empirical evidence for ISM policy pervasion, this article also lays the groundwork for further studies that delve into the practical impacts of student visa and study permit policies around the world.

Gambling disorder is a dramatic phenomenon that is spreading, in Italy as well as around the world, among younger and younger people every year. Activities in mathematics lessons at school can help pre-vent it, but it is necessary to know with which attitudes and beliefs students approach such mathematics lessons, as well as the role of the social environment. Thus, in this study, within a sample of secondary school students who experienced gambling at various levels of addiction (from none to high), we investigate the role of: mathematics-related beliefs, emotions, social relationships, attitudes towards gambling and behaviour, through a set of calibrated self-report multiple-choice questionnaires. This represents for us an opportunity to understand the complex relations among affective variables in mathematics educational activities aimed at preventing gambling disorder. For example, we found a positive correlation between mathematics-related beliefs and gambling frequency, and a negative correlation between emotional regulation and gambling frequency. Hence, we can say that affective variables such as emotions and beliefs have an effect on gambling behavior.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted significant changes in education, including a widespread transition from traditional, in-person instruction to online learning, which has also affected music conservatories. This study investigates the relationship between social outcome expectations and teacher satisfaction with remote education (SRE) among conservatory music professors during the pandemic. Rooted in the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), the study examines whether technostress mediates this relationship and whether the intention to use information and communication technology (ICT) moderates it. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 108 Italian conservatory teachers through an online self-report questionnaire. The results indicate a negative indirect effect of social outcome expectations on teacher satisfaction through technostress. However, surprisingly, the direct effect was positive and stronger. The study suggests that social expectations lead to technostress. Still, they also present an opportunity for music educators to embrace the challenge of remote education and increase their satisfaction with it.

As highlighted in the literature, one of the main difficulties in mathematics is the management of different semiotic representations. This difficulty occurs in verticals throughout schooling and is often an obstacle to the proper learning process of mathematics. The present study aims to investigate the different facets of these difficulties with regard to mathematical tasks in secondary school. In particular, questions from Italian large-scale mathematics assessments are analyzed and interpreted through the theoretical lens of Duval's (1993) theory. Statistical analyses on a robust national sample allow a framing of the main difficulties and provide valuable information in this field.

The cognitive reflection test (CRT) assesses an individual's capacity to restrain impulsive and intuitive responses and to engage in critical reflection on mathematical problems. The literature indicates that several factors influence students' performance on CRT, including gender, age, and prior knowledge of mathematics. In this study, our objective was to investigate the correlation between CRT scores and students' achievements in both mathematics and physics. We conducted our research with a sample of 150 Italian high school students, and the findings revealed a positive predictive relationship between CRT scores and students' performance in both mathematics and physics. Furthermore, we employed an ordinal logistic regression to evaluate the impact of CRT scores, gender, and school level on students' achievements in mathematics and physics. The results showed that both CRT scores and school level had statistically significant effects on predicting these achievements. In contrast, gender emerged as a statistically significant factor only in predicting students' mathematics achievements.

One of the main objectives of international large-scale assessments is to make comparisons between different countries, education policies, education systems, or subgroups. One of the main criteria for making comparisons between different groups is to ensure measurement invariance. The purpose of this study was to test the measurement invariance of the mathematics intrinsic motivation scale across 14 countries. For this purpose, the "students like learning mathematics" scale, which measures intrinsic motivation for mathematics, was included in the TIMSS 2019 cycle. The study sample consisted of a total of 152992 students, 70192 4th grade and 82800 8th grade students from 14 different countries participating in the TIMSS 2019 cycle. Measurement invariance was tested with Multi-Group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MG-CFA) and Alignment Method. The mathematics intrinsic motivation scale provides only configural invariance according to MG-CFA at the 4th grade level, whereas the scale provides approximate invariance according to the alignment method. At the 8th grade level, the scale provides configural and metric invariance according to MG-CFA, whereas the scale provides approximate invariance according to the alignment method. The results indicate that the mathematics intrinsic motivation scale provides approximate measurement invariance at both grade levels and that comparisons can be made between the scores of the identified countries.

Despite comics' popularity and cultural significance in Italy, its integration into Italian libraries has been slow, problematic, and uneven. This is reflected in the scarcity of academic research on the topic, which demands further in-depth exploration. In the context of Italian libraries, characterized by chronic underfunding and staffing shortages, comics might be perceived as a low priority. However, as essential cultural institutions, libraries must strive to reflect both the contemporary era and the evolving reading habits of their audience. Comics, in this regard, could prove to be -- and in part already are -- a critical resource, a 'booster' for libraries. This article aims to provide a broad and introductory framework for understanding the relationship between comics and libraries in Italy. It will specifically examine the challenges and opportunities associated with this incomplete integration, addressing specific issues such as cataloging, displaying, managing, and promoting comics collections. The first section will explore the historical context of the troubled relationship between Italian libraries and comics, in line with crucial international studies. Following this historical contextualization, the second part will examine the challenges faced by Italian librarians in creating and managing comics collections, including the enduring perception of comics as a medium primarily for children. The research employs a multifaceted approach, combining bibliographic analysis, an anonymous survey, and data from a conference co-organized by the researcher. This research examines the Italian library system's fragmented approach to comics. It aims to understand librarians' perceptions of the medium and how they integrate comics into their collections. It offers insights to enhance the dynamic relationship between comics and libraries in an evolving society.

ChatGPT has become a prominent tool for fostering personalized and interactive learning with the advancements in AI technology. This study analyzes 212 academic research articles indexed in the Scopus database as of July 2023. It maps the trajectory of educational studies on ChatGPT, identifying primary themes, influential authors, and contributing institutions. By employing bibliometric indicators and network analysis, the study explores collaboration patterns, citation trends, and the evolution of research interests. The findings show the exponential growth of interest in leveraging ChatGPT for educational purposes and provide insights into the specific educational domains and contexts that have garnered the most attention. Furthermore, the study reveals the collaborative dynamics and intellectual foundations shaping the field by examining co-authorship and citation networks. This bibliometric analysis contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the current state of ChatGPT research in education, offering researchers and practitioners valuable insights into evolving trends and potential future directions for this innovative aspect of AI and learning.

Ensuring equity in education is a goal for sustainable development. Among the factors that hinder equity, socioeconomic status (SES) has the highest impact on learning Mathematics. This paper addresses the issue of equity at the secondary school level by proposing an approach based on adopting automatic formative assessment (AFA). Carefully designed mathematical activities with interactive feedback were experimented with a sample of 299 students of grade 8 for a school year. A control group of 257 students learned the same topics using traditional methodologies. Part of the sample belonged to low SES. The learning achievement was assessed through pre-and post-tests to understand if the adoption of AFA impacted learning and whether the results depended on the students' SES. The results show a positive effect of the experimentation (effect size: 0.42). Moreover, the effect size of the experimentation restricted to the low-SES group is high (0.77). In the treatment group, the results do not depend on SES, while in the control group, they do, suggesting that AFA is an equitable approach while traditional instruction risks perpetuating inequalities.

International student mobility (ISM) prepares young people for the challenges of global and multicultural environments. However, disadvantaged students have lower participation rates in mobility schemes and, hence, benefit less from their positive impacts on career progression. Therefore, policymakers aim to make mobility programs more inclusive. Nevertheless, it is far from clear how policy design can achieve this aim. This study investigates factors driving inequality in international student mobility uptake. The study's novelty is twofold: first, in contrast to most existing studies it does not only investigate individual but also university characteristics as possible drivers of unequal uptake. This is possible due to the use of rich graduate survey and administrative data merged with university-level European Tertiary Education Register (ETER) data. Second, the study compares results across four European countries. Results show that the socio-economic mobility gap remains still sizable even when taking university characteristics into account. However, universities matter considerably and especially student compositions in terms of socio-economic background and ability contribute to unequal ISM uptake. As a consequence, intergovernmental policies should aim to distribute grants and mobility opportunities more equally across all universities, independent of their student composition.

Learning to descend stairs requires motor and cognitive capacities on the part of infants and opportunities for practice and assurance of safety offered by caregivers. The American Academy of Pediatrics prescribes the age strategy to teach toddlers to safely descend stairs but without much consideration for individual differences in infants' skills or caregivers' techniques. The purpose of this study was to observe the natural ways in which caregivers teach infants to descend stairs at home and the extent to which infants abide. Of particular interest was to examine the dynamic nature of caregivers' teaching and infants' learning over the session with attention to individual differences. Dyads (N = 59) were videorecorded on Zoom for 10 min interacting on stairs at home in the United States, Brazil, Canada, Italy, and Spain. Infants (n = 30 girls, 29 boys; 13-month-olds ± 1 week) were novice walkers (M = 2.04 months walking experience). Caregivers used a variety of teaching strategies and focused on "backing" and "scooting." Infants were more likely to heed caregivers' guidance when caregivers provided hands-on support and verbal encouragement suggesting infants were engaged and responsive to caregivers' overtures. Infants' walking experience predicted change in descent strategy over the session. Although infants did not show evidence of learning over the session, consistent caregiver instruction suggested caregivers were persistent, if not effective, teachers. Teaching and learning motor skills in a potentially risky task creates a unique opportunity for interaction, allowing infants and caregivers to learn from one another.

In Italy, parents are free to choose the primary school for their children without restrictions imposed by catchment areas. This freedom of choice, inspired by quasi-market mechanisms, aims to foster competition between schools and raise educational standards. Analysing the case of Milan using regression models and administrative data for the 2015-16 school year, we study the factors associated with the probability that parents choose a school different from the one closest to where they live. We focus on both push factors (the characteristics of local schools) and pull factors (the features of chosen schools). The findings indicate that parents select schools which have a lower proportion of immigrant pupils and higher socio-economic status of the student body. On the other hand, school performance in standardised tests is not statistically associated with parents' decisions to opt out of local schools, nor does it emerge as a feature of the schools most likely to attract non-local students after accounting for the socio-economic composition of school intake. The resulting picture shows that affluent Italian parents implement avoidance strategies to avoid schools attended by a high proportion of immigrant or lower-class students--with the potential of fostering segregation and concentrations of disadvantaged groups.

Scholars have argued that, on average, immigrant students are 'optimists' and have higher educational aspirations than non-migrant students after accounting for students' socio-economic background and educational performance. However, ethnic minority groups, which proxy the different origin backgrounds of migrants, may show mixed findings in terms of educational aspirations. This study aims to analyse the lyceum (the most theoretical school in Italy) and university aspirations of migrant-origin students and their Italian counterparts, enrolled respectively in Italian lower (Grade 8: age 13) and upper secondary state schools (Grades 9-11: ages 14-16). The analyses are based on data from the Italian Integration of the Second Generation survey conducted during the 2014/15 school year. Our results show that students having Chinese, Moroccan, Moldovan and other non-European Union Eastern European origins assume the lowest levels of lyceum aspiration after also considering compositional effects. Conversely, the largest proportion of migrants attending school in Grades 9-11 have higher levels of university aspiration compared to non-migrants. When considering the role of migratory generation, lyceum and university aspirations are positively associated with the acculturation process of migrants. Furthermore, we found that high family expectations, social relationships and self-perception benefits of studying have positive associations with both lyceum and university aspirations, especially among migrants.

Anatomical education is pivotal for medical students, and innovative technologies like augmented reality (AR) are transforming the field. This study aimed to enhance the interactive features of the "AEducAR" prototype, an AR tool developed by the University of Bologna, and explore its impact on human anatomy learning process in 130 second-year medical students at the International School of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Bologna. An interdisciplinary team of anatomists, maxillofacial surgeons, biomedical engineers, and educational scientists collaborated to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the study's objectives. Students used the updated version of "AEducAR," named "AEducAR 2.0," to study three anatomical topics, specifically the orbit zone, facial bones, and mimic muscles. "AEducAR 2.0" offered two learning activities: one explorative and one interactive. Following each activity, students took a test to assess learning outcomes. Students also completed an anonymous questionnaire to provide background information and offer their perceptions of the activity. Additionally, 10 students participated in interviews for further insights. The results demonstrated that "AEducAR 2.0" effectively facilitated learning and students' engagement. Students totalized high scores in both quizzes and declared to have appreciated the interactive features that were implemented. Moreover, interviews shed light on the interesting topic of blended learning. In particular, the present study suggests that incorporating AR into medical education alongside traditional methods might prove advantageous for students' academic and future professional endeavors. In this light, this study contributes to the growing research emphasizing the potential role of AR in shaping the future of medical education.

For centuries, the collaboration between higher education and industry (or academic engagement) has become an exciting topic for all related stakeholders, such as researchers, policymakers, or entrepreneurs. Nonetheless, there has yet to be any comprehensive understanding of the extant literature on this topic. Motivated by this gap, this study applies the bibliometric method to review all related documents of academic engagement indexed in the Scopus database between 1978 and 2021. The results showed that the period from 2018 to 2021 identified itself as a golden era with the palpable attention of scholars who contributed to approximately 80% of the related topic. The countries ranked in the top five with dominant publications include the US, the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany. The co-word analysis also recognized technology transfer, research and development, and entrepreneurial university and university-industry relations as the key topics focused on academic engagement works of literature.

Background: This study explores the impact of the pandemic on children's mental health. It examined the understanding of parents regarding their children's mental condition and their ability to identify issues, 2 years post the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Using a cross-sectional design, 507 Italian parents reported on their youngest child aged between 2 and 17, totaling 507 children. The outcomes focused on were parental perception of children's mental health deterioration, scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) above the clinical cut-off, and parental under-recognition of mental health issues. Descriptive analyses and multivariable logistic regression models were executed (significance at p < 0.05). Results: Parents were 88.1% women (median age 41 years, interquartile range [IQR] = 36-47). Their children were 50.3% female [median age 6 years (IQR = 4-11)]. The data revealed 21.1% of parents perceived a deterioration in their children's mental health, while 44.2% had SDQ scores above the cut-off. Parental under-recognition of mental issues was found in 20.1% of cases. Significant correlations were found between parental perception of deterioration, SDQ scores, and factors like parental mental distress and children's sleep issues. Implications: The findings suggest that schools and verified websites can serve as critical conduits for providing parents with reliable information. By promoting early identification and intervention, such mechanisms can help ensure mental health equity for children. Conclusions: The research highlights the effect of the pandemic on children's mental health and the issue of parental under-recognition. The results underscore the importance of public health initiatives that enhance mental health information accessibility and reliability for parents.

Background: The Pediatric Eating Assessment Tool (PEDI-EAT-10) is a reliable and valid tool for rapid identification of dysphagia in patients aged 18 months to 18 years. Aims: To translate and adapt the PEDI-EAT-10 into the Italian language and evaluate its validity and reliability. Methods & Procedures: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation of the tool consisted of five stages: initial translation, synthesis of the translations, back translation, expert committee evaluation and test of the prefinal version. The internal consistency of the translated tool was analysed in a clinical group composed of 200 patients with special healthcare needs aged between 18 months and 18 years. They were consecutively enrolled at the Rare Disease Unit, Paediatrics Department, Fondazione Policlinico Agostino Gemelli-IRCCS, Rome. For test-retest reliability, 50 caregivers filled in the PEDI-EAT-10 questionnaire for a second time after a 2-week period. Construct validity was established by comparing data obtained from patients with data from healthy participants (n = 200). The study was approved by the local ethics committee. Outcomes & Results: Psychometric data obtained from patients (104 M; mean age = 8.08 ± 4.85 years; median age = 7 years) showed satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's a = 0.89) and test-retest reliability (Pearson r = 0.99; Spearman r = 0.96). A total of 30% of children were classified as having a high risk of penetration/aspiration. The Italian PEDI-EAT-10 mean total score of the clinical group was significantly different from that resulting from healthy participants. Conclusions & Implications: The PEDI-EAT-10 was successfully translated into Italian, validated and found to be a reliable one-page rapid screening tool to identify dysphagia in children and adolescents with special needs.

The paper examines how individual motivations, the role of the supervisor and gender influence the early career path of doctorate holders. We investigate PhD graduates' occupational outcomes beyond academia in the framework of current literature on the oversupply of PhD holders and labor market constraints. Our analysis relies on two unique datasets. The first, at the national level, includes microdata from the Italian National Institute of Statistics regarding about 41,000 graduates who account for over 70% of the population of 6 cohorts surveyed for the period 2004-2014. The other dataset is from a single university, and resulted from an original survey of 760 PhD holders who earned their doctorates from the University of Turin in 2007-2017. We find that PhD holders' motivation towards science is associated with their subsequent employment in academia or in other research and non-research jobs. Sponsoring support in early career and the supervisor's propensity for basic research also play a role in the future academic career path. Gender differences in type of occupation, however, continue to persist even taking motivations and the supervisor's role into account.

The widespread adoption of school autonomy with accountability reforms in education has generated debate regarding the relationship between autonomy, innovation and accountability. While at the policy design level, these three elements are highly related, several authors highlight the contradictions among them. By analyzing key documents and interviews, this paper aims to identify the program ontology behind the current Italian National Evaluation System (SNV), with a focus on the way in which autonomy, accountability and innovation have been conceptualized and linked together. The paper also aims to explore whether pitfalls and/or tensions exist that might hamper the achievement of the SNV goals. The findings highlight the peculiarities of the Italian autonomy with accountability system, which has resulted from the involvement of different stakeholders in the design and implementation of the reforms. The findings also reveal contradictions regarding some of its premises. Various rationales (improvement, efficiency, equity and transparency) emerge that seem to have acted as drivers of the reforms, however, the influence of globalizing discourses on international competition and the benefits of datafication also appears significant. A number of contextual aspects are finally considered which hamper the expected change mechanisms, highlighting the discontinuous ground in which such policy "dispositifs" operate.

In the years 2015-2018, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Italian Ministry of Defense proposed the joint initiative "Space for Your Future. The ISS: Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia" in partnership with the Italian Space Agency. It was a competition addressed to secondary school students and aimed at developing innovative experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station, whose acronym (ISS) is the same of the Latin words "Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia". Regardless of the odds of winning, "Space for Your Future" became a successful STEM educational project implemented in numerous schools. We illustrate how that Astronomy contest fostered a valid constructivist learning, a fruitful participatory science, and vast scientific research. We discuss, in particular, the activities of two teams of pupils from the Scientific High School "Giovanni Battista Grassi" in Latina (seat of the Planetarium "Livio Gratton") who participated within the thematic area No. 3 "Test the Sciences in Space". They all worked on chemical tests, suitable for the ISS microgravity, under the tutoring of Francesco Giuliano (Province Manager of the IYA 2009 and the IYC 2011 in Latina). The key reference is a talk given in the 104th annual congress of the Italian Physical Society at the University of Calabria (September 17-21, 2018) together with an invited lecture held in the 13th European Researchers' Night by Frascati Scienza (September 28, 2018).

Access to youth culture by adolescents has changed as new communication technologies have found new ways of offering media content to viewers. Adolescents today access more content more frequently. However, the greater their exposure, the higher the likelihood of this leading to risk behaviors such as access to pornography, plagiarism, piracy and copyright violation. The aim of the present study is, therefore, to determine the frequency of these risk behaviors linked to the Internet content accessed and downloaded by minors, analyzing this variable in accordance with gender, age and context (Spain, Italy and Greece). We analyzed the responses provided by 2,529 adolescents (1,264 girls/1,262 boys) aged between 10 and 17 years from Spain, Italy and Greece. In general, adolescent boys, especially those aged 16 and 17 years, reported engaging more frequently in risk behaviors, particularly in reference to accessing youth culture content. Likewise, in terms of context, the highest means were observed among participants from Attica (Greece) and the Madrid Region (Spain), whereas the lowest means were observed in the Marche Region (Italy) and Navarre (Spain). The results revealed statistically significant differences in terms of gender, age and context. Thereby, they highlight the importance of focusing on media education from a gender perspective.

Studying abroad in general is beneficial academically, socially, and linguistically for students. This qualitative study is using narrative inquiry to uncover personal experiences of three Indonesian undergraduate students as they sail to study abroad through IISMA to the University of Padua, Italy in 2021. The experiences and meaning the students develop are discussed through interviews and personal notes. The data is categorized based on the research questions about what and how the experiences of study abroad influence cross-cultural understanding and English skills development. Before departing, aiming to study abroad and the preparation is the most critical. Meanwhile, during the program, cultural and academic obstacles is inevitable. Upon returning to Indonesia, students developed a stronger sense of self-confidence to pursue another degree and career advancement. This study concludes that individual narratives is an important tool to empower learning process for students studying abroad.

This paper explores the thesis of de-globalisation in relation to international education. Through interrogating accounts of international school leadership during the COVID-19 crisis, the tension between international expectations and localised realities is charted, with four central tenets of internationalism undermined by the pandemic experience. It is argued that the COVID-19 crisis, ostensibly a single global event, resulted in the fractalisation of international education; the conceptualisation of unified internationalism was undermined by the inherently localised material effects of the pandemic. In place of an internationalism that is unified, transcendent, inclusive and connected, international school leaders' accounts of leading through the pandemic focused on their sense that their schools were fractured, rooted, privileged and isolated. It is suggested that this international crisis demonstrates the precarious nature of the respatialising of the global that is intrinsic to international schooling.

The purpose of this focused qualitative study was to examine two urban high school students' perceptions of a study-abroad experience, five years after the fact, with the intention of assessing long-term effects on increased global competency and awareness. The interviewees, selected from 11 participants, brought an already rich intercultural perspective and as such, their experiences illuminated the profound benefits of short-term study abroad experiences. Interviews were designed to elicit whether the principle of global competency could be discerned along two basic criteria, acquisition of cultural knowledge, and capacity/desire for close observation and self-reflection. Viewed through the theories of experiential learning, this paper will explore related pedagogical themes as well as point to the cognitive issues at stake in a longitudinal approach to qualitative research.

The assessment of test anxiety has received increasing attention in educational research due to the potential negative effects of anxiety on student performance. Traditionally, test anxiety scales have been developed for mathematics, but few studies have focused on physics. In this study, we validated two test anxiety scales for undergraduate physics courses: the Test Anxiety Inventory for Physics (TAIP) and the Abbreviated Test Anxiety Inventory for Physics scale (ATAIP), which were adapted from existing instruments. A convenience sample of 361 engineering students enrolled in a first-semester introductory physics course participated in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis and Rasch analysis were used to establish the construct validity of both scales. Convergent validity for the TAIP scale was established by examining its correlation with a scale adapted from the math anxiety scale. Criterion-related validity for both TAIP and ATAIP was established by analyzing the relationship between students' Rasch scores on the two scales and their performance on two conceptual tests. Finally, measurement invariance of TAIP and ATAIP scales was established using both multigroup and differential item functioning analyses to reliably investigate gender differences in the corresponding Rasch measures. The study confirms a robust four-factor structure of the TAIP. The four subscales, Worry, Emotionality, Interference, and Lack of Confidence, demonstrate good reliability (McDonald's [lower-case omega] ¼ 0.78; 0.86; 0.87; 87, respectively). Rash analysis also confirms that, for each subscale, the rating scale functioning was consistent with the item difficulty and person measures. The TAIP also demonstrates adequate convergent and criterion-related validity, as well as measurement invariance with respect to gender. The ATAIP also demonstrates good reliability (McDonald's [lower-case omega] ¼ 0.84), a well-functioning rating scale, and sufficient criterion-related validity. Additionally, it exhibits measurement invariance with respect to gender. Overall, the study supports that both the TAIP and ATAIP scales are reliable instruments for measuring students' test anxiety in an undergraduate physics course. Implications for physics instruction at the university introductory level are briefly discussed.

This article introduces the CELI corpus, a new learner corpus of written Italian consisting of ca. 600,000 tokens, evenly distributed among CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) proficiency levels B1, B2, C1 and C2. The collected texts derive from the language certification exams administered by the University for Foreigners of Perugia all around the world. The corpus contains rich metadata pertaining to text-related and learner-related variables. It expands the domain of learner corpora by being, among other things, both freely available online to the research community, and by focusing on a target language other than English. The article also presents and evaluates the POS-tagging procedure, thus contributing to best practices in learner corpus annotation.

In the last two years, a growing number of studies have focused on the promotion of students' mental health to address the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, less studies have been conducted on sustaining teachers' mental health which has been affected by the sudden changes in online teaching and the difficulties in keeping and building relationship with students. Even before the pandemic, teaching has long been recognised as one of the most challenging occupations characterized by high levels of stress. Although the research highlighted the key role of mental health promotion among teachers, there is still a lack of programs enhancing teachers' wellbeing. This study examined the impact of the PROMEHS program, a school-based curriculum, on teachers' mental health. A total of 687 teachers participated in the study. Applying a pre- and post-training study design with experimental and waiting list groups, teachers were evaluated in social and emotional learning, resilience, and self-efficacy. The results showed that there was a significant improvement in all competences of the teachers in the experimental group compared to those in the waiting list group. The paper discusses the implications of the findings with recommendations for further studies in the area.

Previous research on gender differences in young people's digital development has shown that boys and girls differ in frequency and type of internet use, but vital gaps in the literature remain. In recent years, gender is increasingly considered to be a multidimensional concept with a growing number of young people identifying as non-binary (i.e. genderfluid, an umbrella term for gender identities that are not conforming to the male/female dichotomy). Non-binary youth more frequently engage with a variety of digital risks such as misinformation, cyberbullying, and co-rumination than binary youth. Despite this, no research so far has investigated how digital development differs between non-binary and binary youth. In this online survey study among adolescents in six European countries (N=6,221), we focus on differences in digital skills and digital activities. Non-binary youth tend to make greater use of the internet for content creation and mental and physical health information than boys and girls. They also report greater content creation skills than boys and girls. Disparities in terms of entertainment and social relationship use are also found. Furthermore, findings on digital skills indicate that non-binary youth closely mirror boys in this regard. We conclude with recommendations for future research that should help bolster our understanding of how digital contexts may predict the development and well-being of non-binary youth.

Using data from the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies, this paper compares the earnings premium and employment share of jobs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) across 11 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The results reveal that the STEM wage premium is higher in the United States than in any of the other comparison countries, despite the fact that the U.S. has a larger share of workers in STEM jobs. We also find evidence that the premium varies significantly across STEM sub-fields and education levels, and that the premium tends to be higher in countries with lower unionization rates, less employment protection, or a larger share of employment in the public sector.

Students' identification with schools or universities is associated with many positive outcomes, such as increased cooperation and completion of studies. This study is a qualitative investigation of university students' experiences concerning identification. Two hundred and eleven Italian students and 226 U.S. students wrote responses to open-ended questions about a time that they either felt connected (identified) or disconnected to (not identified) with their university. In Italy, students prompted to identify with the university focused their descriptions on didactical aspects such as academic training experiences. Italian students prompted not to identify with the university often described their experiences with the university's organizational and administrative aspects. U.S. students prompted to identify or not with the university focused on the social aspects of their university experience such as their involvement with fraternities and sororities. Italian and U.S. students rarely mentioned instrumental aspects of their university experience such as how much the university matters for professional training. This close analysis of students' experiences illustrates how diverse the sources of university identification can be across different countries. These qualitative results help to fully understand the contents of the experience of university students. Policies for enhancing students' motivation and engagement in higher education should reflect all the different domains of identification, to support the full range of students' experiences.