EDISES CHAPTER 2 - PLANNING

THE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK

In the 60’s Mr. Milani said that there was no greater injustice than “to give equal parts between the
unequal”.

In the 70’s a growing part of the population demanded a school capable to guarantee equivalent
possibilities of success. The Delegated Decrees were approved (law 517/77: la  legge  517 del
1977 secondo la quale è proprio la programmazione la chiave di volta della scuola che comincia a
diventare “di tutti e per ciascuno”) and in Middle schools, the shift was made from program
schools to planning schools.

If you wanted to actually achieve promotion and development of the potential of each student it
was essential to follow a path of building multiple routes adapted to different subjects.

These routes involved forms of cooperation and integration between the teachers of different
subjects and between the school and the extra curricular education systems operating in the
territory, in order to build a network for the plurality of students.

The word curriculum derives from the verb curro (to run): meaning to move from one place to
another in space and time. The term curriculum in pedagogy has had several meanings, in Italy it
initially coincided with the curriculum as a plan for teaching in which teachers identified objectives
and content.

Later it became richer and more diversified, in order to overcome the rigidity of the programs.

Situational analysis
- crucial component of the curriculum development process

- enables the curriculum developers to understand the context in which the curriculum is
developed

- makes curriculum responsive to the needs of students

Disadvantages
- Time-consuming

- Situational analysis is difficult

- Too much flexibility

Advantages
- situational analysis provides the context of the curriculum

- interdependent curricular elements

- flexible

- gives opportunity to revisit and reform

Such model implied:

- Overcoming the traditional concept of the curriculum as a programme

- The teachers choice, after an analysis of the initial situation, of the most appropriate routes

- The teachers identification of the objects

- The selection of content and of the organization of the environment [time spaces how to group
the pupils etc.]

- The evaluation with a regulatory function of the whole learning process; differentiated into initial,
formative and summative evaluation [different from the verification].

In the 80s thanks to the research by Damiano a new model spread: the pro-curricular planning by
concept maps (based on the theories of Bruner, Ausubel and Structuralism).

Damiano identified three phases:

- The teachers, through an initial conversation with the group of students identify as the
knowledge already held by them on a given topic.

- From this point on teachers start to identify the concepts to be built and those to be
rearranged.

- Finally the teacher identifies the relationships between these concepts and decides whether
they should be changed or not.

In the 90’s teachers have begun to distinguish between “achievements” (obiettivi) and “masteries”
(competenze) acquired by students, shifting from “knowing” (sapere) to “know how” (saper fare).

POF (now PTOF, 3 year educational plan)

In the mid 90s, teachers became more actively involved as participants in the educational
program and schools became decision-makers themselves and not just executive bodies of
decisions taken by central authorities (Ministero), thanks to the didactic autonomy of each school.

Article 21 of law 59/97 opens the way for the school autonomy and the POF becomes the key
document of each school defining it's cultural and planned identity. It also contains the School’s
curriculum project. Autonomy puts an end to an education system based on rigid the planning,
decided by Central authorities, although the compulsory curriculum, established at a national level
by the national Ministry, covers 80% of the activities to be covered in order to preserve unity to
the education system.

Concept of curriculum is now expanded: the teachers board is delegated to the preparation of the
choices on the content, methods, processing and various forms of evaluation and documentation.
The OCSE agrees on the fact that individuals in order to live must speak many languages, they
must be able to live with others in an inter-cultural dimension. To achieve this it is essential to
create stimulating contacts and reach a triangulation between content methods of teaching and
learning theories. In these years the first school networks appeared linked together by combining
funds and resources in order to achieve joint curriculum projects that propose activities other than
the traditional teaching that are able to respond to the needs of the specific local realities.

This system will allow the unitary character of education, monitored by the national service for the
quality of education, whilst enhancing cultural diversity and meeting the needs of each territory.

Organisational and educational flexibility may refer to:

- The making of the school calendar and the annual total hours of each subject

- Changes in the traditional hour as a teaching unit and the use of residual hours

- The planning of different subjects and individual paths of recovery/strengthening

- The choosing of disciplines/activities that integrate the curriculum

- The use of teachers in a function of way to the project

- Optional activities/disciplines organised in the extra school planning

Each school can independently choose and adopt (for students evaluation) a system of credits to
certify the skills acquired by students in extracurricular activities, as in working fields, and paths
for the recovery pf educational debts.

The main guidelines teachers should follow when writing down their curricular proposals, should
be: Flexibility - Sharing responsibilities - integration.

Each school should also work during extra school schedule, linking it self to the territorial centers.
This will allow them to increase their “service” on the territory and to take part in the fulfilment of
equal opportunities for each individual, through proposals for education, training, new
technologies, contact with the labor market and social activities.

The Metacognitive Curriculum

The teaching and learning of metacognitive strategies must be placed inside the methods of
teaching the school planning and supervision of processes. Your regular planning mistake into
account the need to foster the attitude to the metacognitive thinking in the construction,
organisation and evaluation of activities.

Specifically the following objectives should be taken into account by a curriculum oriented
towards the formation of a metacognitive attitude:

1) Learning to think (competent thinking and deep learning)

2) Think to learn ( exchanging idea as a way to learn)

3) Thinking together (teamwork)

4) Thinking on your own thoughts (“how” I think, how i listen to others, my emotions, my ideas,
beliefs, values etc)

5) Thinking Big (Build collaborative learning communities)