Università Roma Tre

Future educators, educational designers and dedicated teacher for adult learners-of age, different skills and usually discontinuous training experiences – need tools of assessment of competences validated and aimed at supporting the implementation of flexible educational strategies for continuously directing learning activities according to learners’ needs.
The adult literacy course is intended to enable students to deepen existing examples, tools analysis-methodologies-the elements necessary to the understanding of educational-pedagogical work characteristics to play with adult learners. The course also aims, through individual and small groups work, to develop students’ skills related to the design, formulation and revision of open-ended questions and formulated answers literacy assessment in adulthood.
In particular, the course aims to develop students ' knowledge and skills associated with the following contents:
-most relevant international comparative surveys on adult skills assessment;
-theoretical and methodological foundations of international comparative surveys on adult learning with specific reference to the literacy and to the definitions provided in the framework of investigations;
-the preparation and administration of the questions (types of stimulus and response, administering paper and pencil and computer based, review mode, encoding open-ends);
-the results of the major international comparative surveys on adult skills assessment, with particular reference to the OECD survey PIAAC;
-diachronic perspectives in the analysis of the data available on a worldwide scale in relation to the skills of the adult population (OECD, UNESCO, World Bank data collections and surveys). In particular, it will propose a comparison between surveys IALS, ALL and PIAAC;
-the relationship between functional literacy and ICT at the national level: critical analysis of the impact of technology on literacy and how informal and non-formal learning in adulthood.

The course consists of face-to-face lessons (18 hours).

Vertecchi, B. Percorsi di ricerca educativa. Gli editoriali di Cadmo, Milano, Angeli, 2014, pp. 41-59.
Di Francesco, G. (2014). PIAAC-OCSE. Rapporto nazionale sulle competenze degli adulti. ISFOL. http://isfoloa.isfol.it/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1262/1/Oss_1-2_2016_DiFrancesco_Amendola_Mineo.pdf
Richmond, Mark, Clinton Robinson, and Margarete Sachs-Israel. (2008). The global literacy challenge: A profile of youth and adult literacy at the mid-point of the United Nations literacy decade 2003-2012. Unesco. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0016/001631/163170e.pdf
OECD. (2013). OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills. OECD Publishing.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264204256-en
OECD. (2013). The Survey of Adult Skills: Reader’s Companion, OECD Publishing. OECD Publishing.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264204027-en

Further study material will be made available during the lessons and on the website of the course.

“The process goes on as long as life and learning continue”

The seminar aims at exploring the role of experience in Adult Education through the analytical reading of John Dewey’s “Experience and education”, which was published in 1938 and is considered as synthesis of his education theories.
After examining the progress education theories and the debate around the “new” schools implementation, upheld by Dewey in this publication, the seminar intends to analyse the contribution of the experience in education by identifying general principles that could fit Adult Education theories and practices. In “Education and experience” Dewey promotes the idea of a new philosophy of education of-through-for the experience that should guide the practices of those involved in formative processes.
As reported by the Dewey’s quotation selected as seminar title, the chance to base education processes on the experience, following the principle of continuity and interaction, is considered of primary importance in lifelong learning. To confirm this principle, the experience role has been included in the fundamental principles list of Malcom Knowles’ andragogy theory. The seminar offers the opportunity to critically analyse the Dewey’s theories, mainly developed for formal educational contexts, taking into account their possible influences on Adult Education theoretical approaches. In order to enhance the achievement of this task, students will be also asked to analyse reports of experimental researches carried out in informal education contexts.

Educational goals of the seminar:

− getting to know the debate about education in which Dewey’s theories were developed;
− contextualizing the contents in the broader Dewey’s progressive education theory;
− identifying the main criticisms raised about the “new” schools implementation in the text;
− identifying the publication key topics;
− identifying the experience role in education processes dealing with the principles of continuity and interaction;
− understanding the relationship between democracy development and experience-based education;
− identifying similarities or differences between Dewey’s principles and Knowles’ andragogic theories about the experience in education;
− analysing the experience role in experimental projects carried out in informal educational contexts.

Dewey (2014), Esperienza e educazione, a cura di F. Cappa, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore.
Other references will be provided during the course.

"Experimental Education. Models and procedures for adult education" is a course for the students of "SEAFC" master's degree and is composed of a basic course (36 hours of lessons, 6 ECTS), a laboratory (18 hours of lesson, 3 ECTS) and a seminar (18 hours of lesson, 3 ECTS).
The course main objective is to teach students the theoretical and procedural aspects of research in adult education. Through the analysis of research in adult education, the course will focus on the historical and theoretical bases of experimental education from the origin until now; on the procedures for defining the research field, the methods and the data collecting tools, the data analysis and interpretation, the procedures for a critical revision of the hypotheses.
The laboratory and the seminar are integral parts of the course. The first will focus on international research on adult literacy; the latter will be devoted to reading and commenting on a classical text on education.
The whole course (lessons + laboratory + seminar) is worth 12 ECTS.

- for the lessons:
o C. Angelini, "Apprendere ad apprendere e capacità di comprensione della lettura. Il caso degli studenti adulti della Facoltà di Scienze della formazione dell'Università Roma Tre", Roma, Nuova Cultura, 2010.
o C. Angelini, A. Poce, I. Presta, "L’apprendimento nei musei. Un’indagine internazionale", Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2017.
o B. Vertecchi, "Manuale della valutazione. Analisi degli apprendimenti e dei contesti", Milano, FrancoAngeli, 2003. Only the last section, G. Agrusti (ed.), "Laboratorio di valutazione".
o In order for students to pass the exam, it is necessary to study also the materials that will be available on http://formonline.uniroma3.it/, in the private area. The login codes will be communicated both during the lessons and on the professor's web page.
- for the laboratory:
o study material provided by the professor
- for the seminar:
o J. Dewey, Esperienza e educazione, edited by F. Cappa, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, published in 2014.