Students’, teachers’ and principals’ points of view in a new research by Fondazione Agnelli and Centro Studi Crenos of the Cagliari University
“After the long lockdown in spring of 2020, for the entire 2020-21 school year remote learning remained the Italian school system’s main solution to the problems generated by the evolving pandemic and by health safety measures, in particular for secondary schools. While we wait to find out if and how deeply learnings have suffered due to this, the research we present today tells us – among other things – that in everyday practice the methods and organisation of distant learning have not changed in any significant way compared to what they were before the pandemic. Almost all of Italy’s secondary schools offered traditional, synchronous teaching online, based on lecture-style instruction, homework and tests. Schedules, activities and tools were not reconsidered at all, to take into account the differences between teaching in the classroom and remotely. And no real effort was made to test strategies that might bring out the best of youths’ autonomy and agency. This might explain, in part, why students expressed difficulties in attending classes remotely, keeping motivation and attention levels high, interacting with professors and classmates in a positive way – which are typical shortfalls of remote learning.”
This is how Andrea Gavosto, Director of Fondazione Agnelli, summed up the results of the research published under the title La DaD nell’anno scolastico 2020-21: una fotografia. Il punto di vista di studenti, docenti e dirigenti (literally, “Remote learning during the 2020-21 school year: a photograph. Students’, teachers’ and principals’ points of view”), carried out with Centro Studi Crenos and the Department of Economic and Business Sciences of the Cagliari University, published today.
The survey analysed a representative sample of 123 secondary schools, both state owned and “paritarie” (similar to charter schools) across Italy. In every institution, students (in the third and fifth year), teachers and principals were given a questionnaire; answers from 105 principals, 3,905 teachers and 11,154 students in total were collected.
Download the press release, the abstract of the research and the questionnaires sent to schools (in Italian).