Extensive research has shown that inequality affects children from an early age, with lasting personal and societal consequences, and that childhood education and learning is effective in tackling it, with significant long term returns on investment. Educational poverty can be described as “a process of limitation of children’s right to education and deprivation of their opportunities to learn and develop the skills they will need to succeed in a rapidly changing society. Educational poverty also affects the emotional growth and the establishment of relationships with others, jeopardising the possibilities for children to discover themselves and the world” (Save the Children). The concept was introduced in the 1990s by Cecchi (1998) and Allmendinger (1999) with reference to the precarious social situations in which educationally deprived individuals face greater difficulties participating in different economic, social and cultural activities (Botezat, 2016). For a greater part, educational poverty is linked to inclusion. Inclusiveness is characterised as a quality of the educational environment that creates the conditions for each difference, cultural, gender, and need to be accepted and valued. The challenge is to promote equality and combat stereotypes and prejudices. This goal will be achieved by means of a continuous dialogue with families, starting from the educational institutions as a place of action and mediation and focusing on minors, who will be involved in experimental workshops, using innovative and diversified languages (e.g., gamification). The quality of school inclusion improves with the conscious commitment of everyone involved: schools, teachers, students, families, organised civil society, universities as well as through the creation of tools and models that can be replicated in other European countries aimed at developing basic methodologies of educational differentiation for inclusive purposes. In today's school environment, difficulties in reading comprehension affect a much more significant percentage of children than those with a specific text comprehension disorder. There are several reasons for this situation. Certainly, family contexts that give little importance to reading in the educational process of their children and the affirmation of new technologies that have led to greater use of simultaneous intelligence than sequential intelligence can be essential factors in determining this situation. A common denominator in pupils with difficulties in text analysis, highlighted in the results of standardised tests and interviews with teachers, is poor language skills. Poverty in vocabulary and syntax, difficulty in producing simple lexical inferences, inadequate verbal exposition skills are elements that in recent years have become increasingly evident from the third year of primary school. Naturally, these shortcomings become more important as the school progresses. In secondary school, pupils confirm their linguistic deficiencies and show difficulties in the processing of read text. There are difficulties in identifying implicit information, in the ability to create a hierarchy in the fundamental elements of the text. In conclusion, the process of meaningful learning is not activated, but exclusively mnemonic. Difficulties in understanding the text influence the children's school choices on an emotional-relational level, and they are then oriented towards professional studies or even abandoning school. The general objective of the project is to promote a school model as a central and inclusive community actor in supporting the growth of minors and their families in solid synergy with the third sector. This would encourage active participation and consider difficult situations by all subjects, ensuring that the personal or social circumstances of minors are not an obstacle to the achievement of full realisation of their talents, aptitudes, and completion of the educational cycle (prevention of school drop-out).
Acting to Break the Children's Disadvantages in Education
crespi, I.;Fermani, A.;Deluigi, R.;
2021-01-01
Abstract
Extensive research has shown that inequality affects children from an early age, with lasting personal and societal consequences, and that childhood education and learning is effective in tackling it, with significant long term returns on investment. Educational poverty can be described as “a process of limitation of children’s right to education and deprivation of their opportunities to learn and develop the skills they will need to succeed in a rapidly changing society. Educational poverty also affects the emotional growth and the establishment of relationships with others, jeopardising the possibilities for children to discover themselves and the world” (Save the Children). The concept was introduced in the 1990s by Cecchi (1998) and Allmendinger (1999) with reference to the precarious social situations in which educationally deprived individuals face greater difficulties participating in different economic, social and cultural activities (Botezat, 2016). For a greater part, educational poverty is linked to inclusion. Inclusiveness is characterised as a quality of the educational environment that creates the conditions for each difference, cultural, gender, and need to be accepted and valued. The challenge is to promote equality and combat stereotypes and prejudices. This goal will be achieved by means of a continuous dialogue with families, starting from the educational institutions as a place of action and mediation and focusing on minors, who will be involved in experimental workshops, using innovative and diversified languages (e.g., gamification). The quality of school inclusion improves with the conscious commitment of everyone involved: schools, teachers, students, families, organised civil society, universities as well as through the creation of tools and models that can be replicated in other European countries aimed at developing basic methodologies of educational differentiation for inclusive purposes. In today's school environment, difficulties in reading comprehension affect a much more significant percentage of children than those with a specific text comprehension disorder. There are several reasons for this situation. Certainly, family contexts that give little importance to reading in the educational process of their children and the affirmation of new technologies that have led to greater use of simultaneous intelligence than sequential intelligence can be essential factors in determining this situation. A common denominator in pupils with difficulties in text analysis, highlighted in the results of standardised tests and interviews with teachers, is poor language skills. Poverty in vocabulary and syntax, difficulty in producing simple lexical inferences, inadequate verbal exposition skills are elements that in recent years have become increasingly evident from the third year of primary school. Naturally, these shortcomings become more important as the school progresses. In secondary school, pupils confirm their linguistic deficiencies and show difficulties in the processing of read text. There are difficulties in identifying implicit information, in the ability to create a hierarchy in the fundamental elements of the text. In conclusion, the process of meaningful learning is not activated, but exclusively mnemonic. Difficulties in understanding the text influence the children's school choices on an emotional-relational level, and they are then oriented towards professional studies or even abandoning school. The general objective of the project is to promote a school model as a central and inclusive community actor in supporting the growth of minors and their families in solid synergy with the third sector. This would encourage active participation and consider difficult situations by all subjects, ensuring that the personal or social circumstances of minors are not an obstacle to the achievement of full realisation of their talents, aptitudes, and completion of the educational cycle (prevention of school drop-out).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
