In accordance with Legislative Decree No. 22 - 8 April 2020 on the necessary measures to be taken against the Covid-19 crisis, e-learning in Italy has become compulsory for everybody, including university students. Ever since the first semester of the current academic year (2020/2021), the University of Salerno, Italy, has turned all its traditional classroom teaching courses into remote learning courses in order to tackle the emergency. As a result of this provision, the Motricity Methods and Strategies Lab, which is part of the Pre- and Primary-School Education Training Course at the University of Salerno, has been conducted online, namely on the Microsoft Teams platform. The drift from traditional classroom courses to an online platform learning environment has surely increased our awareness that the teaching-learning process at school involves not only teachers and students, but also all other school personnel (secretaries, janitors, principals and so on). The new space and time Anti-Covid-19 restrictions have dictated that the education process be re-thought and re-planned according to the potential advantages and drawbacks of new technologies in teaching and learning. The motricity e-lab for the Italian students at the University of Salerno has necessarily been planned, conducted and regulated according to the principles of safety, quality and inclusivity to be followed during the Covid-19 pandemic. As regards inclusivity, the UNO Convention of 2006 acknowledged that it is not people to be included, but processes, spaces, contributions and procedures to be planned inclusively in order not to exclude people (Medeghini, Vadalà, Fornasa, & Nuzzo, 2013). Therefore, a prospective line of development in the university training of future pre- and primary-school teachers could focus on inclusive educational practices. The teamwork characterizing the e-lab here has enabled students to acquire specific motricityrelated skills and consequently develop new educational practices. The motricity e-lab has made students the active and reflexive protagonists of the experience and the teacher has triggered the development of their specific professional competencies. These competencies must necessarily belong to their own educational assets so that they can later become good teachers and experts in motricity. During their e-lab experience, students have co-built the course-planning activity themselves. Thus, in accordance with each student’s teaching and learning paces and styles, the motricity lab has allowed for a meta-cognitive assessment of their knowledge. The educational experience described in the present paper does not mean to be a definite answer to doubts and perplexities in online education and its impact on students; it actually aims at fostering an important methodological discussion on how to deal with the educational and technological changes and innovations which have characterized the Italian school system through the years. The present study explores and describes an e-lab experience that the Education Science Department of the University of Salerno has conducted to ensure that the training of future Pre- and Primary-School Education teachers suffer no stoppages. The motricity e-lab has enabled all students to attend classes regularly in spite of the Covid-19 crisis. The paper goes on to present an e-lab experience involving 100 future pre- and primary-school teachers. The present study aims at improving education by activating e-learning routes and projects, favoring cooperative learning on line and developing inclusivity processes. It wants to encourage observations and considerations on the changes and innovations that Italian Universities have had to go through during the Covid-19 pandemic. This sudden crisis initially jeopardized the continuation of all educational activities, even more so in the case of special-needs students. The main objectives of our e-lab are to teach the students specific motricity notions and promote its specific inclusivity-oriented cooperative learning on line. The feedback on the studies and projects which were carried out last year (Academic Year 2019/2020) at the University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, has shown some students’ strong need for more specific motricity-based (or, better still, inclusivity-oriented and motricity-based) training in order to cope with future challenges in pre- and primary-school teaching (Sgambelluri, 2020; Sgambelluri & Vinci, 2020; Sgambelluri, Straniero, Valenti, 2020). In these studies and projects students openly deemed their motricity and P.E. knowledge to be very poor and confessed they had never gotten around to putting even the little they had learned into practice (Sgambelluri, 2020; Sgambelluri & Vinci, 2020; Sgambelluri, Straniero, Valenti, 2020). The data obtained lead us to point out that university training courses in pre- and primary-school education should necessarily stress the importance of motricity and physical activity as factors that would most probably foster accessibility to, and inclusive participation in, the educational process (Booth, Ainscow, 2002; Perla, 2013). In consideration of the aforesaid, the motricity e-lab at the University of Salerno has activated a further and wider form of elab- based learning which envisages mock lessons by the students themselves. This e-lab physical-education-oriented experience at the University of Salerno lasted 2 months (from March 2021 to late April 2021), involved 100 students and witnessed the planning of lessons on specific motricity-based assignments. It sought to enhance lab teaching and cooperative learning on line and encourage the development of inclusivity-oriented processes, and succeeded in both. The cooperative learning practices it enacted translated into long and/or numerous interesting experience exchanges whereby these future pre- and primary-school teachers discussed special needs lesson planning and teaching, the challenges they pose and how to face them. All this has led to a new idea of motricity-based e-lab teaching, one which considers motricity the integrating background for creating new and interesting educational scenarios. In the light of the aforesaid considerations, we are almost certain that if we enhance the role of motricity in training future pre- and primary-school teachers at university, inclusivity-oriented classes relying on the educational potential of physical activity will be developed more effectively at school in the years to come. With that said, we hope the e-learning method proposed by Salerno University could later envisage further and wider educational applications, inasmuch as it lends itself to new interesting modes of cobuilding, co-designing and co-assessing between and among teachers and students for the creation of more inclusive education schemes, even in the case of remote learning.

Motricity and Inclusivity - Italian University Student Lab Experience during the COVID-19 Crisis

Sgambelluri R
2021-01-01

Abstract

In accordance with Legislative Decree No. 22 - 8 April 2020 on the necessary measures to be taken against the Covid-19 crisis, e-learning in Italy has become compulsory for everybody, including university students. Ever since the first semester of the current academic year (2020/2021), the University of Salerno, Italy, has turned all its traditional classroom teaching courses into remote learning courses in order to tackle the emergency. As a result of this provision, the Motricity Methods and Strategies Lab, which is part of the Pre- and Primary-School Education Training Course at the University of Salerno, has been conducted online, namely on the Microsoft Teams platform. The drift from traditional classroom courses to an online platform learning environment has surely increased our awareness that the teaching-learning process at school involves not only teachers and students, but also all other school personnel (secretaries, janitors, principals and so on). The new space and time Anti-Covid-19 restrictions have dictated that the education process be re-thought and re-planned according to the potential advantages and drawbacks of new technologies in teaching and learning. The motricity e-lab for the Italian students at the University of Salerno has necessarily been planned, conducted and regulated according to the principles of safety, quality and inclusivity to be followed during the Covid-19 pandemic. As regards inclusivity, the UNO Convention of 2006 acknowledged that it is not people to be included, but processes, spaces, contributions and procedures to be planned inclusively in order not to exclude people (Medeghini, Vadalà, Fornasa, & Nuzzo, 2013). Therefore, a prospective line of development in the university training of future pre- and primary-school teachers could focus on inclusive educational practices. The teamwork characterizing the e-lab here has enabled students to acquire specific motricityrelated skills and consequently develop new educational practices. The motricity e-lab has made students the active and reflexive protagonists of the experience and the teacher has triggered the development of their specific professional competencies. These competencies must necessarily belong to their own educational assets so that they can later become good teachers and experts in motricity. During their e-lab experience, students have co-built the course-planning activity themselves. Thus, in accordance with each student’s teaching and learning paces and styles, the motricity lab has allowed for a meta-cognitive assessment of their knowledge. The educational experience described in the present paper does not mean to be a definite answer to doubts and perplexities in online education and its impact on students; it actually aims at fostering an important methodological discussion on how to deal with the educational and technological changes and innovations which have characterized the Italian school system through the years. The present study explores and describes an e-lab experience that the Education Science Department of the University of Salerno has conducted to ensure that the training of future Pre- and Primary-School Education teachers suffer no stoppages. The motricity e-lab has enabled all students to attend classes regularly in spite of the Covid-19 crisis. The paper goes on to present an e-lab experience involving 100 future pre- and primary-school teachers. The present study aims at improving education by activating e-learning routes and projects, favoring cooperative learning on line and developing inclusivity processes. It wants to encourage observations and considerations on the changes and innovations that Italian Universities have had to go through during the Covid-19 pandemic. This sudden crisis initially jeopardized the continuation of all educational activities, even more so in the case of special-needs students. The main objectives of our e-lab are to teach the students specific motricity notions and promote its specific inclusivity-oriented cooperative learning on line. The feedback on the studies and projects which were carried out last year (Academic Year 2019/2020) at the University of Reggio Calabria, Italy, has shown some students’ strong need for more specific motricity-based (or, better still, inclusivity-oriented and motricity-based) training in order to cope with future challenges in pre- and primary-school teaching (Sgambelluri, 2020; Sgambelluri & Vinci, 2020; Sgambelluri, Straniero, Valenti, 2020). In these studies and projects students openly deemed their motricity and P.E. knowledge to be very poor and confessed they had never gotten around to putting even the little they had learned into practice (Sgambelluri, 2020; Sgambelluri & Vinci, 2020; Sgambelluri, Straniero, Valenti, 2020). The data obtained lead us to point out that university training courses in pre- and primary-school education should necessarily stress the importance of motricity and physical activity as factors that would most probably foster accessibility to, and inclusive participation in, the educational process (Booth, Ainscow, 2002; Perla, 2013). In consideration of the aforesaid, the motricity e-lab at the University of Salerno has activated a further and wider form of elab- based learning which envisages mock lessons by the students themselves. This e-lab physical-education-oriented experience at the University of Salerno lasted 2 months (from March 2021 to late April 2021), involved 100 students and witnessed the planning of lessons on specific motricity-based assignments. It sought to enhance lab teaching and cooperative learning on line and encourage the development of inclusivity-oriented processes, and succeeded in both. The cooperative learning practices it enacted translated into long and/or numerous interesting experience exchanges whereby these future pre- and primary-school teachers discussed special needs lesson planning and teaching, the challenges they pose and how to face them. All this has led to a new idea of motricity-based e-lab teaching, one which considers motricity the integrating background for creating new and interesting educational scenarios. In the light of the aforesaid considerations, we are almost certain that if we enhance the role of motricity in training future pre- and primary-school teachers at university, inclusivity-oriented classes relying on the educational potential of physical activity will be developed more effectively at school in the years to come. With that said, we hope the e-learning method proposed by Salerno University could later envisage further and wider educational applications, inasmuch as it lends itself to new interesting modes of cobuilding, co-designing and co-assessing between and among teachers and students for the creation of more inclusive education schemes, even in the case of remote learning.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12318/107317
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