Improving feedback practices can significantly improve student learning and the quality of teaching in classrooms. Studies by Hattie et al. (2007; 2019) show that there's a strong evidence base for the impact of feedback. High quality feedback can improve student learning; feedback also provides teachers with information that allows them to evaluate and, if necessary, adapt or change their strategies to meet the learning needs of their students. Furthermore, several studies highlight the importance that students themselves attach to the feedback action, especially in processes in which they are involved in such an action through their awareness of learning objectives, assessment criteria and, above all, the possibility of learning from feedback 'where to go next' (Winstone, 2019; Brooks, 2021; Molloy, 2020). The present exploratory study aims to map, through a scoping review, the existence of empirical studies on formative feedback in classroom practice in the national school context. While empirical studies on formative feedback are widely treated and systematised in the international literature, it is more challenging to gather them in the Italian panorama of scientific publications.

We converted the research concept into three key concept groups by employing the Population, Concept, Context (PCC) mnemonic Aromataris (2020), using it to identify the main concepts in this scoping review. This framework has then informed the search strategy. To avoid the risk of irrelevant studies, the search strings in Scopus and Google Scholar have been adapted to deliver a comprehensive search.

The search results were imported in Rayyan and screened out through title and abstract evaluation following the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The records that did not reach the same outcome were reviewed by the authors for the final agreement.

The following inclusion criteria were used:

1- with a focus on formative feedback in teaching action

2- empirical studies with qualitative or quantitative data

3- studies in the national context

4- in any school grade (grades 1-13)

Eligible studies were exported and coded according to specific thematic categories adapted from the Nicol and McFarlane-Dick framework (2006). The findings of this review will be used to map and pinpoint the most relevant issues related to formative feedback. The aim of this scoping review is to know the state of the art of the publications related to the focus of this study, in order to investigate the possibility of proceeding with a systematic review of qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods studies in order to arrive at a future meta-synthesis or meta-analysis.

Since its origins, formative assessment (FA) has been a crucial element for anyone who pursues democratic teaching, because it allows teachers to monitor students’ learnings and - based on the results – to adjust teaching in order to better meet their needs. In other words, it is an assessment for learning (Black & Wiliam, 2009) since it has the aim to sustain each student in achieving the targeted goals. Within the debate, several perspectives and definitions of FA are now living together, and this variety has produced different strategies, which have been the objects of many investigations born to observe their effects on students’ achievements. Starting from the first experimental studies (Guskey & Gates, 1985), research has revealed a positive trend (Hattie, 2009), although the debate is still open (Dunn & Mulvenon, 2009). In Italy, few experimental research has tried to verify the effect of a unitary set of FA practices on students’ achievements (Scierri, Viola & Capperucci), even though assessment experts have been valuing the use of FA for many years (Corsini, 2023; Vannini, 2022). For this reason, the research had the aim to determine whether FA practices would enhance the text comprehension abilities (specifically the ability to make coherence inferences when reading a text) of students at the lower secondary school and would reduce discrepancies between their achievements. Participants were students from two first-year classrooms of the same school located in Emilia Romagna region. The experiment, a two-group plan, followed the steps listed below: the randomization of the two groups, the experimental and the control one (EG and CG); the initial administration of a text comprehension task to measure students’ abilities (pre-test), the introduction of 15 FA moments with the EG students while the others were joining teaching activities and, at the end of the experiment, the repetition of the measurement (post-test). The task was created by selecting items and texts (narrative and expository) from the INVALSI test administered to fifth-grade students in 2013-2014 and it was used as both a pre and post-test (test-retest procedure). Furthermore, a focus group was developed after the experiment to catch the opinions of the EG students and their perceptions of improvement. The analyses examined the pre-post-test difference between groups paying specific attention to students with more troubles in the pre-test and non-parametric statistics were run due to the small number of valid cases. Results revealed a slightly higher increase in the mean scores of the EG (+1,28 points) compared to the CG (+1 point) with a bigger decline of the variability value, but these differences between groups are not statistically significant. It seems the increase in the EG is specifically due to the improvement of the students who had shown more difficulties in the initial task (+3 points in EG and +1,8 points in CG). Indeed, analyses of the focus group revealed that some students of EG with more difficulties in the initial comprehension task have highlighted the utility of FA practices, which is consistent with this result.

Research on the potential of student voice has revealed a range of strategies for incorporating the principles of consultation and student participation into the culture and practice of schools. These strategies range from the use of simple questionnaires (Flutter & Rudduck, 2004) to more sustained efforts and student participation programs that include students as researchers (Fielding & Bragg, 2003), peer-assisted learning (Topping, 2001), "assessment for learning" approaches (Black et al., 2002), and, more broadly, formative assessment in the wider sense of contributing to the design and reorientation of teaching and learning processes (Corsini, 2023).

This research examines the opinions of 717 high school students regarding teacher education, highlighting their perceptions of educators' strengths and weaknesses based on their school experience. The observations collected provide vital insights for identifying essential training needs and guidelines on how teachers should be trained to navigate the challenges of modern education. Through an Experimental Pedagogy workshop at the University of Perugia, second-year Primary Education Sciences students conducted a survey among high school students, aiming to gather opinions on skills, desired qualities in teachers, and recommendations for their training path.

The results emphasize the importance of possessing didactic, disciplinary, relational, and personal skills, with a particular focus on the need for continuous updating, empathy, motivational ability, and student engagement. Moreover, the need for adequate training on assessment tools and methods, often considered lacking or inadequate, clearly emerges. The research, through the testimonies of those undergoing evaluation, highlights how assessment has the power to construct or alter the student's self-image, change future prospects, dim or ignite confidence, motivate or demotivate effort, foster or hinder development, recognize or ignore the right to learning, open or close possibilities, or influence individual stories.

It thus offers a point for reflection on the need for a renewal of initial and in-service teacher training, focusing on students' needs and contemporary educational dynamics.

The conclusions suggest structural changes in the teacher training system, emphasizing the need for constructive dialogue between pedagogical theory and teaching practice, to prepare teachers capable of responding effectively and sensitively to the diverse needs of students and the challenges of 21st-century education.

This study highlights the importance of integrating students' voices into training and decision-making processes, showing how this can improve teacher-student relationships (Tangen 2009, Flynn 2014), student well-being, and promote more meaningful and responsible learning (O'Brien 2008; Rudduck & Demetriou, 2003; Sebba and Robinson 2010). It reveals the need for a dialogue between theory and pedagogical practice to prepare teachers for contemporary educational challenges. Listening to students is crucial for a change in educational practices, thereby supporting a more inclusive and participatory approach to education.

The contribution aims to return the perspective of school communities - principals, teachers, students, families, and educational staff - in relation to the reflection made on the issues of instructional design and assessment from an educational perspective. In particular, it is intended to reflect on design and assessment practices that can support students' awareness of the pathways that involve them. This intentionality involves reflection on emerging needs within the school and perceived crises in the spaces of relationships between various actors, starting with social actors' perceptions of their own roles.
How to construct useful in-itinere feedback to guide learning, that is, characterized by timeliness, clarity and participation, coherence and future orientation? How do we propose activities that do not fuel a climate of competition among students? We draw attention to emerging obstacles and difficulties, but also to innovative experiences in design, relational, instructional and evaluative choices, with reference also to self- and peer-assessment experiences.

Introduction
From September 2018 to March 2023, the INAPP promoted two research projects. Their aim was the development of an authentic assessment dispositive for the last four key competences addressed to vocational education and training (VET) learners.
At its core, a key competence has been regarded as an articulated and partially coordinated set of enduring internal dispositions (Bourdieu, 1980 and 1997). We hypothesize that each key competence is constituted by the transaction of four dimensions: intellectual, methodological, strategic and social dimensions. The four dimensions are supposed to mobilise resources belonging to knowledge cores, that are relevant on epistemological, axiological and existential levels (Giovannini, Santanicchia, 2023).

The structure of the assessment dispositive
Consistent with the authentic character of the assessment (Wiggins, 1993), the main tool was the reality-based assessment; exemplary cases of reality tasks and guidelines were provided to support the trainers in the process of adapting the tasks (context of course; class) and in the use of the relevant observation rubrics designed in the research (Castoldi, 2018).
In line with the principle of triangulation, the dispositive also provided for the administration of highly structured assessment tools: a reading comprehension test, the Learning Strategies Questionnaire (Pellerey, 1996), a revision of a citizenship questionnaire (Schulz et al., 2018a e 2018b), a problem-solving test and a student questionnaire. Lastly, the dispositive also provided for a competence-based portfolio tool.

Hypotheses about the feedback
As we know, feedback exerts an appreciable influence on inclusion processes. The likelihood of a student learning increases when assessment is followed by well-structured feedback. The average effect size (EF) of the feedback appears to be 0.54. The lowest EF value is recorded at self-feedback (0.12) and the highest at feedback understood as reinforcement and cues (1.01) (Hattie, 2023).
We are working on some hypotheses to increase the effectiveness of the feedback from the key competency assessment device. Three of them are concisely presented here
The first one is related to immediate feedback, primarily intended for students. Six administrations of the dispositive were carried out involving convenience samples of varying sizes and properties. We present what this kind of feedback might look like by analysing the data - collected before the pandemic - of 1396 students who participated in the third administration. In addition to this feedback, we hypothesise to present one intended especially for teachers. This could be the product of a cluster analysis and would take some time to process. The third conjecture concerns the distinction of feedback into three levels (Hattie, Clarke, 2019). If we consider key competences as habits, this distinction probably needs to be problematised.
For Hattie (2016), feedback should enable each student to identify the difference between his or her performance and that required by the target, to understand how to close the gap, and to determine the next target to be achieved. Teachers are relatively used to doing this. We believe, therefore, that in-service training is necessary and will present some hypotheses in this regard.

Teachers have to face many challenges in different instructional environments and composition of classes in preschool requires an inclusive design that considers the specificities of “each and every one”, as in Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn (CAST, 2024). As known, the framework includes three principles, each of which contains checkpoints that precisely dribve learners’ ability to access, build and internalize the information they are learning. Evaluation plays a key role and students need to improve their self-assessment and reflection. To grow better capacity for self-regulation, learners need to learn how to control emotions and reactivity, seeing as how individuals differ considerably in their capability and propensity for metacognition (CAST, 2024). The evaluation process “activates the actions to do, regulates those done, promotes the critical assessment of those carried out” (MIUR, 2012, p. 19) accompanying the teaching/learning process from beginning to end. The evaluation promotes equity: this concept calls for an education for everyone, aimed at enhancing the differences, merit and potential of each student. Fair educational systems guarantee that “all young people are able to develop their talents and realize their full potential, regardless of their background” (Eurydice, 2021, p. 11). Formative assessment (Black, P., Harrison, C., Lee, C., Marshall, B., & William, D., 2003; Earl, 2003) is a useful tool to identify the abilities of the individual, understand the differences and grasp the motivations of those who learn, to make the most appropriate educational choices based on the specificities of each (Iannotta, 2023). The reflections briefly described represent the framework of an empirical research started in a preschool situated in Campania. The school is in a varied context, in which the upgrading of infrastructure by institutions, in recent years has allowed the school system growing. The preschool welcomes children from different social backgrounds and teachers need to adopt, as usual, an inclusive design to meet the needs of each child. In addition, in relation to the need to be shared, at all school levels, the common values of the Member States of the European Union - including freedom, democracy, equality, respect for human rights, equality between women and men (Treaty on European Union, 2012) and on the occasion of International Women’s Day - the narrative background is represented by the story of Frida. Through this design framework, children will have the opportunity to approach a theme of particular interest for the current historical period and, at the same time, reach the educational goals set in the design phase.