Conference Program

The scientific attitude is a fundamental condition for applying the methods of inquiry and research and is therefore considered a disposition to be fostered from early childhood through empirical experiences (Dewey, 1938) aimed at understanding the world, living beings, and scientific phenomena building on children’s innate curiosity (Larimore, 2020). However, offering young children the opportunity to approach STEAM disciplines education does not mean transmitting the first rudiments of scientific disciplines; rather, it entails nurturing their tendency toward exploration (Mantovani et al., 2016). Cultivating a scientific attitude, therefore, involves establishing a research habitus characterized by innate curiosity, reflective thinking, and both self- and hetero-guided problematization.

In this sense, learning should be considered a multidimensional phenomenon (Wertsch, 1991) strongly favored by methodological approaches based on the active involvement of children, inquiry-based learning (Zecca, 2016; Brookes et al., 2020; Eti I., Sigirtmac A., 2021), guided participation.

Within this framework, the adult assumes a central role as a guide to exploration, observation, and participation (Rogoff, 2006), while at the same time acting as a model in the research process. Thus, the adult is one who “does not know in advance” but who explores, searches, investigates, and learns together with the children (Mantovani et al., 2016) and who, after inviting them to share their interpretations, welcomes and extends their reflections as much as possible, accompanying the group in structuring more advanced and complex forms of argumentation.

In light of the above, within a perspective in which the social dimension is considered significant in the learning process (Bembich, 2024), this paper aims to investigate some aspects concerning interaction, both between adults and children and among peers. Specifically, it offers reflections on the value of discussion for the co-construction of meaningful scientific learning in ECEC.

To achieve these aim, an action research study (Lewin, 1946) was conducted at the Scuola Bambini Bicocca, where STEAM subjects are one of the main focuses of the educational project.

Different scientific-naturalistic activities were offered to the children (age 3-6) of both classes in the school, divided into small mixed-age groups. Some discussions led by scientific atelierists and/or teachers were recorded and analyzed using ODIS (Zecca et al., 2025). An initial analysis of the data has revealed interesting insights into the level of understanding achieved by the children – guided by the adults - on the topics treated and the richness of the reflections has emerged thanks to the heterogeneity of the groups and the different specificities, knowledge, and skills of the children.

Amidst rapid and tumultuous changes in social, political, and educational contexts, professors may design and implement pedagogical innovations to promote democracy in education. This presentation discusses outcomes of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects through the connectivism theory, focusing on students in Italy and the United States (Florida) using multimodal communication tools for meaning-making, multilingual dialogues on critical societal self-selected topics. In this study, meaning-making is understood as a relational and dialogic process (Freire, 2000) through which students interpret experiences and negotiate understanding in interaction with others. From a sociocultural perspective, meaning emerges through mediated dialogue rather than in isolation (Vygotsky & Cole, 1978), often fortified with multimodal communication tools, such as images, written texts, oral expressions, and auditory messages (Kress & Bezemer, 2023). Connectivism theory offers a framework for understanding knowledge construction across networks of people, ideas, digital tools, and information sources (Bates, 2022; Siemens, 2005). From this perspective, learning is understood as a relational and networked process that aligns with COIL, an innovative pedagogical approach that facilitates dialogic inquiry, international collaboration, and shared meaning-making around complex societal issues (Rubin & Guth, 2022). Because perceptions of societal issues are shaped by individuals’ cultural, political, and economic backgrounds, international dialogues can open windows into interpretation and understanding across contexts.

To promote college students’ critical thinking and global and interlingual competence for societal transformation, we designed an interdisciplinary COIL project between Italian students majoring in tourism and students in Florida majoring in education. To share with their partner, each student developed a multimodal presentation on a self-selected topic such as democracy, power, accessibility to resources, education, demographic and social trends. Subsequently, teams of two students collaboratively facilitated a series of synchronous, virtual dialogues, including linguistic negotiation that highlighted the role of multilingual repertoires in shaping participation, especially for predominantly monolingual US students. Dialogic learning concluded with individual reflection and in-class discussions about democracy.

Empirical analysis of the multimodal dialogues indicated the connection between students’ topics and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (United Nations, 2015). Given participants’ different cultural, linguistic, and experiential backgrounds, it is significant that the thematic analysis of students’ self-selected topics (Creswell & Poth, 2013; Kress & Bezener, 2023) showed a shared interest and connection to educational and societal issues, such as race, ethnicity, poverty, gender in education, educational rights, politics and perspectives in higher education, and the vulnerability of women in society. In addition, the analysis of students’ discourses in terms of negotiating meaning-making about democratic issues showed the use of multimodal communication, e.g., narrative, visual and auditory modes. The context of such interpretive dialogue on relevant social narrations included individual stories and descriptions of everyday life, private lives, work experiences, community life, supporting data, and policies, along with representations of exclusion and marginalization. The increased awareness of cross-border historical and geographic contexts became intertwined with empathy and emotional insight, resulting in rich, multifaceted perceptual transformation regarding social dynamics, and linguistic expressions. This study offers validation for the benefits of dialogic interdisciplinary learning across cultures and languages.

This abstract presents the results of an action research study conducted in a third-grade primary class. The research-training project originated in a thesis developed within the Primary Teacher Education degree program and was later pursued by the teacher-researcher in her professional context. The study explored the implementation of dialogic teaching practices in science education through the use of structured classroom discussion and ODIS (Discussion Observation), a tool for analyzing dialogic interactions (Zecca, Perucchini & Bertolini, 2025). The research originated from the intention to move beyond a transmissive approach to scientific knowledge and instead promote a learning environment in which knowledge is democratically constructed and shared through dialogue among students and between students and the teacher (Pontecorovo, Ajello, Zucchermaglio, 1998, p. 184).

The main objective of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of discussion as a pedagogical tool for fostering active participation and eliciting students’ prior knowledge about natural phenomena. In particular, the research examined how discussion can support the negotiation of meaning, the formulation of collective hypotheses, and the transformation of disagreement into a cognitive resource, thereby promoting deeper and more durable understanding of scientific concepts through the co-construction of knowledge. A further objective was to explore the formative potential of the ODIS coding process for the teacher, encouraging reflective practice and supporting the intentional design of classroom discussions.

The action research was conducted over a three-month period. After selecting specific scientific topics, the teacher initiated classroom discussions based on open problem questions (Ripamonti, 2016). Data were collected through audio recordings of the discussion sessions, which were subsequently transcribed and analyzed using the ODIS coding framework.

The findings indicate that dialogic practices reduced students’ fear of making mistakes and encouraged participation, including from those who were usually less inclined to express their ideas. The discussions contributed to transforming the classroom into a community of inquiry in which students learned to question assumptions, support claims with evidence, and develop more structured forms of reasoning. Scientific knowledge emerged as a collectively negotiated and provisional understanding, while error was reframed as a productive element in the process of knowledge construction. The analysis also enabled the teacher-researcher to reflect on the communicative dynamics of both students and teacher intervention, fostering an increasingly solid awareness of the educational intentionality underlying the pedagogical choices implemented (Zecca. 2012).

Overall, the study highlights the importance of authentic dialogic practices in primary science education. Classroom discussion functions not merely as verbal interaction but as a central mechanism for the active, democratic, and shared construction of knowledge, fostering both conceptual understanding and the development of critical and participatory citizenship.

Reading practice at school is a central activity in every student's development: encounters with texts prompt and encourage the learning of stories, the pleasure they derive, reflection, and dialogue. Middle school is a significant stage in exploring the multiplicity of literary genres; in this specific segment of the first cycle of education, the process of linguistic and literary education is mediated, in the usual teaching method, by school anthologies. These—through a careful selection of authors and texts deemed representative [1] —serve as a stimulus for the discovery of textual variety, contribute to the growth of personal skills, and foster moments of dialogue and exchange with adults and peers. By selecting and offering quality readings [2] and equipping students with appropriate linguistic and methodological tools, it is possible to make encounters with texts no longer a compulsory practice [3], but rather an opportunity to experience «an infinite possibility of inhabiting, of looking, and of being looked at»[4].

The currently anthologies highlights the presence of numerous children's classics, «written both 'for' the growing subject and unintentionally addressed to them» [5]. This literature, "youthful" by virtue of the characteristics of its audience, is an «essential resource for education, literacy development, and socialization»[6] and necessarily requires reflection on the characteristics of the subject for whom it is addressed: «a subject in the crucial years of formation, with their tastes and interests, their overall linguistic, cognitive, and experiential immaturity, their fragilities and vulnerabilities, their educational needs»[7].

The literary and linguistic complexity of the works on offer—which do not always correspond to adequate levels of proficiency[8] —calls for educational research to rethink the practices through which teaching is structured, in order to ensure equitable and inclusive learning conditions. This paper presents the initial results of a trial using Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition® (CIRC®)[9] for reading anthologies in middle school. The research aims to investigate how a cooperative approach, strongly characterized by dialogic practice, can facilitate access to literary texts, increasing oral and written comprehension and reworking skills. Using this methodology, students work on texts, clarifying less clear passages through guided discussion; they identify key information, draw conclusions, complete writing exercises, and compare and contrast ideas [10]. The teacher acts as a discreet mediator, guiding group reflection and encouraging students to engage in discussion about the text.

Empirical and experimental research across curricular areas and school levels has shown that classroom discourse approaches which reduce the predominance of recitation and give a greater role to productive dialogue and discussion can support the learning of all students, including those experiencing sociocultural disadvantage (e.g., Alexander, 2018). However, classroom discussion intentionally orchestrated as collective reasoning around an object of knowledge (Pontecorvo, 2021) is still rarely observed in ordinary school settings. Even teachers who aim to promote it may struggle to position students as reasoners rather than “guessers of the right answer” (O’Connor & Michaels, 2019), while also attending to comprehensibility, coherence, conceptual accuracy, motivation, and equity of participation. As Ajello argued (2004), the teacher’s role in this kind of discussion is neither natural nor spontaneous, but a specifically professional competence to be acquired.

This paper presents a practice-based teacher education initiative developed within Talking to Learn (T2L), an interdisciplinary research project funded by the 2025 University Research Fund at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. T2L aims to bridge the gap between research and school practice by providing both in-service and pre-service teachers with a teacher-led, research-informed model of professional development, supported by a repertoire of agile resources for planning, observing, analysing, and improving the quality of classroom discussion. A central assumption of the project is that wider dissemination of dialogic teaching depends on making discussion a shared object of professional inquiry among teachers themselves (Zini, 2024). Its methodological framework builds on more than a decade of research at UNIMORE on Lesson Study (Bartolini Bussi & Ramploud, 2018), its discussion-focused development, Discussion Study (Bertolini et al., 2023), and ODIS, a coding scheme for classroom discussion observation (Zecca et al., 2025).

The contribution focuses on a lesson-study-inspired practicum module designed for student teachers in the Primary Teacher Education programme, scheduled for implementation in the first semester of the next academic year. The module is intended to support future teachers’ professional autonomy in designing and conducting effective classroom discussions for mediating curricular content. It is organised around a cycle of mentor and student preparation, co-design with school mentors, classroom enactment, audiovisual documentation of a key discussion episode, and guided reflective analysis of the activity in relation to intended learning goals. In this perspective, the practicum does not simply train participants to “use discussion”, but inducts them into a collaborative, inquiry-based model of professional learning in which teaching can be collectively planned, observed, discussed, and revised.

Rather than presenting a fully standardised package, the paper discusses the rationale and formative architecture of a practicum model designed to make discussion teachable, observable, and professionally discussable within the ordinary constraints of school life. Its relevance to democratic education lies both in preparing future teachers to treat classroom talk as a shared epistemic space and in exploring forms of teacher-led professional learning that may support the broader circulation of dialogic practices across educational contexts.

This paper presents a research conducted as part of a program for the development of cross-curricular skills and career guidance (PCTO): SORGETE! – Voices and Bodies of Democracy. The project’s title refers to the dance-theater performance directed by Simona Lisi and produced by Collettivo Collegamenti, which was used as a starting point to explore issues related to gender equality. The theatrical performance, in fact, centers its reflection on the story of the ten Italian female teachers who, in 1906, temporarily obtained the right to vote, inspired by Maria Montessori’s proclamation, “All women, rise up!”
The project establishes a network of schools, research institutions, and cultural organizations. It is carried out with the support of the European DEAR program—Development Education and Awareness Raising—as part of the GEAR UP! project (NDCI Challenge /2023/448-378), co-funded by the European Union. Promoted by Welcome APS – European Projects Collettivo Collegamenti, with the support of the Regione Marche.
The research sample involves two fourth-year classes (4AT and 4BT) at the “Giulio Perticari” Classical High School in Senigallia (An), specializing in the Humanities track.
1. The preparatory phase of the project involves presenting the content through workshops on issues related to gender equality.
2. Preparation for the play “Sorgete Donne”,
3. Viewing of the play, used as a starting point for classroom discussions on the themes of democracy, gender equality, civil rights, and active participation.
4. The Human Sciences classes will participate in a series of 4 sessions over 4 weeks, for a total of 10 hours distributed as follows: four hours of presentation of methodological tools specific to facilitating Philosophy for Children (hereinafter P4C) sessions, with particular reference to mirroring, non-judgment, and active listening, four hours of P4C sessions and two hours of planning a P4C session to be offered to groups of 6 fifth-grade students at the Mercantini Elementary School in Senigallia (An).

The research question

This exploratory research begins with an analysis of the facilitator’s interventions, asking whether and how the facilitator’s questions or interventions support discussion, the expression of divergent thinking, reflection, and conversation.

Other elements that are part of democratic education will be taken into consideration, such as: active participation of individual group members (for example: do group members participate actively?); depth of arguments (are arguments used that demonstrate cognitive decentralization?), quality of alternative, novel, and non-conformist proposals, increasing progressively from the first to the fourth meeting and the evolution of cohesion within the research community.
Research tools:
Participants will be asked to complete a logbook at the end of each meeting. At the conclusion of the program, a focus group will be conducted, in which participants will participate voluntarily. The sessions, which will be fully recorded and transcribed, will be analyzed according to the guidelines from Gail Jefferson’s system (2004) and analyzed using a discourse analysis approach (Mantovani, 2008)

This contribution presents the findings of a holistic, interdisciplinary approach integrating music and second language acquisition. Grounded in the Italian educational context, this research aligns with the European perspective on policies for the inclusion of newly arrived students (CoE, 2022).

It examines the potential benefits of music, song, creative and playful activities to second language acquisition, emotional well-being, and motivation (Sun, Yang, & Liang, 2024; Caon, 2023; Crawford, 2019; Denzine & Brown, 2015).

Central to this approach is the perspective of language as a cultural tool and mediator, where music acts as a bridge to overcome linguistic barriers and foster dialogic inquiry. Through a series of cooperative activities and layered processes, students collaboratively negotiated and composed new lyrical sections for the proposed songs, which they also performed. This process turned the classroom into a space for collaborative meaning-making, where the author’s original teaching materials were adapted to students' characteristics, learning objectives, and guiding themes. The methodology emphasizes the teacher-student relationship (Wentzel, 2016), the role of emotions (Swain, 2013), and the use of cooperative learning strategies (Munoz-Martinez, Monge-Lopez, Torrego Sejo, 2020) to enhance student agency.

This study primarily uses a design-based research approach. Four case studies were conducted with lower secondary school students (ages 12–14), including groups of newly arrived students and multicultural/multilingual classes (15–22 students per group).

Data collection involved audio-video recordings, participant observation, questionnaires, and interviews. Analysis, including transcription, coding, and thematic analysis, revealed the positive impact of music and creative activities on L2 development, emotional well-being, and motivation

In a social context where migration is both a present and future phenomenon, continuously evolving, the promising results of this study underscore the importance of further research into how music education can contribute, through innovative strategies, to the development of a democratic and inclusive education.