Conference Program

Background and objectives

Despite various initiatives aimed at promoting digital technology integration in Italian schools over recent years, a significant gap persists between the availability of tools and their effective integration into curricular teaching. While teachers demonstrate theoretical knowledge of STEAM approaches, practical implementation remains limited. This study presents the development and experimentation of a co-created design protocol with teachers to facilitate the planning of hands-on STEAM activities in primary and lower secondary schools.

Theoretical-methodological framework

The research integrates three complementary paradigms: Design-Based Research (McKenney & Reeves, 2019), participatory co-design (Sanders & Stappers, 2008), and action research (Carr & Kemmis, 1986). This approach repositions teachers from implementers to "Teachers as Designers" (Brennan, 2015), valorizing professional competencies through the creation of a community of practice (Wenger, 1998). The theoretical framework is rooted in social constructivism (Vygotsky, 1978) and "learning by making" (Papert, 1980), connecting the maker culture ecosystem and FabLab pedagogical models (Blikstein, 2013; Halverson & Sheridan, 2014) to formal schooling contexts.

Research structure

The two-year project was articulated in four iterative phases: (1) Context analysis and identification of primary stakeholders through a questionnaire validated on constructs of readiness and self-efficacy; (2) Co-design of the protocol through online meetings with teacher stakeholders, using collaborative platforms to define shared parameters related to objectives, competencies, and tools; (3) Classroom experimentation of the protocol in primary school classes with participant observation by the researcher; (4) Analysis through teacher logbooks and post-experience questionnaire.

Main findings

The co-created protocol functioned as an enabling constraint, providing a flexible structure adaptable to specific contexts. Analysis of teacher logbooks revealed the emergence of hidden competencies among teachers (problem-solving management, cooperative group coordination) not initially recognized as "technological" competencies but essential for STEAM activities. The collaborative dimension of the process was identified as an "intellectual partnership" that transformed professional isolation into a shared resource. The protocol supported the transition from descriptive reflection to critical and transformative reflection (Schön, 1983; Elliott, 1991). The main barriers identified remain systemic in nature (management of school time) rather than related to individual competencies.

Implications for teacher education

The study demonstrates that effective training does not eliminate difficulties but changes their nature: from "not knowing what to do" (pedagogical block) to "not having functional tools" (logistical block). The co-design process is configured as a scalable model of professional development that overcomes traditional vertical training, creating spaces of design freedom where teachers become active co-researchers. The experience suggests the need to establish some permanent educational fablabs as methodological hubs external to consolidated school dynamics, to support interdisciplinary communities of practice.

The research contributes to the field of teacher professional development by demonstrating how participatory design methodologies can effectively bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical implementation of STEAM education. By positioning teachers as designers rather than mere consumers of educational innovation, the study offers a replicable model for sustainable integration of technology-enhanced learning in formal education contexts. The iterative nature of the research allowed for continuous refinement of the protocol based on authentic classroom experiences, ensuring ecological validity and practical applicability.

Across UK higher education, Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) are increasingly being relied upon to carry out teaching responsibilities (Quirke & Standen, 2024), comprising seminar leading, lab demonstrating, and marking and feedback. While the dual nature of their role (as doctoral candidates that teach) can offer great insight and opportunity for advancing their career prospects, their liminality can create challenges with precarity, perceived competence, and understanding the expectations and responsibilities of GTAs (Zotos, Moon & Shultz, 2020). This can be problematic as they navigate identifying as student and staff simultaneously and grapple with institutional training to enhance preparedness for teaching (Corrales & Komperda, 2022; Brock et al., 2024).

This study of GTAs at a Russell Group university seeks to understand how the GTA role shapes career aspirations. Earlier studies indicate that the GTAs’ liminality has situated them in third space, assigning a ‘blended professional’ identity, owing to their movement between academic and administrative roles (Campbell, 2024). Based on this, and the heterogeneity of GTAs, to understand the types of work they fulfil within HE and the influence of this work, a new model of analysis is required (Feng, 2024). Distinct features of the GTA reality and their aspirations are known to be informed by personal background, disciplinary expertise, and their job expectations, as well as their involvement with teaching, research, and service. Hence, by acknowledging this information, institutions may be better placed to develop support and training that not only accommodates difference but uses these subjectivities as a starting point when helping to pave career paths into academia.

Feng’s (2024) three-dimensional space model is a good fit for the current study as it illustrates GTA positioning regarding the three core functions of higher education – teaching, research, and service. Teaching encompasses student instruction and staff training; research represents disciplinary and institutional research; and service captures the general and professional activities essential to sustaining university operations. These three axis points reveal how GTAs define their work, and indeed how their involvement in these tasks inform their career trajectories, if at all. This conceptualisation provides a framework for analysing GTAs’ expectations, experiences, and career aspirations within the academic field and offers insight into how they navigate their professional identities in higher education.

From the data, various implications for higher education are offered. In the first instance, issues with GTA mentorship and supervisionarise as a lack of consistent support is revealed across participant experiences. This indicates that there may be a need for those working with or supporting GTAs to undergo training that addresses the challenges of their unique role. Where training is concerned, the authors consider what additional CPD could be offered to anchor GTAs more firmly in the institution during their contracted employment, and what would also give them a competitive edge thereafter. GTAs are often the GTA’s greatest resource, as they share strategies for teaching, and whether challenges together – so, how can they be supported to know one another better as peers, not least as prospective colleagues in the academy?

This contribution presents the findings of the PRIN project, “The School as a Democratic Learning Environment: Promoting Civic and Citizenship Education (CCE) through a Whole-School Approach (WSA) in the First Cycle of Education”. Drawing on the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competence for a Democratic Culture (RFCDC, 2018), the project explores the implementation of the Whole-School Approach (WSA), which integrates democratic values across three pillars: teaching and learning, school governance, and community partnerships.

The project consists of two phases: the first is dedicated to analyzing the contexts for CCE in a whole-school approach in six schools (two for each research unit) (Damiani, Ciani, Bevilacqua, 2024) through case studies (Yin, 2003); the second involves the implementation of Research-based Teacher Professional Development trainings (Ricerca-Formazione, R-F) (Asquini, 2019) for teachers working in each of the participating schools. These trainings are part of the research work carried out within the CRESPI center on the R-F approach.

The study focuses on the second phase of the project: the implementation of Research-based Teacher Professional Development training within two primary and lower secondary schools in Rome. The core of the intervention was the co-design of competence-oriented activities, i.e. interdisciplinary projects designed to let students “experience” citizenship in real-world contexts, such as neighborhood revitalization, digital communication, and schools’ initiatives. The trainings adopted a data-driven, collaborative methodology, utilizing the SARF self-assessment tool (Bondioli et al., 2025) to guide the negotiation of objectives between university researchers and teachers, to outline the different phases of R-F with greater clarity and to trace correspondences with the five fundamental points of Ricerca-Formazione.

The Research-based Teacher Professional Development trainings highlight several critical aspects related to the promotion and implementation of citizenship education at the school level, ranging from the challenges of introducing methodological innovations and structural barriers to the need to address verticality and continuity across cycles (primary and lower secondary cycles). While, on the one hand, the use of competence-oriented activities effectively shifted the focus from theoretical content to “citizenship in action”, increasing student motivation and community engagement, on the other, significant challenges remain regarding collegial cooperation, particularly in lower secondary schools. Although institutional curricula emphasize verticality, the practical implementation of continuity between primary and secondary levels proved difficult to achieve without external intervention.

The research underscores that universities serve as essential actors for change, providing the theoretical scaffolding and reflective spaces necessary for teachers to rethink their pedagogical and evaluative practices.

In conclusion, while the WSA offers a powerful framework for transforming citizenship education and school culture into a democratic learning environment, and Ricerca-Formazione can act as a valuable approach to promote it, its success depends on overcoming organizational constraints—such as time for shared planning—and ensuring continuity in professional development beyond the lifespan of specific research projects.

This contribution explores the educational potential of a civic atelier as a space for research and professional development for teachers. The reflection is based on the comparison of two short Teacher Professional Development Research (TPDR) pathways (Asquini, 2018; Dodman et al., 2025) involving a preschool section composed of children aged 5–6 and a primary school class with pupils aged 8–9.

In both experiences, teachers, an atelierista, and a researcher participated, giving rise to a reflective learning community. Throughout the activities, the experiences with the children were documented and reinterpreted through research and design tools, making it possible to revisit the experiences lived in the Atelier a Palazzo¹ and to relaunch them in educational and school contexts. In the preschool, the pathway was intertwined with section planning, while in the primary school it was connected to curricular subjects.

Over time, the concept of the atelier (Malaguzzi, 2015) has expanded beyond school boundaries, also taking shape as a public civic atelier. This evolution expresses a vision of school rooted in its context and of the city as an educational and cultural place, defining the atelier as a space that generates connections among children, adults, expressive languages, and territory. Within this approach, teachers’ professional development is conceived as a continuous, situated, and collegial process grounded in relationships, dialogue, and participation in building a culture of childhood (New, 2007). From this perspective, the teacher assumes the role of researcher who learns alongside children, developing an educational stance understood as inquiry, characterized by greater flexibility, openness, and willingness to embrace uncertainty without predefined answers (Lyon & Donahue, 2009), thus creating democratic, non-hierarchical contexts for the construction of knowledge. Multi-professional collaboration between teachers and atelieristi, and experimentation through atelier culture, foster innovation in educational practices (Palmer & Aprill, 2016), while documentation supports shared reflection, distributed leadership, and participation (Heidi et al., 2009), making children’s thinking visible and promoting an educational culture attentive to rights, listening, and plurality of perspectives (İmir & Tuğrul, 2023).

In this perspective, TPDR pathways have strengthened within the professional network the capacity to broaden the pedagogical gaze on the child, the role of the teacher, and learning (Therese, 2020). The child has progressively been recognized as an active subject and protagonist, bringing their own rhythms and exploratory strategies, while the teacher has redefined their role in observational and non-directive terms, oriented toward listening and the construction of meaningful contexts. Field experience, supported by documentation and multi-professional dialogue, has nurtured the desire to renew educational practices, valuing environments, materials, and small-group work as conditions for autonomy and collaboration. Learning thus emerges as a shared and situated process, intertwined with professional reflection and the desire to transform teaching strategies.

At the same time, the conclusion of the pathways highlighted the challenges related to transferring innovation and experimentation into participants’ own educational contexts. This shows that professional development inspired by the atelier approach cannot be uniformly replicated, but requires grounding in contextual specificities (Guo & Rouse, 2024) and genuine organizational, cultural, and material sustainability.

1https://asbr.it/progetti/atelier-a-palazzo-2

Recently, a team of researchers affiliated with the Crespi Center conducted a multi‑method analysis of the factors influencing the processes and outcomes of the Research-based Teacher Professional Development (RBTPD) Model implemented in schools (Dodman et al., 2025), grounding their investigation in the project’s theoretical conceptualization and defining features. Building on these insights, this contribution examines the factors that shaped the development of a specific RBTPD program carried out in a lower secondary school in the Emilia–Romagna region, within Group A of the PRIN2022 project coordinated by the Crespi Center (Agrusti et al., 2024).

After outlining the objectives and thematic focus of the PRIN project, connected to the investigation and mitigation of educational poverty in schools, the paper retraces the work undertaken in the school, focused on the area of assessment beliefs and practices, with particular attention to several dimensions included in the SARF self‑assessment tool (Damiani et al., 2025). The analysis concentrates on the initial phase focused on identifying and sharing contextual needs and on collaboratively defining the goals of the specific RBTPD project. It provides an overview of the qualitative and quantitative tools used to capture students’ and teachers’ needs, the evidence collected, and how this information was discussed and interpreted with the participating teachers. The paper then examines how specific contextual characteristics influenced the program development, also referencing the suggestions offered by Ciani and colleagues (2025) on the RBTPD process, together with the reflections and actions that emerged during the work. Specifically, the paper will illustrate how factors related to time availability, teachers perceived sense of control, and leadership posed significant challenges to implementing of the RBTPD study, and how, based on this awareness, the organization of the program was subsequently reconsidered and redesigned to make it sustainable. Finally, the paper will delve into an analysis of the impact of the project both in terms of its content and its methodological approach, drawing on the perspectives of researchers and teachers, and presenting themes that emerged from interviews with participating teachers.