Promoting the use of INVALSI data in scientific research and teaching

The Seminar “INVALSI data: a tool for teaching and scientific research” will be held in Rome from 25th to 28th November 2021. This event, which has reached its 5th edition, has the purpose to promote the use of INVALSI data for scientific research and teaching. The data collected every year by INVALSI are a useful tool for investigating the characteristics of the Italian school system and for defining appropriate support or enhancement interventions. All interested parties are invited to submit research works based on INVALSI data.

To download the poster of the Seminar click here.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

In October all users will be informed if the event will be in presence or online, according to the evolution of the pandemic situation.

THE EVENT TAKES PLACE UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF:

SESSIONS

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Session 1

National students’ tests: how to make them comparable

Session co-organized with Espanet Italia 

Scientific coordinators of the session: Emmanuele Pavolini (Espanet Italia), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

An increasing number of countries has been introducing in recent decades tests in order to measure students’ achievements during their school years. It is a very rich and interesting material that allows policy makers, education professionals and researchers to study in-depth how the education system works and to improve it. At the same time, there are difficulties in partially homogenising the data collected in different countries in order to make them more comparable. Therefore, An important goal for the professionals and scientific community working on education systems would be to start discussing on how to adopt protocols and data collection choices that would allow for partial comparability of the data collected, following what has been done, for instance, by the Luxemburg Income Study in relation to measures of wealth and income.

Keywords: educational poverty - inequalities - indicators - data collaboratives - territories - public investments

Session 2

Support and evaluation of education and training policies: synergies between institutions

Session co-organized with ISTAT

Scientific coordinators of the session: Barbara Baldazzi (ISTAT), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

The National Statistical Systems are called upon to respond to issues that the last year has highlighted and further accentuated: school drop-outs, inadeguate skills, difficulties in accessing tertiary education, educational poverty and the vulnerability of some categories of subjects. The PNRR also presents a mission entirely devoted to the education, training and research system. A fundamental prerequisite for responding to these stimuli is harmonisation and standardisation of administrative and survey sources and their integration for a comprehensive reading of the phenomenon. Indeed, it becomes important and necessary to have timely and accurate monitoring data, included in international frameworks such as the SDGs, shared and produced in synergy among the various providers of statistics. The papers presented in the session will try to highlight the potential of interaction between different data sources.

Key words: Early leavers from education and training, skills, interactions, integrated systems, monitoring.

Session 3

The post-pandemic educational challenges

Session co-organized with Save the Children   

Scientific coordinators of the session: Barbara Baldazzi (ISTAT), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

Italy is characterized by unequal educational offer: lack of early childhood services, full-time programmes in primary and lower secondary schools, school feeding programmes and sports equipment and infrastructures, along with unsafe, not innovative or inclusive learning environments, insufficient new media education. In addition, the cooperation between schools and non profit organizations, civil society and cultural institutions is, in many areas, very limited. All these factors lead a large number of children and youth leaving school early. A reversal of the trend in public investments in schools is necessary. However, it is essential to establish which territories to prioritize limited financial resources available, and what indicators of severe educational deprivation to be used to channel resources. Can a “data collaborative” system help to identify the areas most at risk in terms of educational poverty?

Keywords: educational poverty, inequalities, indicators, data collaboratives, territories, public investments

Session 4

Citizenship skills in young Italians. A comparative perspective

Scientific coordinators of the session: Maria Magdalena Isac (researcher, KU Leuven, Centre for Political Research), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

According to recent crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, citizenship skills are increasingly considered as crucial mechanisms for ensuring the functioning of democracies and for a sustainable, fair and inclusive world. Data collected by INVALSI in international surveys, such as the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study – ICCS, could help advance our understanding of the development of these skills in young people and of the related social and educational factors. This session will include contributions useful to investigate citizenship skills in young Italians in a comparative perspective at an international level and including elements about the implications for educational policies and practices.

Keywords: citizenship skills, citizenship education, international comparative research, International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS).

Session 5

INVALSI data: a tool to improve teaching

Scientific coordinators of the session: Ellen Claes (associate professor, KU Leuven, Centre for Political Research), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

Achieving quality teaching is one of the main objectives of the school system. On the one hand, it must be able to give adequate responses to the expectations of all stakeholders and, on the other hand, to introduce tools, actions and checks through which the training offer can be constantly improved. The contributions presented in this session must be about the difficulties and perspectives of teaching and pave the way for new solutions, thanks to INVALSI data.

Keywords: teaching practices, learning, educational research, technologies and tools in education, innovation and school improvement

Session 6

INVALSI data and student characteristics

Some learning milestones are valid for all students. However, these goals are achieved with different times and methods. The study of individual characteristics such as gender, origin, socio-economic-cultural background, etc. highlights differences and similarities that have always distinguished school results. Contributions presented in this session, of which the INVALSI data constitute a valuable resource, require surveys to discuss the issue of school inclusion and strategic proposals in order to fill learning gaps.

Keywords: background socio-economico-culturale, genere, origine, differenze, rendimento scolastico, inclusione, effetto scuola

Session 7

Covid-19 pandemic and the effects on school results

Scientific coordinators of the session: Andres Sandoval Hernandez (Head of Department of Education, University of Bath), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

School education is an organized form of education that takes place in schools and practices a great influence on members of society. What happens when the organization loses its best known form? The closure of the school was, in fact, one of the first measures put in place to counter the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The works presented in this session will be able to use INVALSI data to investigate how and to what extent the closure of schools may have influenced students' learning.

Keywords: covid-19, Dad, DID, results, strategies, quality of the education system

Session 8

Methods and models applied to INVALSI data

Scientific coordinators of the session: Daniele Vidoni (policy officer, European Commission, DG Competition), Patrizia Falzetti (INVALSI)

The purpose of a mathematical model is to represent a specific object or phenomenon as incisively as possible and its purpose is to make future prognoses on a system. INVALSI data therefore constitute a large-scale database for their application. In this session we will welcome those contributions that will indicate new solutions and perspectives for the school system as a whole.

Keywords: mathematical models, methodologies, data, innovation, experimentation

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

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Esteemed keynote speakers will introduce the main themes of the conference.

PROGRAM

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SUBMISSION

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Abstract Submission

Interested parties must send an abstract (in Italian and English, maximum 6,000 characters including spaces for each) together with 3-6 keywords (in Italian and English) and a short biography (maximum 350 characters including spaces, in Italian and English) of each author / co-author.

Guidelines for Abstract Submission

For both the scientific research and the teaching tier, the abstract must summarizes the entire work in order to allow readers to quickly get an idea of the contribution. Therefore it should be:

• Accurate: the abstract should reflect the aims and content of the contribution. Do not include information that does not appear in the contribution;
• Non-evaluative: must report data and not judge;
• Coherent and legible: the language must be clear and concise; use verbs rather than equivalent nouns and the active form rather than the passive one.

In order to improve the evaluation, both abstracts must be prepared in the following format and using the following paragraph style:

• Introduction, to clarify the paper orientation and with references in the literature;
• Object and research hypothesis;
• Data;
• Method(s) employed;
• Results achieved.

Guidelines for submitting contributions

• Contributions about research sessions must be presented in English with slides in English.
• Contributions about teaching sessions must be presented in Italian with slides in Italian.

Paper Publication

Contributions submitted to the Seminar may be included in a volume with an ISBN code.

These contributions mustn’t be already published or in the course of publication.

These contributions, when accepted, will be included in a volume with an ISBN code.

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DEADLINES

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9th august 2021
Open call for paper.

1st september 2021
Opening abstract submission.

25th september 2021 2th october 2021
Deadline for abstract submission.

15th october 2021
Notification of abstract evaluation.

16th october 2021 – 2th november 2021
Speaker registration.

3th – 15 21th november 2021
Participant registration.

15th november 2021
Upload presentation.

30th January 2022
Submission of the contribution.

SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

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ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

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