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Preface
“
Better a well-made rather than a well-illed head”
Michel de Montaigne
How do you measure the effectiveness of a lesson? But before that,
what is meant by effectiveness when it comes to teaching? This appar-
ently trivial question is the starting point for this volume.
Traditionally, the idea of school is associated with the idea of learn-
ing, initially just notions. The irst, obvious answer to our question
then is this: teaching effectiveness is measured in terms of the results
achieved by the students. The interest shifts to the expected results.
We take a step forward and we realise that in order to measure effec-
tiveness, we must irst ask ourselves what are the results that we expect
to achieve through teaching. It soon becomes clear that the transmis-
sion of teaching based on the mere acquisition of knowledge is now
wholly inadequate. The real mission of the modern school is to train
young people for life, make them able to deal with situations, endow
them with the necessary tools to face the future.
Considering a complete study cycle, from the primary school to uni-
versity, students who graduate today began studying about twenty
years ago, in an environment totally different from today. How could
school prepare him to face an unknown reality? In a society of the
digital revolution, characterised by continuous and fast changing
environment, the school must understand the necessity to train stu-
dents in the use of technologies and for new professions in order to
solve the problems yet to be known. Faced with these new require-
ments, the school and the teachers are required irst to have the abil-
ity to help young people develop the skills and expertise necessary to
address the challenges of society in which they live as protagonists.
Such knowledge, accumulated for some time internationally, has re-
sulted in the investment of substantial resources in inding new and
more effective training and learning methods, with the aim of achiev-