Italiano (Italia)
This theme is connected with the increasing need for mathematical, scientific, technological education which characterizes our society and with the need for fresh approaches both in methodologies and contents. From this standpoint Italy's gap is particularly serious (see OCSE Survey "Pisa 2003" e Pisa 2006"). As to this context the activity focuses on the study of representation systems able to connect abstract scientific knowledge with concrete personal experience of the learner. More specifically, it concerns the study of iconical representations(1) and tangible representations (2), i.e., directly manipulable physical objects, able to create a correspondence between abstract operations on conceptual entities and concrete operations in an iconical and motor-perceptive space. In this context collaborative learning is particularly important since it creates a real basis for group learning based on direct experience and on meaning negotiations.
This theme is connected with the increasing need for mathematical, scientific, technological education which characterizes our society and with the need for fresh approaches both in methodologies and contents. From this standpoint Italy's gap is particularly serious (see OCSE Survey "Pisa 2003" e Pisa 2006"). As to this context the activity focuses on the study of representation systems able to connect abstract scientific knowledge with concrete personal experience of the learner. More specifically, it concerns the study of iconical representations(1) and tangible representations (2), i.e., directly manipulable physical objects, able to create a correspondence between abstract operations on conceptual entities and concrete operations in an iconical and motor-perceptive space. In this context collaborative learning is particularly important since it creates a real basis for group learning based on direct experience and on meaning negotiations.