Abstract/Notes: In this paper we will present certain aspects of teaching Italian in the experimental language laboratory of the Montessori School of Milan. The laboratory consists of a series of meetings between teachers and researchers, featuring lessons conducted in class by researchers with the aim of creating a secret language together, and eventually its imaginary world. Furthermore, the teaching methodology will be set out in a consistent methodological and psychopedagogical framework as a support for learning Italian as a first and as well as second language. In particular, language productions will be analysed from a sociocultural perspective by considering secret languages as new cultural artefacts that help develop socio-relational competence, that is both self-regulating and metacognitive.

Language: Italian

ISSN: 2038-9744

Abstract/Notes: The psychological research and changes occurred in pedagogical thinking have led to new methods in foreign language teaching called “humanistic methods” or “fringe methods” which focus on some aspects neglected by the traditional strategies: feelings, emotions, interpersonal relationships: suggestopedia, first an experimental method belonging to suggestology, has become a psychological method of teaching and learning foreign languages based mainly on indirect suggestion which appeals to a peripheral subliminal; the silent way, which stems from the trend initiated by the Italian specialist in pedagogy Maria Montessori is based on the fact that the process of learning a foreign language is a natural one, which children perform involuntarily; cooperative learning, whose roots are in the counseling techniques of psychotherapy, is greatly based on group dynamics; the total physical response, which originates in the action-based methods, refers to the learner’s reaction, to the instructions received from the teacher and it has been a successful method to teach foreign language for children.

Language: Romanian

ISSN: 2067-7839, 2247-9376, 2068-780X

Abstract/Notes: The psychological research and changes occurred in pedagogical thinking have led to new methods in foreign language teaching called “humanistic methods” or “fringe methods” which focus on some aspects neglected by the traditional strategies: feelings, emotions, interpersonal relationships: suggestopedia, first an experimental method belonging to suggestology, has become a psychological method of teaching and learning foreign languages based mainly on indirect suggestion which appeals to a peripheral subliminal; the silent way, which stems from the trend initiated by the Italian specialist in pedagogy Maria Montessori is based on the fact that the process of learning a foreign language is a natural one, which children perform involuntarily; cooperative learning, whose roots are in the counseling techniques of psychotherapy, is greatly based on group dynamics; the total physical response, which originates in the action-based methods, refers to the learner’s reaction, to the instructions received from the teacher and it has been a successful method to teach foreign language for children.

Language: English

ISSN: 2067-7839, 2247-9376, 2068-780X

Language: English

DOI: 10.1086/461732

ISSN: 1554-8279, 0013-5984

Language: English

DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-3992.1993.tb00550.x

ISSN: 1745-3992

Language: English

DOI: 10.1080/00131729509336386

ISSN: 0013-1725, 1938-8098

Abstract/Notes: There is now a well developed literature on the impact of high stakes testing on teaching approaches and student outcomes. However, the student perspective has been neglected in much research. This article draws on a mixed method longitudinal study of secondary students in the Republic of Ireland to explore the impact of two sets of high stakes examinations on student experiences. The analyses are based on surveys completed by 897 lower secondary students and 748 upper secondary students, along with 47 lower secondary and 53 upper secondary group interviews with students. Findings show the presence of impending high stakes exams results in increased workload for students, with many reporting pressure and stress. Throughout their schooling career, students clearly favour active learning approaches. However, for some students, particularly high-aspiring middle-class students, these views change as they approach the terminal high stakes exam, with many showing a strong preference for a more narrowly focussed approach to exam preparation. This article highlights how students shift from a position of critiquing exam-focused teaching methods as inauthentic to accepting such methods as representing ‘good teaching’.

Language: English

DOI: 10.1007/s11092-012-9154-6

ISSN: 1874-8600, 1874-8597

Language: English

Language: English

DOI: 10.1177/002248718103200209

ISSN: 0022-4871

Abstract/Notes: Dr. Maria Montessori (1870-1952), saw the child as a ‘spiritual embryo’ naturally gravitating towards a state of ‘normalization’ through the evolving discovery of a ‘cosmic task’ that emerged from inquiring into one’s identity and role in the universe. Although she laid a philosophical framework for this ‘educating of the human potential’; she never openly discussed sexuality and sexual knowledge as a necessary part of this development. Dr Riane Eisler is a contemporary feminist systems theorist whose ‘partnership model’ of sexual politics embraces (and, in fact, openly endorses) the tenets of the Montessori approach.

Language: English

ISSN: 1916-8128