SECOND CALL FOR CHAPTER PROPOSALS
Proposal Submission Deadline: June 30, 2011

Didactic Strategies and Technologies for Education

Incorporating Advancements

A project promoted by  http://lascuolachefunziona.it,  with the scientific support of the Educational Technologies Research Group, Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Bologna. 

Published by  http://www.igi-global.com

Contact: dropsintheocean.info.edu@gmail.com

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the world has witnessed a growing wave of local initiatives in support of public schools.

Teachers, cultural associations and civil society have been playing an active part in grassroots experiments aimed at helping schools in the creative elaboration of new educational methods, also exploiting information technologies.

Here answers are coming from those directly faced with educational issues, in contrast with the more common top-down reforms, where experts’ committees draw up didactic experimentation plans to be put forward to willing teachers.

Experiments like that are often very effective but, unfortunately, they rarely get known beyond the immediate sphere of their promoters. Moreover, they tend to be short-lived because promoters don't have the strength to sustain them and a suitable supporting network is lacking. They are like drops in the ocean: they apparently cannot change the entire educational system. But the ocean of whole human community could be flooded by many such contained experiments that would transform it, if the most meaningful of them could be fostered, spread and developed.

OBJECTIVE OF THE BOOK

Aim of this book is to collect the most significant educational achievements carried out by teachers, school administrators and local associations working together with public institutions, from primary school to university, in a form that can be used by  both scholars and people involved in improving the education system.

TARGET AUDIENCE

This book is aimed at

• Pedagogy researchers interested in the strategies devised by educators to increase learning willingness, to create a relationship of trust with students, and reduce the rate of school failure.

• Social scientists investigating the educational impact of society on young people and the value of experience transmitted to them by adults

• Local policy makers who will find in the book a compendium of ideas arising from the research of educational remedies to the growing inefficiency of traditional methods.

• School administrators, in their effort to assess and promote effective knowledge and educational practices

• Teachers and actors in the world of education who recognize that traditional methods do not always work and are therefore looking for new educational solutions

RECOMMENDED TOPICS INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO THE FOLLOWING:

1. Socio-constructivist learning (from activism to social constructivism, workshops and learning by doing, cooperative learning in the classroom, learning as research-action, meta-cognitive dimensions of learning)

2. Internationalization of the educational experience (school twinning, collaborative language learning, participation in international projects, cross-cultural comparison)

3. Interdisciplinary learning (multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary learning; ecology of learning, holistic dimension of competence)

4. School inclusion and reduction of the impact of disabilities (implementing full inclusion programs; strategy for the inclusion of persons with disabilities; assistive technologies; compensatory and dispensatory measures in order to facilitate learning; individualized learning)

5. Education towards active citizenship (community integrated educational system; democratic participation in school life; education through commitment and accountability; Empowerment strategies in education)

6. Relationship with families  (school-family communication; school education vs home school; formal education vs informal learning)

7. Educational initiatives in collaboration with, or started by external organizations  (local, cultural, sports and charity organizations).

8. Online collaborative resources (Potential impact of introducing internet tools into school; teachers’ collaboration in a community of practice; school as a real/virtual environment; e-learning tools; educational use of social networking and of other tools, from textbooks to class websites, and of hand-held devices; online cooperative learning).

9. Desktop digital resources (classroom computers; multimedia; hypertext; simulation video games; educational softwares, mind-mapping...)

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Practitioners are invited to submit an abstract, less than 400 words, of their proposed paper.

Abstract should feature an informative title that contains all the key elements of your experience

Text should clearly highlight the pedagogical issues and explain the learning experience that has been carried out; authors should specify the topic, the type of school and age of the pupils or students involved.

Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by July 4, 2011 and sent chapter guidelines.  

Full chapters are expected to be submitted by September 12, 2011.

All submitted chapters are to undergo a double-blind review process by at least three experts. Authors will be notified of the result of the reviewing process by November 12, 2011.

SCIENTIFIC ROUTE

Authors will be instructed to divide their chapter into a descriptive part and a structured part, so that assessment and comparison of the most meaningful features of the detailed educational activities can be made.

An analysis of all submitted chapters will be made by a team of researchers from Bologna University. The outcome will then be discussed with all authors and finally published as a specific section of the book, as a guide to scholars through the collection

SEND PROPOSAL TO:   pubblicazione-igi@lascuolachefunziona.it

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PUBLISHER: IGI-Global

IMPORTANT DATES:

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: