Welcome to...
Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe

A little background...

This school is the last one we visited, and it was amazing !

To cut a long story short, we arrived in Italy at the beginning of June. In Italy, summers are very hot, which means schools close quite early depending on the region. Since we were staying at Bologna, we tried to visit schools that were close to Emilia-Romagna region, that were still oppened. We succeded in having 3 meetings with schools in Firenze because they were still opened in Tuscany. We then had a lovely discussion on instagram with Paola, a wonderful teacher at the Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe, in the small town of Vigevano. She explained that classes were over but that we could visit the school and have a discussion with her and some students anyways. We would have never come to Vigevano if it was not to visit a school and we were so happy we did.

Arriving to Vigevano was quite difficult. Indeed, trains in Italy are late sometimes and we experienced it to come to Vigevano. Our first train was running late so we missed our connection and had to wait for another hour in a small train station in the middle of nowhere. But that’s what adventure looks like !

We finally arrived to Vigevano and were really impressed by this beautiful city. With the italian sun, it felt like we were experiencing the real “Dolce Vita”. After a few minutes of walking, we finally met Paola and some students at a restaurant, situated at the Piazza Ducale, to eat… some pizzas of course ! They were so welcoming ! Even if it was the end of school in Lombardia few days before our visit, Paola arranged a lunch with her and some students that came during their holidays to have a chat with us. We then had the chance to visit the school, and to interview some students.

VERITAS

Ready to discover The Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe ?

Paola and the students were so welcoming ! After having lunch all together and talking about schools, education systems and the differences between Italy and France, Paola told us we should climb to the top of the Sforza Castle Towers, to enjoy the beautiful view on the town. “You can’t fully understand how the school works if you don’t see where it is situated, and where students live” she said.

Hundreds of steps later, the landscape was overwhelming ! We could see the Piazza Ducale of course, but also all the red roofs and even the Alps far away. After having lunch and discovering the city, we were ready to discover this school, full of history.

Genesis of the school

The Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe was funded 140 years ago by Dominicans. This huge magnificent red building, surrounded by nature, seems to provide a peaceful learning environment for its students, who mostly come from Vigevano itself. It starts from Kindergarten to High School, so most of the students know each other for a long time. We could see that by the way they interacted one with each other, with kindness.

In Italy, High Schools are specialized. The Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe is a Human Sciences High School. Thus, the main subjects taught are pedagogy, anthropology, psychology, sociology and social research.

You could think at first that a dominican school that has been founded more than a hundred years ago would not drive a lot of pedagogical innovation, that is untrue ! The school combines a christian tradtionnal learning environnement, a good knowing of the city, without forgetting the need for the school to evolve in a society that is rapidly changing. It mixes tradition with modernity to foster a distinctive and effective learning environment.

The Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe aims "at the formation of the true man, capable of knowing and developing the various dimensions of his being in order to build a strong personality, of unifying himself around an ideal that is the driving force of his life and of opening himself to others in solidarity and friendship."

San Giuseppe Vigevano : The educational project

The Educational Project | Istituto Paritario San Giuseppe (sangiuseppevigevano.eu)

Being part of the INDIRE movement

The Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe is part of the movement of Educational Avant-gardes, composed of 22 leading schools and 600 participating schools throughout Italy. This action-research project, promoted by the INDIRE (National Institute for Documentation, Innovation, and Educational Research), follow those objectives :

Transform the transmissive model of schools
Leverage the opportunities offered by ICT
Create new spaces for learning
Reorganize the school operational time
Reconnect the school knowledge to the society knowledge
Invest in human capital by rethinking relathionships
Promote innovation to be sustainable and transferable

INDIRE identified 12 paths of innovation, called IDEAS, to transform the education system in Italy. The schools adhering to the Movement can then, experience one or more ideas, or even propose new ideas to be experienced in other schools. The Movement is now dedicated to the dissemination of innovative teaching methods across Italy, encouraging contagion from school to school.

What’s remarkable about INDIRE is their emphasis on the transferability of ideas. A good teaching practice that works well in one school may not work in another, due to varying contexts, including different teachers, parents, students, and cultures. For instance, successful pedagogical practices that we observed in Denmark may not be effective in France without considering how to adapt them to the French education system, as well as the specific area and school.

To go back to our danish example, in Denmark. Workers in Denmark tend to finish work earlier in the day and have more holidays to take care of their children. On the other hand, in France, it would be impossible to follow the Danish school day because people tend to finish work later. Also, children could not start school at the age of six since the maternity and paternity leaves do not extend to that age. INDIRE is well aware of these differences, and even if the Movement works within one education system : the italian one, they akowledge the unique characteristics of each italian region and school.

In order to adopt an idea, each school is provided with helpful guidelines for its implementation. These guidelines include the results of the research-action work on the particular idea, as well as comments from various leading schools that have adopted it. The guidelines highlight positive aspects as well as any critical issues that the school may have encountered, and provide advice for their resolution based on experience. They also provide precise descriptions of the organizational, didactic, and management processes. For each idea, there are referents available to contact for more precise information or help in successfully implementing it.

Thus, being part of the INDIRE movement sends a clear signal : that the school is committed to innovate and explore other ways of teaching and learning.

Adopting the DDA methodology

WHAT IS THE DDA METHODOLOGY ?

DADA stands for “Didactic for Learning environments” and this pedagogical innovation is at the center of the school. Indeed, when you first enter the school, you can feel that something is different. You could see colors, paintings, and students that were proud of their school, of showing us what is different about it, what is innovative. Soon, Paola said : “here we are, this is my classroom !” “Your classroom ?” We thought, “but in middle school, teachers don’t have a propper classroom, classmates do.”

Before entering the classroom, we could see the beautiful painting at the entrance, representing the most important historical figures, from Gandhi to John Lennon and Maria Callas : we were for sure entering a History classroom. It seems like nothing but seeing all those historical figures immediately transferred us to another atmosphere, another world. That is the aim of Didactif for Learning environment.

The main innovation here is to build a “classroom-learning environment”. Indeed, one or two teachers of the same discipline have an assigned classroom. They can arrange it as they wish, decorate it or not, arrange the tables and chairs according to the discipline they teach. That forces them to think about how their subject is unique, how it can be teach using space and pedagogical materials, and how setting an atymosphere can make students more aware of what they are learning and more active in their own training. It is a shift from the traditional classroom assigned to a class to a thematic learning environment, where teachers remain in the same room while students are moving from one room to another.

Students becoming in their learning

The DDA model was first put into practice in 2014 in two different schools in Italy. As the results of the PISA test were lower than the average of OEDC countries, researchers wanted to implement a new kind of learning where students become more active, motivated and positive about their training. They thus used the Maslow Pyramid and the Learning Pyramid, which states that “doing” guarantees a better acquisition of skills, to build this new pedagogical approach. Even if the learning pyramid has been criticised for its lack of consistent data, it is a good basis to rethink pedagogy towards a more practicle approach.

Learning pyramid The Learning Pyramid – David Didau (learningspy.co.uk)

CLASSROOMS

To correctly implement the DADA methodology at the Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe, it was necessary to rethink all the education space. A classroom exists for each discipline, enabling the teacher to redesign their own space. Classrooms are equiped with furnitures that can be quickly transformed, creating an environment that is not only functionnal, but also beautiful. They are able to design their own confortable space, pleasant and welcoming, where the learning experience is something to be lived fully.

We could see that in the philosophy classroom for instance, the sitting plan is quite different with sets of 6 tables and chairs organised in circles to enhance discussions between students, as philosophy is a subject you need to discuss about, to have constructive debates on. The final objective of philosophy is to enable every student to use their critical thinking to knowingly navigate in life, and the classroom atmosphere is, in that sense, quite inspiring. The classroom is surrounded by shelves and books that almost whisper to us that knowledge is key.

The science classroom has the same sitting plan with, nevertheless, a small difference. All around the room, you can see small tables dedicated to experiments with sinks and chemicals. Thus, the room is well organised between the theory, discussed in class in group of 6 students in circle, and the practice, using the experiment tables. You can also see various student works about the earth or volcanos which highlights their work and implication during the course, but also reminds to them what they were capable of doing and thus what they are capable of doing now and in the future.

All teachers showcase the work of their students in their classroom, and they are very proud of this, as we could hear Paola explaining all the different amazing ideas of their students to illustrate a notion or as an end-of-module project.

Furthermore, the english classroom is diving us into England. Once you enter, you can see a wallpaper of the typical red phone box, bricks walls and eglish words, as if you were walking down an english street. The sitting plan is more classical, as it is a language classroom, but english teachers chose to put a huge chalk board at the back of the class so that they could use it to explain grammar or conjugation.

ADVANTAGES OF THE DDA METHODOLOGY

Because there is a classroom per subject, sometimes 2 or 3 teachers of the same discipline share the same classroom. Sharing a classroom with collegues increases the quality of work and the enhancement of professionnal skills, as well as cooperation between teachers. Indeed, because you share a same space, you are aware of what themes your colleague is currently discussing in class, of their teaching methods. Thus, you instinctively draw bridges between the courses and classes. As Paola explained, teachers are more accustomed to work together, to share knowledge about a student or good practices. They actively learn to work constructively, collaboratively and inclusively together.

Furthermore, according to neuroscience, movement represents an energizing factor for students, stimulating their concentration and bringing more meaning to their learning. Some scientists argue that the best way to activate the mind (its cognitions and emotions) is to keep the body in motion, even lightly. Thus, by asking students to walk from one learning space to another, the Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe enhances their concentration capacity and energy during the day.

Furthermore, when students are placed in diverse environmental settings, they tend to approach learning with fresh energy and excitement for each new subject.

Ultimately, creating an environment that students can call their own is key to empowering them in the learning process. This allows for experiential and cooperative learning, where students take an active role in constructing their own knowledge. By fostering a sense of ownership and motivation, this new approach leads to more engaged and successful learners.

By fostering cooperation between teachers and providing a safe, welcoming and energizing environment, the DDA methodology improves the quality of teaching and learning.

The fresco at the entrance of the entrance of the history classroom

PEdagogy project

pedagogy project

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY CLEMENTINE DUNGLAS

On the 12/28/2023

Learning by teaching

As part of the active learning system being implemented by Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe, and because Pedagogy is a main subject, many students’ final projects involve explaining complex scientific or historical concepts to young children in kindergarten.

The Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe believes that in order to truly comprehend a concept one must be able to explain it to young children. This connection between the ability to explain ideas and a deep understanding of them has been demonstrated in educational psychology and pedagogy literature, as discussed by Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner. When explaining a complex concept to a child, one must understand the key components and ideas and communicate them clearly and simply, as the child may lack the necessary background knowledge and vocabulary to understand it otherwise.

It’s important to improve your vocabulary and avoid relying too much on difficult terms. Instead, focus on understanding concepts rather than just memorizing definitions. Keep in mind that children may have a different approach to learning than you did in school, so being open to new perspectives and adapting to new questions is a sign of flexibility and a deeper understanding of the subject.

As you can see on the right, final projects involve designing books for Kindergarten children working on different materials, colors, and organizing important notions.

To conclude, we can say that Instituto San Giuseppe succeeds in keeping its traditions, while exploring new paths to adapt to the rapidly changing society with classroom-learning environments and by teaching pedagogy. The students and teachers we saw were very welcoming and proud of their school, and we can easily understand why.

Bye bye Instituto Paritario San Giuseppe

What inspired us

Being fierce of its traditions while keeping an eye on pedagogical innovation and new ways of learning.

We were really impressed by the capacity of the school to be traditionnal and modern at the same time.

During our lunch with Paola and the students, we discussed the difficulty of orientation and chosing the right path after High School. They explained that in Italy, even if you have different kind of High schools (classical, scientific, fine arts, teacher training, artistic, technical institute, professional institute) you can completely change your mind and change higher education project.

Indeed, a student that did classical high school can completely go to a med school afterwards… and succeed ! Because every higher education school aims to include every student, regardless of High School background.

In Italy, there is no hierarchy between subjects.

Paola explained that teachers and students give the same value to maths, litterature, and arts ! As a result, children are more free to express their true self, regardless of subjects more or less values in society.

Our last day...

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