Rethinking educational continuity through participatory action-research and professional development pathways. Case Study Italy.

This report illustrates the findings of the Italian case study carried out within the START project.The project – which was designed for promoting a renewed reflection on the issue of educational continuity in the light of the new regulatory scenarios outlined by Law 107/2015 (with specific reference to the establishment of the integrated system 0-6) in the national context, and in the light ET2020 strategy with reference to the European context – is aimed at supporting the educational action of preschool and primary school teachers through the experimentation of innovative practices facilitating children’s smooth transitions from one grade to the next. After briefly outlining the context in which the overall project is located, the present report will focus on the experimentation carried out in the Italian case study, which involved university researchers at the Department of Educational Sciences of Bologna University and pre- and primary school teachers of DD Vignola in a shared action-research and professional development pathway.