What do students expect from learning? A research on skills as a bridge between school and university.

Which competencies do students expect to achieve by attending University? How deep is the gap between School and University concerning skills and competencies provided and requested? Are school programs and usual methodologies able to prepare them properly to enter Higher Education studies? Which role can play Informal learning in Formal education to reduce this gap? Answering these questions firstly means focusing on both the main competencies students should have acquired and the learning paths they have to follow for improving and developing them. According to international agencies like UNESCO, EU, and OECD, and from our standpoint, students need basic skills like: Media and Information Literacy skills, not only such as ICT competencies and coding, but as the ability to understand media languages and to reuse creatively media contents; Cognitive skills, as the opportunity to rework knowledge in a transmedial and multidisciplinary way; Soft skills, as the chance to cooperate, to encourage resilience and self-management attitudes. On an international indicators basis a questionnaire was designed to test student trends and needs on different learning aspects and dimensions. Since 2017 this survey has been addressed to students attending “Mediology” at Art, History, Theatre and Spectacle Department in La Sapienza University of Rome. At the moment more than 1000 participants have responded, allowing an analysis of the results of a sufficiently large sample. From the first data and results examination, it is possible to identify the skills students generally consider essential among those that the University has listed as useful. It shows a widespread technological demand and psychosocial skills request that should be faced in order to increasingly transform teaching methods at school and university: for example, by fostering project and collaborative activities as well as by supporting the Third Mission and Cultural Heritage preservation. Besides, one issue arises: how teachers may improve their competencies in the sectors considered crucial by students? Might a learning agency or inner organization be an adequate learning infrastructure for their training? Is it necessary to offer other professional development forms? Or to imagine new teacher figures?