Teaching practices and use of digital in the DADA model (Didactics for Learning Environments)

The paper presents the results of the monitoring of digital augmented teaching, in a lower secondary school in Rome, which adopts the DADA model (Didattiche per Ambienti Di Apprendimento – Didactics for Learning Environments). Based on a radical pedagogical-didactic and organizational innovation, the DADA model is characterized by the presence of ‘classrooms – learning environments’: each space is assigned to one or two teachers of the same subject and the students move from one classroom to another, during school hours. The monitoring study included one hundred and twenty hours (one week in December 2019) of systematic non-participant observation of the four ‘experimental’ classrooms. During the observation, designed according to the principles of ‘Research-Training’ (Asquini, 2018), particular attention was paid to the use of digital devices (iPads) by teachers and students. A grid was used to collect the data, designed to identify the time dedicated to three moments of teaching: the activities carried out (e.g., construction or transmission of meanings, consolidation, planning), the functions of these activities (e.g., introducing new knowledge, monitoring, and verify learning or manage the organization) and actions (e.g., frontal lesson or discussion). The research questions investigate the use of the digital, and what are the educational activities, which involve greater use of the digital device for the functions more closely related to teaching. Differences between the classrooms in the use of time were found, based on the different actions carried out with digital devices. The 2018 European Parliament Recommendation establishes the role of digital skills as key competences for lifelong learning: they have an impact on education, training and learning and lead to the development of more flexible environments. The potential of digital becomes propulsive for a democratic attitude, oriented towards the construction of active citizenship and social justice. Bringing a non-linear logic into the school of organized knowledge could lead to dedicating more time to learning.