Fight Dispersion Through Education: The Results of the First Cycle of the NoOut Project

Dropping out from school may rely on many internal and external factors. As internal factors, learning difficulties and the experience of failure could trigger no commitment, rejection and resistance to school and a general perception of inadequacy. Here, we show results of a series of interventions / actions implemented in four schools. Participants were subjected to a total of 70 hours of intervention in class within six months, through the promotion of an active and non-traditional teaching. Before and after the intervention, the test C.A.S. (Das-Naglieri Cognitive Assesment System) was administered to participants to assess any effects of enhancement of cognitive functions that underlie learning processes. Results show a significant improvement in almost all the experimental groups, compared with their control ones, suggesting that this kind of approach could lead to a systematic improvement of the cognitive resources of the students, diminishing the risk of failure and drop out.