Recognize Working Student Competence In The University Educational Path: A Model From Experimentation

Our paper aims to present a model for the recognition of working student competences. This model has been worked out by the first and second level degree courses in "Education and Training Science " at "Sapienza" University of Rome. The results coming from the experimentation of this model are discussed in our paper. The need to test a model of recognition of working student competences arose from the fact that many of the students who enroll in these degree programs are mainly workers working in the field of vocational training or other educational contexts who have developed competences not only during their work experience, but also thanks to training courses and refresher courses. The basis of the model tested is the belief that an accurate reflection on personal and work experience facilitates professional development and guides towards the acquisition of new knowledge and competences. Reflecting on the career path of adult working students involves a reflection on the intertwining of knowledge and experience that occurs in complex life paths. At the same time it obliges the students to put themselves in an autobiographical dimension, that does not exclude the possibility of distancing from the purely subjective experience and of developing a critical elaboration. In the search for this balance, two closely interlinked elements may be helpful: the use of narrative mechanism as a privileged form of interpretation of the experience; the value of writing as an aid in clarifying the experience and in distancing from it. Therefore the model we developed for the recognition of adult working student competences is based on the elaboration of a report in the form of a narration organized by areas. This model of recognition of competences is based on the need to have a strong connection between theoretical/formal knowledge and practical experience. The means by which to achieve this connection is precisely the narrative, whether written or oral, because it allows and facilitates reflection on own actions and thoughts. For our purposes it was important that students documented their experience, while avoiding the mechanical collection and analysis of facts with no or inadequate interpretation. In other words, we also had the aim of recovering the etymological value of the term docere or "inform", "say" and then to recall, to keep track of their experience in the sense of remembering. If documenting their professional experience is not just about producing a set of documents and drawing up a CV, but to rebuild - and building - a story, its own history, then it becomes evident the centrality of the narrative mechanism, as a device to interpret the experience. In the narrative, in fact, the experience is re-told, brought to mind and experienced a second time. In order to make this process functional in reconsidering the experience, particularly the professional experience, is useful to set the story through writing. For the evaluation of the experience, the model proposed requires students to reflect in writing on their professional experience. This reflection takes place considering Aldo Visalberghi's pedagogical encyclopedia in which the competences required and involved in training processes are identified. They are divided into four areas: of the content, of psychology, of method, of sociology.