La riforma del Liceo Scientifico: il curriculum Scienze Applicate

Abstract

The topic of the present research is the reform of the Scientific Liceo, focusing on the “Scienze Applicate” course. The first part consist of the presentation of the theoretical background. The first chapter provides information about the history of the Scientific Liceo, since its institution in 1923, promoted by the Minister of Education Gentile, through the various experimentations, to the Gelmini Reform. The analysis of the new course, introduced by the DPR 89/2010, highlights that the subject which has been penalized, since it has been completely removed from the course, is Latin. The second chapter, then, deals with the role and the value of this subject. Starting from the function of education inside an open society, it moves on examining the point in learning humanistic subjects, referring in particular to their unique pedagogical properties and the task set by the introduction of the information and communication’s technologies . The vexata quaestio of the teaching of Latin, in the third chapter, has made necessary to highlight the existing relationship between the scientific method and the classic culture, stressing how and how much Latin may be considered a scientific subject. The second part of the work focuses on the research itself. Inside the fourth chapter, project of the research is presented: the targets, the hypothesis, the sampling, the tools. The aims of the survey have been: comparing the logical-mathematical abilities, at the beginning and at the end, of the students of first two class of the Scientific Liceo of the traditional course and the “Scienze Applicate” course, identifying the upsides and the downsides of the new course introduced by the Reform. Because of the considerations expressed in the first part of the work and of the study of the bibliography, the research’s hypothesis formulated have affirmed that the pupils, who had attended the first two years of the Scientific Liceo “Scienze Applicate”, would have shown equal or minor logical-mathematical competences then the ones who had attended the traditional course. Moreover, it has been hypothesized that the hours spent studying Latin would not penalize the logical-mathematical competences of the pupils. Eight Scientific Liceos, from the province of Salerno, have taken part in the survey with their 423 students, of which 213 afferent to the Experimental Group (students of the Scienze Applicate course) and 210 afferent to the Control Group (students of the (students of the traditional course). The instruments arranged to fulfill the aims of the surveys have been logical-mathematical tests, questionnaires for students and teachers. One paragraph has been reserved for the analysis of the facts obtained from the questionnaires given to 348 high-school teachers. Finally in the sixth chapter the hypothesis formulated are revised and the final conclusion are deduced. [edited by Author]