Formative evaluation for improving deep learning on social and emotional competences: a case study of an in-service teacher training.

In the last two decades, the theme of teacher training (Initial Teacher Education; Continuous Professional Development) has assumed centrality in the European debate also thanks to the production, on the one hand, of documents from international organizations and, on the other, of specific pedagogical literature. In this sense, it is necessary to harmonize teacher-training policies in Europe through strategic priorities, including: Improving the competencies and motivation of teachers in education professions. Main theoretical indications, in fact, also due to the impacts of the pandemic on student motivation, place the emphasis on training opportunities to increase teachers' reflexivity on their own social and emotional skills transferable for educational purposes. In parallel, the 2021 Italian law proposal on the national experimentation of activities aimed at the development of non-cognitive skills in all school grades, as advocated by the consultation of Italian pedagogical societies, underlines the adoption of teachers’ training activities based on experiential training aimed at enhancing their interpersonal skills. In consideration of this scenario, the paper presents the case of a social promotion association (located in Lecce - Italy) that carried out a formative evaluation model in an experiential learning and outdoor training setting for teachers training. This model aims at developing awareness and capacity for action in the "management of emotions" as an essential social and emotional competence for teaching professionalism. The proposed formative evaluation model intends to make teachers participating in the experiential learning activity aware of the latent processes underlying their learning (deep learning) as a key to interpreting their social and emotional competence transferable in their didactic action.