RESEARCH PROJECT

 

THE PASSAGE FROM SCUOLA MEDIA TO SCUOLA SUPERIORE:

A NARROW PATH ?

The perspectives of a group of 1st year pupils in a high school of Vicenza, North-eastern Italy.

 

1 AN OUTLINE OF THE TOPIC.

 

 

Here is a basic graph of the Italian education system:

 

years: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 * 9 10 11 12 13-->University

elementary middle high school

[ compulsory ] [ o p t i o n a l]

 

Pupils usually attend elementary school from the age of 6 to the age of 11. Middle school starts at the age of 11 and ends when most pupils are 14. That is the age when they take the Licenza Media examinations. Compulsory education ends there.

Pupils start attending high school when they are 14 and usually get their Diploma Superiore five years later, at the age of 18. Nearly 50% of the pupils (see Bernardi, 1991:16 )choose an Istituto Tecnico, a sort of Comprehensive School with a technical orientation. About 25% of pupils choose schools like Liceo Scientifico or Liceo Classico, both giving the kind of education usually provided in England by Grammar Schools.The rest of the pupils go to an Istituto Professionale, a three years long vocational school.

 

Although in the area of Vicenza (see Belotti, 1990:18) about 88% of the pupils leaving middle school (Scuola Media) go to high school (Scuola Superiore), the first year of high school is generally aknowledged as a difficult turning point for more than one reason.

First of all the percentage of failures in the 5 years of high school is higher than in the elementary and middle schools. The highest rate of failures ( 10.45%) in the town of Vicenza is observed in the first year of high school (see Bernardi e Sartori, 1989: 11).

Another point is that the elementary schools underwent substantial reforms in 1985 and the middle schools in 1962 and 1974, while the high school latest important reform happened in 1923 (Riforma Gentile), about seventy years ago. For these reasons the first year of high school plays usually the role of an educational bottleneck.

It is true that transfer problems from middle to high school are not peculiar to Italian pupils, and Peter Wood's interview to Linda Measor (see side 2 of the audiocassette enclosed with E812 readers for year 91-92 ) offers an interesting example.

Measor speaks mainly about the way pupils perceive high school before and during the first year. She gives a vivid account of the fears, expectations and even the myths generated by pupils of 12+ during a transfer which happens, in her own words, 'during the explosion of puberty'. She doesn't describe, if not incidentally, the macro aspects of the passage from middle to high school. But, in Hargreaves words, 'organized education is a highly political affair' (1986:153), and in the Italian education system there are at least two peculiarities stemming from political (or lack of political) choices:

 

1) the different approaches followed by the scuola elementare and media teachers on one side and the scuola superiore ones on the other. This comes, as we have already seen, from the outdated organization of high school, where a reform is much needed : while in scuola elementare and media school is seen as an instrument to promote culturally as many citizens as possible,scuola superiore curricula are generally considered as a way to select and form both technicians and/or future university students;

2) families - no matter how poor is the academical level of their children at the end of scuola media- have the right of not taking into account the scuola media teachers' suggestions . They can send their children to every kind ,even the most difficult or unapt, of scuola superiore of the area where they live. When the family's -or the pupil's- choice is wrong, as it sometimes happens, an unduly amount of stress is placed on the pupil's achievements and outlooks.

 

I decided to carry out my research in a school I will call 'Marco Polo'. It is a foreign trade orientated high school ( Istituto Tecnico Commerciale, specializzazione Estero) attended by about 1400 pupils. About 45% of them comes from outside town. Some pupils have their homes as far as 20 miles from Vicenza. The 'Marco Polo' high school is one of the three Istituti Tecnici Commerciali in town. It is usually considered a rather selective high school and it has quite a good reputation for foreign languages teaching. About 80% of the pupils are girls, while in the other two ITC in town girls are usually 55-60% of the pupils. That peculiarity of 'Marco Polo' high school for many teachers is due to the importance the school gives to foreign languages.

I selected my sample in three first year classes.They were part of a curricular experiment called I.G.E.A.(Indirizzo Giuridico Economico Aziendale).

The IGEA pupils benefit from a more modern curriculum than that used in the rest of the school. Among the most important features of IGEA there is a special emphasis on Informatics , Law and Economics. The IGEA experiment began two years ago.

The three classes, as any class in the Italian education system, consisted of mixed-abilities pupils. Each class had 23 pupils as average. In the three classes boys were the 38,2 % of the pupils, a little more than in the rest of the school. Girls in the IGEA forms did not seem to fit in with Measor's (1984:89) statement that they 'react to the curriculum differently from boys'. Although they had chosen a curriculum with more informatics and a peculiar stress to modern forms of mathematics, their gender identity did'n look much affected.

I must also underline that I was one of the IGEA teachers at Marco Polo high school.

Most teachers chose to work in IGEA classes after one year of self-training, out of teaching hours . They knew they would work longer hours without any wage improvement. All this attracted a group of teachers, mainly in their forties, with some enthusiasm and interest in innovation. This has helped me considerably in gaining access to data dealing with the pupils' backgrounds and perspectives.

 

With my research I wanted to achieve a reasonably accurate picture of the perpectives on transition of a small group of pupils during the first year of scuola superiore in a large high school of Vicenza.

I wanted also to know how far the outdated organization of the Italian high school and the families' complete freedom to choose their children's high schools affected the performances of the pupils during their first year of scuola superiore.

 

Quantitative research: Through a questionnaire I got the final scuola media marks of the 68 pupils attending the three first year classes of the IGEA project. Apart from that, I had other pieces of information, like the education levels of the pupils' families and the distance of their homes from school. I also found it important to know who had chosen the 'Marco Polo' as high school: the students, their families or others. As an optional question, I asked why 'Marco Polo', and not other schools had been chosen.

My idea of involving three classes in the quantitative section of my project and not the few pupils suggested by the study guide needs some explanations .

As the three classes are part of an experimental curriculum project, other fellow teachers were interested in the topic of the research. Among them there was a fair level of communication and good motivation about the work they were doing. When I think of some of them, I agree with R.Walker's view that 'many educational pratictioners are in fact 'natural' case study workers.'(p.191).

It was therefore interesting to use the outcomes, if any, of my project not only to perform an academical exercise for an M.A. in Education, but also as a little contribution to the work we are still doing as teachers in a "corso sperimentale".

 

 

3. PRESENTATION OF THE FINDINGS.

 

The interviews

 

The interviews were taped during the last days of the school year, when the atmosphere at school was more relaxed than in the rest of the year. The pupils, seven girls and two boys, knew that in the transcript of the interviews I would use protective pseudonyms (see Delamont, 1984:31) and were rather interested in making what they felt was an unusual experience.

Alberta, Cristina and Fedora belonged to the group of scuola media high achievers . Elisa, Viviana and Anna had been average achievers, while Sandro, Antonio and Sara had been low achievers.

I will report now what I believe are relevant parts of the interviews, covering roughly four aspects of the transfer from scuola media to scuola superiore:

 

 

 

1. Psychological and social aspects .

 

The impact of high school was not felt in the same ways. Sandro, who was a low achiever during scuola media years:

 

'I had to grow up all at once because in the scuola media...I mean, between scuola media and superiore there is a big difference'.

(Ho dovuto diventare grande tutto in un colpo perche',..tra medie e superiori c'e' una grande differenza.).

 

Alberta, who during scuola media years had been a high achiever, has a totally different opinion:

 

'There isn't really much difference between the two schools, in my opinion. For what I know, there wasn't any important change.'

(Non c'e' proprio una gran differenza tra le due

scuole, secondo me. Almeno, io mi sono trovata un po' nelle stesse condizioni.)

 

For Antonio the change has affected 'phisically' his life:

 

'I mean, I live away from Vicenza, and the journey...[] when I went to media school I got up at 7.30, now I get up at 6.30...'

(Cioe', io abito fuori Vicenza, e il viaggio...[] quando andavo alle medie mi alzavo alle 7.30, adesso mi alzo alle 6.30...'

 

Also Cristina has experienced a big change in her life:

 

'Well, first of all it is a total change, that is...a total...[change] of milieu..[] And, well, you must study more, of course, you must start with the idea of working hard, if you want to reach your aims.'

 

(Beh, intanto e' un cambio totale, cioe'...un [cambio]totale di ambiente..[] E, beh, bisogna studiare di piu', ovviamente, bisogna partire con l'idea di impegnarsi, se si intende arrivare sino in fondo.)

 

The relationships with the high school teachers and the new school mates are of course important aspects of the transfer. Most of the interviewees felt the new teachers less friendly than those in scuola media. In Fedora's view:

 

'There is more distance between us and the teachers.[]Mm.. It doesn't look any more like a close relationship. '

(Il rapporto con i professori e' piu' distanziato.[]

Mm..non sembra un rapporto piu' cosi',unito.)

 

Cristina too shares a similar opinion:

 

'..I have noticed the difference,[] now I am a pupil,I stay at one side and the teachers at the other, on the teacher's desk.'

( Ho notato una differenza,[] adesso io sono studente,da una parte e i professori di la' nella cattedra.)

 

Antonio, Alberta and Anna don't find that high school teachers' attitudes are different than those of scuola media ones. Sandro, instead says that he finds his relationship with high school teachers:

 

'slightly better [].I mean, I believed, believed it even worse. I believed they were harder, less

flexible'.

( un po' meglio [].Cioe', credevo, credevo anche peggio. Credevo fossero piu' duri, meno flessibili.)

 

Elisa felt the difference, but just in the first days of school:

 

'At the beginning they looked a little hard, so I too developed a defensive attitude [] Now no, I mean I feel that.. I have a good relationship with all the teachers,apart with X (laughs)'.

 

(All'inizio sembravano un po' severi, quindi anch'io avevo un atteggiamento di difesa [] Adesso no, cioe' mi sembra che..di avere un buon rapporto con tutti gli insegnanti, a parte con X (ride)'.

 

What about the new school mates ? Elisa didn't find any difficulty with them,:

 

'..also because I am a very open girl, I have no problems to get new friends,[but] I have always lived in D.{a village not far from Vicenza} so my school- mates were always the same[] while here everything is new.'

(..anche perche'sono una ragazza molto estroversa,non ho problemi per fare amicizia con altre persone,[ma] ho sempre vissuto a D. e quindi i compagni erano sempre quelli []mentre qui e' tutto nuovo.).

 

Also for the other pupils friendship with the new school partners didn't seem very difficult to achieve. Only Alberta had a different story to tell.To her everything was:

 

'Worse.I mean, there was an excellent relationship among my scuola media school- fellows, here I feel I am in a different world, I don't know the other pupils well,there isn't a friendship that...'

(Peggio. Cioe', c'era un ottimo rapporto con i compagni della media, qua mi sento in un ambiente diverso, i compagni li conosco poco, non c'e' un'amicizia che...).

 

2. Cognitive aspects.

 

This is the field where usually the transfer determines many problems. Pupils who are not used to work by themselves, who during the eight previous school years had poor academical results for lack of motivation and/or bad school organization, may find the change a bit too drastic.

Difference in the amount of time spent studying at home or doing homework may be striking. Many pupils who get out of scuola media with a low mark (sufficiente) have often the worse of it. Sara is one of them:

 

'Well, in the scuola media I didn't study much..No,not in the third year,[when] I studied quite a bit, because there were the examinations, but less than this year.'

(Beh, alle medie, ho studiato poco..In terza media no, ho studiato abbastanza, perche' c'erano gli esami, pero'...poco in confronto a quest'anno.).

 

Also Sandro found high school more difficult, because subjects are treated more in depth, in the scuola media the tasks were:

 

'more superficial.Here we go deeper [into the matter].

(piu' superficiale.Qui si va piu' nel profondo.)

 

Sandro claims also that at home, in the scuola media, he used to study about two hours. Now he spends about 3 and half hours a day studying and doing his homework. Same for Viviana.Also Anna works longer hours:

 

'When we attended scuola media we spent about an hour [studying at home]..Now, two, four hours.'

(Quando eravamo alla media ne facevamo un'ora..Adesso,due, quattro ore.)

 

Again, Alberta has a different point of view. When she went to the scuola media she studied:

 

'little, very little.Two hours at most.Well, even now things haven't changed very much. I mean there are days with three, four hours [of homework], but not very often.'

(Poco, veramente poco.Due ore al massimo. Beh, anche adesso, non e' che la cosa sia cambiata piu' di tanto.Cioe' succedono di giorni di tre o quattro ore, ma e'una cosa straordinaria.)

 

Antonio was another pupil who did't spend much time studying at home. When I asked whether the amount of homework had increased he said:

 

'gone up. In the scuola media I did..well, I don't

know, one hour.[ Now I study] even two hours.

(aumentato.Alle medie facevo..mah, non so, un'ora.Ora

ne faccio anche due.).

 

 

3. Family influence and school performance.

 

It is not a mistery (see R. King, 1984:130), that families influence the school life of pupils in a substantial way. Also the 'Marco Polo' pupils have something to say about.

Cristina:

 

'..my father is a headmaster, so I can get a lot of help, but, as I am a proud person, I try to do things on my own as much as possible. I mean, obviously when I need any book, when I need someone to clear a point up I ask, but I always try to sort things out by myself'.

(..mio padre e' preside, per cui posso avere parecchi aiuti, pero' per quanto sono orgogliosa, cerco di fare piu' che posso da sola. Cioe' ovviamente quando ho bisogno di qualche libro, quando ho bisogno di qualche

spiegazione chiedo, ma cerco sempre di arrangiarmi da sola.)

 

Sandro can't have the same kind of help from his parents:

 

'None of my parents has attended high schools,so

[theirs] is just a moral support..Well, my father is an employee, my mother is a housewife. I ask them for some opinion, but no more than that.'

(Nessuno dei miei genitori ha fatto appunto le superiori, per cui e' piu' un apporto morale che..Beh,[mio papa' e'] un impiegato. Mia madre fa la casalinga.Chiedo loro qualche parere, ma non piu' di tanto.)

 

Fedora and Alberta enjoy a lot of autonomy. Their parents tend to keep a low profile.

Antonio's parents , instead, are interested in their son's achievements.It was his mother who decided to send him to the 'Marco Polo' high school:

 

'..because she said that, well, it was the right school.'

(..perche' diceva che, cosi', era la scuola adatta.).

 

Viviana is rather happy about the academical support she gets from her parents. On the other hand, she is still critical about her mother's choice to send her to a scuola media run by Catholic sisters:

 

'I believe it would have been better to attend a normal scuola media, because just being in close contact with sisters, I mean..they force you to have a certain kind of behaviour..'

(Secondo me, sarebbe stato meglio fare la media normale, perche' gia' stare in mezzo alle suore, cioe'..ti costringono ad adottare certi comportamenti..)

 

Also Sara's parents tend to force their daughter to follow

their own choices about schools. They already sent a daughter to 'Marco Polo', with so poor results that she had to change school. With Sara they tried again, because her father is:

 

'the general agent of a multinational company.[] As my father wants me to take over his job, then..[he thought] it was better I attended this school.'

(il rappresentante generale di una

multinazionale.[]Siccome mio papa' vuole che porti avanti quello che fa lui, allora..era meglio fare questa scuola.)

 

 

 

The interviews show that most pupils are well aware of the great changes the transfer from middle to high school determined in their lives, but they see them in a less dramatic way than I supposed before starting the research. The perspectives change a lot according to the personalities of the pupils, but in nearly everybody the idea of a positive turning point overshadows the rest. In some cases - Antonio and Silvia, for example- the pressure put by the family and difficulty to assess personal needs and orientations determines a certain vagueness in defining a good strategy to face successfully the transfer period.The quantitative data in some ways supports that.

 

 

 

Quantitative data

 

As said before, this aspect of the research should be seen as supporting data of the pupils' perspectives.

When I wrote the research proposal I made it clear that I wanted to know if there was any correlation between the (1) scuola media performance of the pupils and the academical results of the first year of high school. In the following table, related to the nine interviewees, I took into consideration other aspects I supposed to be relevant, such as the(2) education levels of the pupils' parents,(3) the distance of their homes from school and(4) who had chosen the Marco Polo instead of the other high schools.

For a better understanding of the table it is useful to know that in Italian high schools at the end of the school year there may be the following results:

 

PASS : the pupil is allowed to go to the following form;

FAIL :the pupil must repeat attendance in the same form he failed to pass,in the same or in another school;

RESIT :the pupil must take extra examinations-up to four of them- early in September, for the subjects in which she or he didn't achieve a sufficient mark. When resitting from two to four subjects, there is an increasing risk to FAIL.

Resitting for 1 subject is normally free of any risk.

 

 

 

 

Table 1 First year's high school performance.

1 2 3 4 5 6

name media parents' school distance result

mark education choice

Alberta high mid/high stud 5 min. PASS

Cristina high deg/deg stud 10 min. PASS

Fedora high mid/high stud 15 min. PASS

Anna good mid/elem stud/par 45 min.RESIT 1

Elisa good mid/high stud/par 20 min. PASS

Viviana good voc/high stud 30 min. RESIT 1

Antonio low high/voc parents 45 min. FAIL

Sandro low mid/mid stud 10 min. RESIT 3

Sara low mid/high parents 25 min RESIT 3

 

 

-----------------------------------------------------

N.B.:Column 2:elem= elementary school; mid= middle school;voc=vocational high school(3 years); high= high school; deg= degree.Column 4: distance is expressed in time taken by means of transport normally available.

----------------------------------------------------

 

 

According to table 1, there is a certain correlation between the scuola media final examinations mark and the academical achievements at the end of the first year of high school.

The same correlation is confirmed by the following table, which was made from data (see appendix 2) dealing with a sample of 68 pupils, i.e. all those attending the first form IGEA classes.

 

 

 

Table 2. Percentages of success (pass) in the first year according to the scuola media final mark.

1 2 3 4 5

 

mark pupils percentage pupils percentage

of sample passing of success

 

high 35 51,47% 34 97,14%

 

 

good 19 27,95% 12 63,15%

 

 

low 14 20,58% 2 14,28%

-----------------------------------------------------

 

totals 68 100 48 average:70,58%

 

4. IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS

 

 

According to the results of the research, it is true that the pupils of the sample I analysed saw the transfer from middle to high school as an important turning point not only academically, but also in terms of personal development.

If I take into account the academical performances of the 'Marco Polo' pupils I can't say they suffer from the outdated organization of Italian High school so much as I thought. This is in contrast with the results of Belotti's (1990:11) and Bernardi's (1991:36) researches on the high school pupils of Vicenza.But this aspect of the research will be treated a little more thoroughly in the following chapter.

The quantitative data has made it quite clear that the scuola media performance has a crucial influence in the first year of high school academical results. At least with the sample I analysed.

Families' negative influence on high school pupils' choices and performances, on the other hand, comes out of the research a little weaker than I thought at the beginning. Nevertheless,it is there: Antonio (see interviews and table 1), one of the few pupils who gave their parents the total responsibility for the choice of his high school, was the only one to fail in June. Also Silvia's academical results were very poor, in spite of her father's hopes.

As for the other hypotheses I made, distance from school did not prove to have much influence on the pupils performances (see tables 1, 2 and appendix 2).

Also the parents' education seemed to play a secondary role. The feeling here, but it is just a feeling, is that parents with a higher level of education may help the lot of low performers. As with the high achievers, the correlation is more difficult to assess.

But why did 13,8% of the pupils of Vicenza Istituti Tecnici Commerciali fail to pass successfully the first high school year in Bernardi's research (1991:37), while with my sample (see appendix 2) I can estimate that at the end of September (resit) examinations no more than 5-6% of the pupils will fail to go to the second form?

There might be an answer. The pupils of my sample do not represent the average Italian high school pupils: they belong to experimental IGEA classes, with a more modern curriculum and a group of fairly young, reasonably motivated teachers. To achieve a more reliable explanatory validity, more research is needed.

 

References

 

 

BASSEY, M.,( Autumn 1990) 'On the Nature of Research in Education' (Part 2)

in Research Intelligence BERA newsletter.

BELOTTI, V.(ed.),(1990),Giovani a Vicenza. Traettorie e corsi di vita fra i giovani.Vicenza, Fondazione Corazzin.

BERNARDI, L.(ed.),(1991),Attimi fuggenti. Partecipazione e selezione nella scuola superiore a Vicenza.Vicenza, Istituto P.O.S.TER.

DELAMONT, S.,(1984),'The Old Girl Network'

in BURGESS, R.,(ed.) The Research Process in Educal Settings: Ten Case Studies.

London,The Falmer Press.

HAMMERSLEY, M. and WOODS, P.,(1987), E812 Classroom Studies Study Guide, Milton Keynes, O.U.P.

HARGREAVES, A.,(1986), 'The Micro-Macro Problem in the Sociology of Education'

in HAMMERSLEY, M.(ed.) Controversies in Classroom Research, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.

KING,R.,( 1984), 'The Man in the Wendy House'

in BURGESS, R.,(ed.) The Research Process in Educational Settings: Ten Case Studies.

London,The Falmer Press.

MEASOR,L.,(1984), 'Gender and the sciences: pupils' gender-based conceptions of school subjects'

in HAMMERSLEY, M., and WOODS,P.,(ed.) Life in school,

Milton Keynes, Open University Press.

OPEN UNIVERSITY,(1975),Probabilita' e statistica, Milano, EST Mondadori Editore. Originally published as: Probability and Statistics, Milton Keynes, (1971), O.U.P.

WALKER, R.,(1986), 'The Conduct of Educational Case Studies: Ethics, Theory and Procedures'

in HAMMERSLEY, M.(ed.) Controversies in Classroom Research, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.

WOODS, P.,(1984), 'Teaching for Survival'

in HARGREAVES,A. and WOODS,P.,(editors),Classrooms and Staffrooms, Milton Keynes, Open University Press.

 

 

Antonino Rallo, settembre 1992