Professional development and Instructional design in Italian Early Childhood Education

The paper presents the results of a Training-Research path (T-R) (Magnoler, 2012; Asquini, 2018) conducted in the Italian context with educators and teachers that work in the Early Childhood Education and Care sector. In Italy, the recent Law (L.D. 65/2017) has set up the “Integrated System of education and instruction from birth to six years”. The new System calls to reflect on how to design the educational curriculum for children and how to properly train the personnel involved in the Early Childhood Services (Tomasi & Ongari, 2012; Domenici, 2018; Sibilio & Aiello, 2018). The main objective of the T-R path was to increase the knowledge and the skills of the teachers that work in Childhood services (0-6 years old), by reflecting with them about the educational, the organizational and the assessment strategies that could be effective to improve the quality of these Services (Bondioli & Savio, 2012; 2018; Mantovani, Silva & Freschi, 2016). The T-R path involved educators and teachers in a professional development path with a blended modality (distance and face to face activities). During the path it has been asked them to use innovative strategies and tools in the classroom aimed at enhancing the continuity among children of different ages. In the research were collected qualitative-quantitative data through the use of questionnaires, logbooks and checklists. The main results of the research confirmed that the T-R paths can be effective to qualify the educational practices and the instructional design of educators and teachers that work in Childhood services.