THE VALIDATION OF A SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR THE TEACHER'S PRACTICES THAT EMBRACES THE NEURO-EDUCATIONAL APPROACH

This contribution intends to present a study and research path that, starting from the theoretical framework of neuro-education, has led to the identification of five indicators (transversal area, socio-emotional-affective area, cognitive area, linguistic-communicative area, praxico-motor) on the basis of which a neuro-evaluation tool for teachers was built and validated: Self-assessment questionnaire of neuro-didactic and educational practices for teachers. Neuroscientific research is offering numerous points of reflection-action on the functioning of the brain and on how to modify the teaching and the educational proposal to improve the performance and growth of the person. However, the path traced by neuro-education is not free from persistent and new criticalities that educational contexts cannot fail to consider. Among them is the reflection on the neuro-myths that risk diverting educational action and on the teacher's bias that can create unconscious and harmful consequences. After analyzing some crucial open questions, the founding characteristics of the docimological action and the role assumed by self-assessment for the learning/teaching processes are defined. This scenario includes the proposal of a tool that can serve as a specific and concrete example for the teacher who is preparing to operate in the educational-didactic practice by adopting the neuro-didactic approach. On this beaten path weighs the specter of closure on the part of teachers who, due to a lack of self-criticism or the difficulty in getting out of their comfort zone, could compromise «the validity, reliability and feasibility of evaluation projects of relevant aspects of their work and their contexts». To escape from this immobility behind which the attitude of some teachers seems to be entrenched, the focus has been on increasing awareness and disseminating the right information on the slow, but inexorable ride of neuro-education, as well as on the direct and active involvement of the recipients. of the instrument that we now intend to present. The construction of the instrument began in January 2021 and lasted until April 2021, in parallel with the formulation of 70 neuro-didactic principles and the neuro-education studies carried out. The validation process developed in three phases: 1- Try-out: the first version of the questionnaire was administered to 69 teachers (Purposive or judgment sampling) in training on the topic of neuro-education from 19 to 23 April 2021, which was followed by the Classical Item Analysis (ICT) and adaptation of the tool (Face validity). 2- First administration addressed to 439 future teachers (Convenience sampling): students of the second year of the study course in Primary Education at the University of Palermo of the A.Y. 2020/2021 which was followed by the reliability analysis (Alpha by Cronbach) and item-total correlation (Construct validity). 3- Second administration addressed to 1421 teachers from the Sicily region (Dimensional sampling) which allowed the exploratory factor analysis at the end of which the final version of the tool was formulated (Content validity).