Teacher Training for Change in Italy: experiences and critical reflections

The idea of ‘innovation’ refers most of all to a research‐experiment situation, where the idea of “Reform” has to do mainly with a political‐administrative approach.

In the Italian experience, reform situations prevail on innovation situations in the sense that significant changes tend to be introduced through reform interventions rather than through innovation processes. The prevailing trend is that the innovations follow the reforms instead of preparing them.

This implies that initial teacher preparation has very little to do with a positive attitude towards innovation processes, while the in‐service training endorses a paramount relevance as the most effective strategy of diffusing, supporting and sustaining the passage from the reforms to the innovations.

In‐service activities can reflect three main models: content centred, technique centred, and relation centred. The implications and the developments of the three models are analysed in order to identify the approaches and the strategies put into effect by the most significant agencies active in this field.

The conclusions point at four final perspectives: to realise a sound initial preparation; to connect the innovative processes with the enhancement of the professional quality within the schools; to support the continuous growth of the school personnel qualifications and to make a correct use of the professional avant‐garde.