"During the summer, teachers, students and parents physically reconstructed the school environment, coloring, painting, moving furniture and taking care of the external spaces. A school for kids and with kids". Let's discover the “DADA” model with the head of the school.

By Emanuela Ricci

I became curious when, walking through Colleferro, a small town on the outskirts of Rome, I noticed with amazement a school complex which, on a Friday evening, was festively lit up. Dozens of boys and girls having fun outside the building but also inside: the silhouettes of their shadows could clearly be seen running between the various floors while good music was heard. There were not only kids but also parents, grandparents and members of a proloco, all together to share a moment of sociality in a healthy environment, where those kids, children and grandchildren, spend most of the hours of the day.

Thinking it was a coincidence, I decided to go back to that school again the following Friday. Same situation: “OPEN SCHOOL”. I therefore decided to enter out of pure curiosity. Passing among the kids who, in small groups, shared the areas of the external sports field, I headed towards the entrance. I expected a classic school, cold, sad. At least that's how most of my generation remembers it due to the monochromatic colors of the walls and the austerity of the professors of the past. Instead, everything has been "revolutionized" with well-studied and personalized welcoming environments, according to the subjects of study, to better welcome and stimulate their students, trying to interpret their inclinations and "mood of its own.” generational. Welcomed by the teacher Cristina Formisano I started the tour of the school asking, at the end, to be able to meet the director, Dr Maria Giuffré ofIC “Margherita Hack” di colleferro, where the lower secondary school is located "Leonardo da Vinci".

The absolute novelty, the one that impressed me, is learning about the adoption of the DADA model - Teaching in Learning Environments -, a revolution that has redesigned the school's educational offer for the 2023/2024 school year. The Leonardo da Vinci of Colleferro was among the first in Lazio to believe in this new teaching model and the results are visible, yes!!!

Dr. Giuffrè, what does the DADA model mean and what are the objectives that a school that adopts this model wants to pursue

"The transition to a Dada school was gradual, shared by all the school's stakeholders (teachers, ATA, families and students) and started initially from a study of existing experiments. Thus in the 2022/2023 school year, driven by adherence to the notice PNRR "Innovative learning environments”, we have started a training course and a related feasibility study to modify learning environments to encourage innovative teaching; at the beginning there was above all a pedagogical-methodological study of the model; subsequently our attention shifted towards models already implemented and with positive results to finally arrive at a remodulation of traditional teaching starting from rethinking school times and spaces. Thus was born the idea of ​​'bringing' the DADA model (Teaching in Learning Environments)”.

The DADA model. The model moves in the perspective of rethinking and valorisation of the SCHOOL context, meaning the environment PHYSICAL (spaces, furnishings...), the environment ORGANIZATIONAL (times, times…) and the environment RELATIONAL (communication, emotions…). The model has the aim of motivating students, increasing their skills, implementing their ability to understand and process experiences. It involves a transition from the classroom traditionally assigned to the classroom to learning environments, so to speak "thematic"; each environment is assigned to one or more teachers of the same discipline, with students moving from environment to environment while the teachers remain in the same space, waiting for the children at the time change.

According to what the NEUROSCIENCE, travel represents an energizing factor for students, stimulating their ability to concentrate and making learning more meaningful. According to some scientists, the best way to activate the mind (its cognitions and its emotions) would be to keep the body moving, even slightly. Ultimately, being in a different environmental situation allows the student to live a teaching experience through renewed energy with each change of discipline.

The classroom it also becomes the teacher's space, a fluid space that can be quickly adapted to different needs. It is possible to customize the furnishings, the spatial organization and the instruments present, making teaching more functional to the characteristics of the specific discipline taught. It is thus possible to design together with the students a space - a place - which is not only functional, but also pleasant and welcoming, where the teaching experience represents an experience to be enjoyed more pleasantly.

Personal locker. A personal locker has been assigned to each student to allow the safekeeping of personal effects and easy movement from classroom to classroom. The continuous discussion with the students, in order to identify their needs within the school institution, has also led to the establishment of a student council, made up of students representing representatives elected by their classmates within each individual class.

IThe DADA model, founded on the autonomy and empowerment of students, today, in light of the increasingly necessary educational collaboration between school and family, strengthens the relationships between the educational figures who revolve around children.

The path also arises from the need to enhance the excellence of our educational system and encourage a rise in learning levels with the aim of overcoming essentially passive transmission-type training models, which show their inadequacy in the face of current challenges.

To create the DADA model it was necessary to completely rethink the educational space starting from its physicality, placing the thematic environments on the different floors of the school building. 

During the summer, teachers, students and parents physically reconstructed the school environment, coloring, painting, moving furniture and taking care of the external spaces. 

The thematic environments were made easily identifiable starting from the corridors thanks to the colored signs. Where possible, we preferred to organize the discipline groups horizontally to limit vertical movements. The spaces are equipped with shelving and bookcases suitable for containing the tools characterizing the individual disciplines. The school today is characterized by not being a static environment but always changing: the places and furnishings will lend themselves to rapid transformations, to adapt more and more to the activities proposed.

The process of change that animates the Dada model is therefore evident, in which not only the use of ICT plays a fundamental role, but also and above all the organization and perception of lived space".

Giuffrè, explain to us the meaning of such an important scholastic innovation

"The idea behind the adoption of this model is to create a school for kids and with kids”. Create for them an environment that is felt to be a welcoming, engaging and motivating place in which to spend their days, not only the school morning but also their free time and where they can carry out aggregation, sharing and leisure activities.

Our school remains open every day until 17.30pm and on Fridays until 21.30pm.

In addition to the in-depth, strengthening and recovery activities offered in the morning, which assist teaching in various areas (artistic, scientific, linguistic, manipulative, ...), thanks to the teachers and cultural and sporting associations present in the area, there are many activities that we offer managed to organize starting from 14.30 pm, after leaving school and until late afternoon, allowing the children to also stop for the lunch break: instrumental activity (typical of our Institute which is characterized by being musical), help desk for carrying out tasks, mathematical enhancement, sports enhancement, comics course, ceramics workshop, chess project, language certification courses, Latin course, theater workshop, opening of the school library and much more".

Tell us about the AFTERMEDIA project

“On Fridays there is the project AFTERMEDIA which was born from the collaboration with Proloco, Retired Carabinieri Association, teachers, ATA staff and parents. Starting from 17.00 pm to 19.00 pm, various activities relating to cinema, music, storytelling and pure entertainment are proposed. At 20.00 pm you can have dinner at school by ordering, at your own expense, in one of the places that have joined the initiative. All activities end at 21.00/21.30 pm".

WORK IN PROGRESS