Publications

“L’abbandono scolastico”

Olga Liverta Sempio, Emanuela Confalonieri, Giuseppe Scaratti.

Raffaello Cortina Editore

“L’abbandono scolastico”
Olga Liverta Sempio, Emanuela Confalonieri, Giuseppe Scaratti.
Raffaello Cortina Editore
Milano 1999

Book

Italian

English

Identification of students’ at risk

This book is divided into three parts: the first one (from chapter 1 to 5) deals with the scenery and the main characters of the dropping out. At the beginning the authors underline the difficulty to give a precise definition of the term “dropping out”, because it is a very complex phenomenon. In fact the lack of school frequency could depend on different reasons: evasion, truancy, underachievement, push out and so on. Moreover the authors stress the importance of “reciprocity” in the learning-teaching processes. In fact the interruption of this fundamental educational relationship between teacher and pupil leads to the dropping out. Then They speak about two important dimensions of the school experience: the adolescent’s relationship with his school and the teacher function.
Chapters 4 and 5 tackle about the main personal, social and economic consequences of the dropping out.
In the second part (chapters 6-9) there is an interesting analysis about the deep cultural changes due to multimedia which develop new sensory and cognitive abilities in children and teenagers. The discrepancy between this new way of learning and that one used by adults and teachers can cause unease and school failure.
In the 7th and 8th chapters the authors discuss about two complex topics: “school motivation” and “effective didactic strategies”.
Chapter 9 speaks about the emotional and affective dimension of the dropping out as a manifestation of adolescent difficulties and relationships with school and family.
The third part (chapters 10-11) deals with preventive measures against dropping out and it describes some preventive experiences at school.

This book is very interesting because it deals with the dropping out from a multiperspective view. Its purpose is to give a picture of this phenomenon from a psychocultural, relational and individual view. In particular, this book wants to show the different forms and reasons of this problem and also the criteria of prevention and intervention. Moreover it offers important data of an empirical research about some forms of dropping out, its consequences and means of intervention. This work is useful for teachers, psychologists and other social operators, interested in dropping out as a problem-symptom which reveals a double bad adaptation: on one hand, the school isn’t able to promote the individual and social maturity and on the other the student who seems incapable of taking advantage of school for his/her social and personal growth.
The first part of this book is very interesting because it tries to explain the complex phenomenon of the dropping out both when pupils leave school and when they remain in the classroom but only physically, without dedication and completely disinterested in holding a diploma. This kind of phenomenon is called in-school drop out. Another important consideration is “who abandons who?” because school and society shouldn’t forget their direct responsibilities for the dropping out!
The third part deals with prevention against school uneasiness and it describes indicators of risk. Moreover the authors suggest possible strategies of intervention and they offer some examples of preventive experiences at school. For example the C.I.C (Centre for Information and Consultation) at school. It is intended for students and teachers in order to solve their problems and avoid dropping out. This book is rich of schedules with data and results of recent studies about this increasing phenomenon.
On the whole, this work faces all the cultural, cognitive and affective aspects of dropping out with an in depth study.

Patrizia Simonetti

I.P.S.I.A “G. Fascetti” Pisa

teacher