Appendix 1

Research environment

Some information about Italian Technical Secondary School for Industry

After 5 years of primary school and 3 years of middle school, Italian students at the age of 14  should choose to attend a Technical Secondary School in case they prefer studying technical and scientific subjects. Unfortunately the “unofficial” logic that determines the choice of the high school is the following one: most of the best students will go to the Liceo Classico[6], most of the good students will go to the Liceo Scientifico[7], the not so good / not so bad students will go to the Istituto Tecnico[8],  and the worst students will go to the Istituto Professionale[9]. All this in despite of personal preferences, attitudes, and passions.

The Technical Secondary school for industry consists in a “biennio” –first and second  years– that is the same for all the students, after which they choose a “triennio” (three years) of specialization (Electronics, Mechanics and Chemistry in my school). Recently another type of course has been introduced inside technical high schools , called Liceo Scientifico Tecnologico, a unique course of five years, in which the students receive a more general scientific and technological teaching together with a good linguistic and humanistic preparation.

The population of my school mirrors this situation: there are some students who have chosen to  deepen the scientific and technological area of knowledge because it is their favourite and they will succeed in acquiring an adequate cultural background in this field and become good engineers in Electronics, in Chemistry, or in Mechanics; there are al lot of students who will complete their school cycle among many difficulties, in some cases it will take them more than 5 years, and they will not acquire an adequate level of professional and cultural competencies they can effectively spend in the work world; finally there are a number of students who will never complete their studies and will never get a secondary school diploma.

The case of the Liceo Scientifico Tecnologico is a bit different as this course has no vocational aim and good students usually attend it, with the intention to go on studying at the university.