Project data
Funding Entity: Regione Toscana
Call: Bando Regione Toscana – Leggere: forte! Ad alta voce fa crescere l’intelligenza
Coordinator: Università di Siena (Italy)
UNISI Principal Investigator: Prof. Maria Rita Mancaniello
Department: Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences (DISPOC)
Start date: 1 September 2023
End date: 31 August 2028
Description
In the contemporary educational context, marked by growing complexity, a crisis of meaning, and the fragmentation of collective narratives (Morin, 2001; Bauman, 2007), reading emerges as a pedagogical practice of particular relevance for the integral formation of the individual. As demonstrated by studies conducted at both national and international levels (Mullis et al., 2021; OECD, 2023), the emotional and bodily engagement it generates strengthens listening skills, linguistic awareness, and a sense of belonging to the group, while simultaneously fostering more meaningful and long-lasting learning. At the same time, silent reading – often undervalued in traditional school practices – represents a privileged inner space for self-reflection, imagination, and interpretive freedom. When integrated with immersive technologies, such as virtual reality or extended reality, it multiplies experiential possibilities, fostering a state of concentration and “flow” that strengthens the affective relationship with the text, stimulates creativity, and enhances symbolic capacity (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990; Makransky & Lilleholt, 2018). Within this pedagogical framework, reading (both aloud and silent) takes on a transformative value: it is a practice of symbolic and relational mediation, capable of creating meaning, nurturing narrative thought (Bruner, 1991), and supporting identity construction pathways, particularly during adolescence. All of this is, therefore, of particular importance in countering the phenomenon of school drop-out and early school leaving.
The research conducted in the two-year periods 2023-24 and 2024-26 by the team of researchers from the University of Siena and coordinated by Prof. Maria Rita Mancaniello, is therefore situated within the framework of the pedagogy of complexity (Morin, 2001), where analog reading, learning, and relationships intertwine with the challenge of the digital and onlife era (Floridi, 2017). The categories of irony and desire, further explored in the psycho-pedagogical literature (Carletti, 2024), guided the design of the activities: irony as a lever for divergent and reflective thought, and desire as the engine for the pleasure of learning and self-construction.
Project website: https://leggereforte.indire.it/
Disclaimer: “Leggere: Forte! Ad alta voce fa crescere l’intelligenza” is an initiative of the Tuscany Region in collaboration with USR Toscana, INDIRE, and Cepell (Center for Books and Reading) and, since 2024, with the three Tuscan universities (Florence, Pisa, and Siena). It is aimed at introducing the intensive and continuous practice of reading for pleasure—both aloud and independent—in the classroom, and progressively integrating it into the entire Tuscan education system. In particular, “Leggere: Forte!” aims to foster the success of children and young people in their school and life paths and to counter the phenomenon of early school leaving.