Formare docenti di scuola secondaria di primo grado in servizio alla didattica della produzione scritta: valutazione d’efficacia e d’impatto - Lower secondary school in service teachers’ professional development on writing instruction: evaluating effectiveness and impact

The evaluation of the effectiveness and impact of in-service teacher training remains an area that has been insufficiently studied in a systematic manner, especially in the context of teaching written production, given the assessment challenges it presents. This research aims to fill a gap in the literature and within the Italian educational landscape, grounding itself in both scientific evidence and the specific, contextual needs of teachers. The study provides a theoretical framework on writing skills and teacher training programs that have proven effective in supporting these skills, alongside an analysis of in-service teacher training and the methods for evaluating its impact, as discussed in the literature. It then illustrates a teacher training program conducted based on scientific evidence and an analysis of the training needs in a middle school located in the outskirts of the metropolitan city of Turin. The program involved three teachers, with a total of 91 students whose performance was evaluated to assess the training’s impact. The evaluation of the program’s effectiveness, in terms of its depth on the participating teachers, yielded positive results, albeit within the limitations of the available assessment tools. The impact evaluation is still ongoing. The interim findings of the research highlight numerous challenges, which have been analysed, as well as some faint strengths.