RISULTATI RICERCA

In the present study, the relationship between student characteristics and mathematics performance was evaluated using a structural equation modeling approach. Italian students participated at Timss 2011 field test (N = 1264; 52% female, mean age: 13 years and 10 months ± 6 months) completed a questionnaire including measures of socio-economic and cultural background, general reasoning ability and self-concept in mathematics and the Timss mathematics achievement test. A mediation structural equation model assessed the direct and indirect effects of the general reasoning ability test and socio-economic and cultural background through the mediation of selfconcept in mathematics. The results showed that all measures were significantly associated with mathematics achievement test, furthermore selfconcept partially mediated the effects of socio-economic status and general reasoning ability.

Textbooks are the pedagogic material used by most teachers. They are a key element for the socialization and behavioral learning of the students. For this reason, they can affect in traditional discrimination against women relative to men. Nowadays the visual stimuli are very important and consequently also the illustrations in textbooks. With the aim to value the possible gender discrimination, we use a quantitative methodology to analize the images of Moroccan primary education textbooks. Moroccan publishers try not to remain suspended in the tradition, opening new perspectives. They show women with a prominence and freedom unusual in the past. However, these books are not a true reflection of Moroccan society, where gender differences are a reality.

The article deals with the issues related to school writing in the intermediate grades of elementary school (third, fourth and fifth grade) in Argentina in the period between 1930 and the present. The focus is on the traditional written tasks known as composition or essay, analyzing the notebook as medium and format for school writing. Into this specific framework a mayor emphasis is given to some personal expressions shown. To this aim, the documentary source considered were the school notebooks collected in the Museum of the School (Buenos Aires, Argentina), both from public and private schools, and newspapers, magazines and publications that included students’ written productions.

On 28 November 2014 a conference took place at the National Roman Museum - Baths of Diocletian in Rome on the first results of the experiment Nulla dies sine linea, dedicated to the writing skills of primary school children. This article attempts to give an initial response to the following questions. Is it possible to say that the children, albeit implicitly, have and know how to use proper elements of speech rhetorical construction? And if yes, is it possible to retrieve from their writings some categories of reference? The answer to both questions was positive. In particular, in the texts produced by the children, elements related to the incipit, to the recipient, to the relationship between truth/likelihood and contradictions/incompatibilities have been found.

The purpose of the research project Nulla dies sine linea was to identify some trends in handwriting practices of primary school students over a period of about four months. The article presents the preliminary lexicometric and descriptive analyses carried out on the set of texts collected, that formed a corpus of approximately 1,807,836 characters, corresponding to 393,696 words. First, a description of the architecture of the lexicon (such as the corpus, graphemes, words, etc.) is provided, both from a general point of view, and from the specific aims of the research project (i.e. in relation to the background variables). Finally, major results are presented.