LIBRI DI GIUSEPPE FAVRETTO

Tests are also used to measure attitudes (which can be defined as mental orientations). When tests are used for attitudes measurement in students who want to attend a certain study course, we can have information about how much their attitudes are consistent with the study course they want to attend. The article deals with a long-term experience of application of an attitude test to students wanting to attend the Faculty of Educational Sci-ences.

Vocational guidance activities need competent professional figures and di-agnostic tools (tests) which have to be valid and reliable. In academic con-text particular attention is paid to all this. The Centro Docimologico has been working in order to construct aptitude tests for students entering the Faculty of Educational Sciences. In the article the authors write about the results of a path of validation, which is not at its end, that shows which is the correct way to follow when the aim is to construct valid and reliable aptitude tests.

The use of aptitude tests for selections is a rather spread practice, even if the social representation about this type of tools does not seem to give sci-entific sense. Although Verona prefers the use of aptitude tools, the trend was to construct tests directed to abilities (skills), cultural competencies and knowledge. This has been done respecting the needs of the study plan-ning of each faculty. The present report explains the procedures used to adjust tests, and it examines areas of items, subdivided according to vari-ous stimulus-situations. Finally it briefly refers to a special handbook made by the Centro Docimologico and directed to specialized personnel (staff) for test administration.

A selection for matriculation is a process that involves the interaction be-tween different structures. Each of these structures has its own duties, but there is the need of a common language with regard to data processing, and of a constant interchange of information with regard to their different necessities. This cooperative interchange of info has two main aims. The first is an adequate attention to the candidate, with the objective to reduce as much as possible bureaucratic obstacles and to give him/her a guarantee of correct assessment; the second is the improvement of the selection proc-ess. As a matter of fact, only by monitoring the predictivity of selection tools which is made easier by the utilization of the same system of ar-chive modalities among the structures involved it is possible to make these tools more effective.

Since 1995 till the present day, various Faculties of the University of Ve-rona have found a valid support structure in the Docimologico Centre for the predisposition of tests, the formulation of data, and the assessment of final results. Similarly to other universities, the total admission score has been deter-mined through different considerations, on the basis of the maturity score, or that obtained in the selection test. As far as the making of the test itself is concerned, other tests comprising useful measures of both attitude capacity and cultural competence have been used. For certain selections, the tests have been combined with spe-cific questions designed to test particular disciplinary knowledge. Since 1999, some Faculties have introduced for students a compulsory sel-fevaluation test, not affecting the students' enrolment, but in order for the admission test to be an instrument of self-orientation.

Tutti i vigili urbani di Verona, addetti al traffico, 151 persone, sono stati intervistati, utilizzando sette scale diverse. L’obiettivo finale della ricerca era quello di verificare se la valutazione emozionale dell’inquinamento ambientale da parte dei vigili urbani raggiungesse livelli di stress tali da provocare disturbi psicosomatici. Questi dati da noi raccolti sono stati confrontati con le misurazioni fisiche dell’inquinamento urbano, fornite dalle autorità di Verona. I risultati della nostra ricerca mostrano che i vigili urbani hanno dichiarato disturbi psicosomatici, provocati da valutazione stressante dell’inquinamento ambientale. Le misurazioni fisiche, di cui sopra, invece, rientravano nei parametri stabiliti dalla legge. La divergenza tra le due valutazioni, quella soggettiva e quella oggettiva dello stesso fenomeno, l’inquinamento ambientale, pone un nuovo problema per la nostra società: può darsi che un eccessivo allarmismo a proposito dell’inquinamento urbano abbia conseguenze negative per la salute della popolazione.