Abstracts - Earli

The aim of our cross-sectional research was to describe the developmental level of social skillsnecessary for succeeding in school context. Our objective was to gather information about thedevelopment of social skills in early school-age and in early adolescence. The sample of ourempirical study consisted of 1398 students, 7-, 9- and 11-year olds. Based on Stephens’s list ofsocial skills, a 54-item Likert-type questionnaire was developed (SSQ). The self reported versionof the SSQ and both parents’ and teachers’ ratings were administrated. The child and the adultversions share the same structure and scale items. The reliability of the test proved to beremarkably good for both age groups and for all three evaluators. The results show no spontaneousdevelopment in the field of social skills between the ages 7-11. There was moderate correlationbetween the three evaluators’ judgement concerning the developmental level of children’s socialskills. All three respondent groups indicated that girls’ social skills were slightly more developedthan those of boys. Teachers, however, perceived this difference to be twice as large as the othertwo raters.“Teaching to philosophize in a socio-cultural approach: an “Activity” model.”Marina Santi, University of Padova, ItalyRossella Giolo, University of Padova, ItalyIn Italy Philosophy is taught in secondary school mostly through an historical approach. Onlyrecently a debate on different approaches to teach philosophy is developing, considering thediscipline as practical and dialogical activity to be fostered in the classroom. But what could mean"doing philosophy" in the classroom? This research tries to answer this question by elaborating amodel for teaching philosophy, or better, for teaching to philosophize in a socio-culturalperspective. An "activity" model is proposed following the theory developed by Vygotskij,Leont’ev and other contemporary scholars. Firstly, the model individualizes seven fundamentaldimensions which characterise didactical practice conceived as activity in a vygotskian sense;secondly, the seven dimensions are declined with respect to philosophy, view as meaningful andmediated activity, that is as reflective and dialogical socio-cultural practice; thirdly, the recognizeddimensions are applied to philosophizing in the classroom as instructional context transformed byspecific actions and operations, into "community of learning", "of discourse", "of practice, and "ofresearch". The declinations of these dimensions of activity respect to philosophical practice and tothe teaching of this practice in the classroom are analysed and discussed. Moreover, a set ofdidactic actions and operations are offered to operationalize the model for the specificity ofteaching and learning philosophy. In particular, classroom discussion is view and proposed as across-activity, which operationalizes all the dimensions individualized in the model. The model isapplied in a course of didactic of philosophy for in service secondary school teachers. The 45teachers tested this model to promote an alternative approach to teach philosophy in this schoolgrade, emphasizing philosophical activity in their classroom, in particular proposing the setting ofdiscussion as privileged context in which the seven dimension of the model could beindividualized. Results of this exploratory study are discussed in the paper.The role of socialization and out of school experiences in primary school boys’ and girls’motivation to learn about math and computersAnna Chronaki, University of Thessaly, GreeceIoanna Vekiri, University of Thessaly, GreeceIn this study we used self-report questionnaires to examine possible relations between students’motivational beliefs, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), gender-stereotyped beliefs, perceivedparental and peer support, and math and computer experiences outside school for 340 Greek– 746 –