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Pestalozzi programme 

Module A – Strengthening Education for Democracy 

“Shocking Democracy” 

18 th of January – 10 th of February 2017 

1° Istituto di Istruzione superiore “Archimede” di Rosolini Trainer: Maria Celauro

1 st Meeting – 18 th of January 2017 (3 hours) 

“I look at me” 

Even if the training was planned for 15 in service teachers, involving my colleagues, I didn’t felt at 

ease to make a selection…so…thanks to my principal’s wise advice, I decided to accept all those 

who were interested in…. 

Many of them arrived…….and little by little the classroom…was full of teachers staring at me….I 

counted them and they were thirty-three. 


After panicking a bit…I introduced the main topic of the training course and of the first meeting. 

The title of this first meeting – “I look at me” - represents well the aim of the planned activities: to 

point out those prejudices of ours which influence our way of approaching other people. 

First of all, I asked my colleagues to think about a mistake they had made while working as 

teachers. 

Then we watched together this video: (Click on the image) 

The video tells the story of a elementary teacher who makes a mistake on purpose while 

explaining the multiplication table of nine. 

Her students start laughing because she was wrong only once. 

The moral of the story is that it is very common to be judged for the only mistake you made, even 

if the rest is correct. 


Then I asked my colleagues to think about how often we have evaluated our students focusing on 

their mistakes instead of emphasizing the good qualities or aspects of their performances! 

Maybe because it wasn’t asked…but some of us started telling about the mistakes we had made 

and how we felt facing students’ evaluation. 

Obviously, school for us is a point of reference and if I should represent my mood and the path we 

have to follow during our training…well I would choose this image: 

The Hive stands for our school … but the bees need to fly far from it …so our reflection has to start 

from our school experience, but then we have to go furtherer…involving our deepest beliefs. 

Then I proposed to play at the “neighbourhood yard”: 

First teachers closed their eyes and I put on their forehead some little arrows of different colours. 

Two of them were left without coloured spots. When I told them to open their eyes, to look 

around and then to do what they felt to….they gathered forming groups of the same colours…….. 


Then I asked them if someone wanted to change his/her group…but nobody wanted to 

move….and then I remarked that the people without the arrows had been left alone……………….. 

So, everybody agreed that they didn’t want to move because they felt protected by their group 

and they felt sorry about those who didn’t belong to any group…but most of the teachers didn’t 

know what to do with them… 

Then, starting from this issue, I invited my colleagues to think about how our students should feel 

when they meet their class mates for the first time: we consider them as a group, but as a matter 

of fact they aren’t a group yet and, as far as we can know, maybe they will never become a “class 

group”. 

Thus, to make our students sensitive towards a democratic approach, we should put in place some 

strategies in order to help them to interact each other correctly and to avoid this sort of 

stagnation and immobility, which usually causes the birth of closed groups. 

Then I proposed to play at the “Exchanging gifts”. 

I asked the trainees to imagine they have to do a gift to a person whom they care for….Well this is 

the result: 

Many teachers for the training and…as a consequence….many gifts on the board!! 

We started playing….. 


And in the end…..a few gifts were left!!! 

Yes! Asking around what they had received many gifts weren’t mentioned and to tell the truth 

nobody knew why so many and valuable gifts had ….. disappeared?! 

Many hypothesis were made, but then it came out that maybe there had been a gap…..because 

the teachers had been very attentive and involved while giving their first gift but then they hadn’t 

paid enough attention to the gift they were receiving and giving…and in the end some of them had 

forgotten the task too. 

The gap, we mentioned above, is just a fault in listening to what other people are saying, which is 

a very common fault….but how can we pretend to understand others without listening to them? 

How can we pretend to welcome them if we prevent ourselves to establish a contact? 

After posing these questions, the teachers were asked to fill the tables for monitoring the impact 

of the course. 


The same tables can be found among the resources on the online platform, 

where my colleagues have to present their first activity according to these instructions: “Post a 

photo and a text through which you can show your feelings about the first meeting of the training. 

Focus on the idea of Empathy”. 

Well…looking through the threads in the platform, I was surprised to find so many posts: 


2 nd Meeting – 25 th of January 2017 (3 hours and a half) 

“I look at you” 

Since some of my colleagues didn’t participate in the first meeting, I decided to propose an activity 

about the skill of empathic listening. This time and also for the following one they were 37!!! 

I sent out of the room three teachers: the criterion to choose them was the fact that they wore 

scarves and we needed them later. Then, I split the class in three groups. I explained that, once 

our colleagues had come back in the classroom, each team had to lead its champion towards the 

board, where the champion had to stick three little pieces of paper. The pieces were of different 

colours. The only rule to respect was that on the same row and column, they couldn’t stick pieces 

of the same colour. 

It was amazing to see that, led by their experience, not all the members of each team were 

involved in leading their champion, but almost unconsciously each team had chosen one or two of 

them who helped the champion in accomplishing the task. 

Acting as observer, I remarked this attitude and invited my colleagues to reflect on how they could 

propose the same activity in their classes and above all how thy could control the energy of our 

young students. 

Then I proposed the game “Exchanging values”. I had prepared some transparent envelops with 

just two values inside: one immaterial and the other material. I make the trainees choose them by 

chance. Then I explained that they could exchange their values, negotiating with the other 

participants. 


After a while, I stopped the negotiation and asked them: 

- How many hadn’t exchanged their values because they were satisfied of the values they 

had by chance? 

- How many had exchanged only the material values? 

- How many had exchanged the immaterial values? 

Posing these questions I didn’t know exactly what kind of situation I would face…. 

Well, it came out that there weren’t significant differences in number among the three groups: 

probably because they were all adults, they were aware of the fact that democracy must be fed 

with both beliefs and material goods, which could help to overcome economic, social gaps and 

also physical disabilities. 

Then I split them in groups and I explained the activity of the “Frozen poses”. 

As we had done during the seminar in Strasbourg and since there were six groups, I asked to 

perform: 

- A traditional undemocratic class; 

- A nowadays undemocratic class; 

- A democratic class according to the idea of Equality; 

- A democratic class according to the idea of Equity; 

- A “do as you like” class. 

After taking pictures of our “Frozen poses”, I gave some white posters and I asked the groups to 

realize the frames that could fit with their pose…and here are the results: 

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO WATCH THE SHORT VIDEO! 


Before leaving the teachers filled the monitoring tables, as they had done in the previous meeting. 

Then I asked my colleagues to comment the activities done on the Fidenia platform and to post 

some photos or images representing the concept of Equality and Equity: 


3 rd Meeting – 1st of February 2017 (3 hours and a half) 

“Shocking Democracy” 

We started this meeting in the computer laboratory in order to help colleagues who were a bit too 

weak in technologies and to watch something on the interactive board. 

I showed a video who tells the story of young couple who moved in a new house. The lady 

commented their neighbours’ washing, which seemed to be always dirty. 

One morning, getting up, as usual the lady looked through the window to her neighbours’ washing 

and she was surprised because it was shining. 

Talking with her husband, she discovered that just that morning he had cleaned their window’s 

pane. 

TO WATCH THE VIDEO,CLICK ON THE PICTURE! 

Thus, once again, the video made all the group of teachers think about how our beliefs influence 

our perceptions of the surroundings. 

Then I showed an incorrect version of the matching “Frozen poses” and Frames realized by the 

groups of trainees: 

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO! 


As a consequence of the wrong matching, sometimes the effect wasn’t so far from the original 

one, other times the contrast between the content of the picture and the frame was too striking! 

Then, after collecting my colleagues’ impressions, I asked them to watch without paying attention 

to the audio and to subtitles a short spot with the title “My president”. 

This spot was made in 2009, but it was proposed again on the social networks during 2016 USA 

Campaign for the election of the new president. 

CLICK HERE OR ON THE PICTURE TO WATCH THE VIDEO! 

(The video has been loaded on Dropbox, you don’t need to register to watch it!!) 

We watched it once and we tried to imagine the content of the spot and why the director could 

choose this actor…who he could represent?! 

Then I provided the Italian translation for all the participants. 

Understanding the text of the speech, we agreed about that, even if expressed by a colloquial and 

vulgar register, its content wasn’t so bad: “The president of a Nation should be a common 

man/woman”. 

But at the end of the video, there’s an evident charge: “Always a thief and never caught!” 

So we discussed about the idea of democracy connected with a concept on fashion: “what is 

politically correct?”. 

So we tried to find a common answer. 

Obviously Democracy means freedom to express oneself, but the actor’s final assertion can be 

considered neither respectful for those involved in politics nor politically correct. 

Then I split the participants in 5 groups and asked them to realize an activity whose aim was to 

share opinions about fixed topics and to find out a common line. 

In a big poster each member of the group had to write something about these topics: 


- Me and poverty; 

- Me and ambiguity; 

- Me and handicaps; 

- Me and my world. 

Then in the centre of the poster, the group as a whole should point out which of the previous 

sentences could represent the group’s vision. 

All the groups worked very hard…… 

and in the end they found out that it wasn’t so easy to share a common vision and that only with a 

good self-control it had been possible to fill the space dedicated to the group on the poster. 

Then I told them that in the middle of their posters they had a political programme. So, they had 

to decide who could represent better the group as their presidents and to realize a spot for the 

eventual election. 


We had no camera but with a smartphone we made our spots: 

CLICK ON THEM IF YOU WANT TO WATCH THE SPOTS! 

Tina for President 

Maurizio for President 

Linda for President 


Mariella for President 

Lorenza for President 

After realizing the spots, as usual the trainees completed the tables for monitoring their learning. 

In the meanwhile I realized a online survey, where the participants could vote for their favourite 

spot and here are the links to visualize first the survey and then the results: 

SURVEY (CLICK HERE !) 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScvVFAqt2GGtJvY3wWhumyYyKKtgFWf6xvDeR1V2Gf 

vfJiXtQ/viewform 

SUMMARY OF THE RESPONSES (CLICK HERE!) 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/blpwf3sl5qe07tt/Risultati%20sondaggio.pdf?dl=0 

(To see the responses you don’t need to register on Dropbox!) 

Considering the results, the favourite spots are Linda’s and, with my great surprise, Lorenza’s. 

Linda’s spot has all the qualities of a good one: there’s the candidate speaking, she is showing a 

picture resuming her programme and she speaks calmly. 

On the contrary, Lorenza’s spot is missing the candidate’s face and she doesn’t speak directly: 

there are slides running autonomously accompanied by a famous soundtrack. 


Of course, the aim of the training wasn’t the making of a good spot, but to share common values 

about democracy and….it seems to me that the goal has been reached!! 

Making the spots was the last activity of the training. So I asked the participants to fill the tables, 

the arrows’one and the butterfly revised - and this time to give them back in order to resume 

them and to have a feed back of the course. 

I invited my colleagues to keep in touch on the platform and above all to insert a sort of summary 

about what they felt and thought about this kind of training and of course about the themes 

faced. 

As usual, many comments were left on the platform: 

So our logbook ….has arrived to the end…. The results of monitoring activities are following. 


Appendix 1 - Results 

PESTALOZZI: “STRENGTHENING EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY” 

THE BUTTERFLY REVISED LA FARFALLA RIVISITATA 

QUALI COMPETENZE HAI ACQUISITO DURANTE LA FORMAZIONE? 

Which competences did you learn during the training sessions? 

Competenza / Competence 

Giudizio globale 1 / Global evaluation 

Dare valore / Values 

Dare valore alla dignità umana e ai diritti dell’uomo 

Valuing human dignity and human rights 

Dare valore alla diversità culturale 

Valuing cultural diversity 

Dare valore alla democrazia, alla giustizia, al rispetto 

reciproco, all’eguaglianza e all’applicazione della legge 

Valuing democracy, justice, fairness, equality and the 

rule of law 

Abilità / Skills 

Sapere apprendere in maniera autonoma 

Autonomous learning skills 

Sapere analizzare e osservare con spirito critico 

Analytical and critical thinking skills 

Skills of listening and observig 

Avere un atteggiamento empatico 

Empathy 

Sapersi adattare 

1 Scegli il simbolo che meglio rappresenta la tua opinione al termine della formazione. 

Choose the symbol which represents better your opinion at the end of the training session. 


Flexibility and adaptability 

Sapere comunicare in un contesto plurilingue 

Linguistic, communicative and plurilingual skills 

Sapere collaborare 

Co-operation skills 

Sapere mediare in situazioni conflittuali 

Conflict-resolution skills 

Atteggiamenti / Attitudes 

Sapere accogliere le altre culture e convinzioni 

Openness to cultural otherness and to other beliefs, 

world views and practices 

Sapere essere rispettosi nei confronti degli altri 

Respect 

Possedere competenze civiche e di cittadinanza 

Civic-mindedness 

Mostrare senso di responsabilità 

Self-efficacy 

Mostrare tolleranza verso situazioni ambigue 

Tolerance of ambiguity 

Conoscenza e senso critico / Knowledge and critical understanding 

Conoscere ed essere critici verso se stessi 

Knowledge and critical understanding of the self 

Conoscere ed essere critici verso la comunicazione 

verbale 

Knowledge and critical understanding of language and 

communication 


Conoscere ed essere critici verso il mondo: politica, 

leggi, culture, religioni, storia, media, economia, 

ambiente e sostenibilità. 

Knowledge and critical understanding of the world: 

politics, law, human rights, culture, cultures, religions, 

history, media, economies, environment, sustainability 

Riporta i seguenti simboli nelle caselle a secondo della tua opinione: 

According to your opinion, report the following symbols in the cases: 

Per niente /Not at all 

Così così / So and so 

Tutto ok / All right 

Valutazione / Evaluation: 

For all the participants the competences in the grill were all elicited, a part from “Communication 

in a plurilingual context” and, among the knowledges, “Knowing and being critical against the 

world”. 

As far as “Showing tolerance towards ambiguous situations”, maybe the answers were influenced 

by one’s own attitude towards ambiguity more than by the contents of the course, which in the 

last meeting showed a short movie just about this aspect. 

Per tutti i partecipanti le competenze nella griglia sono state sollecitate tutte, a parte la 

“Comunicazione in un contesto plurilingue e, tra le conoscenze, “Conoscere ed essere critici 

verso il mondo”. 

Per quel che riguarda “Mostrare tolleranza verso situazioni ambigue”, forse le risposte sono 

state influenzate dall’atteggiamento di ciascuno verso l’ambiguità in genere, piuttosto che dai 

contenuti del corso, che proprio nell’ultimo incontro ha previsto la visione di un breve filmato su 

questo aspetto. 


Appendix 3 - Results 

PESTALOZZI: “STRENGTHENING EDUCATION FOR DEMOCRACY” 

HOW DO I FEEL?? ;-) 

RISPETTO AL PERCORSO….COME MI SENTO? 

How do I feel about the training? 

(Scegli il disegno che meglio rappresenta il tuo stato d’animo.) 

(Choose the image which represents better your mood.) 

Symbol chosen / Simbolo scelto 

Number of the meetings / Numero incontri 

1° 1° 

2° 

3° 3°3° 

1° 1° 

2°2° 

2° 2° 2° 

3° 

1° 1°1° 

1° 

2° 

3° 3° 3° 

1° 

3° 

2° 2° 


Evaluation / Valutazione: 

During the first meeting the different groups were a bit disoriented and as a 

consequence they chose a larger number of symbols if compared with the following 

meetings. 

In the third meeting there’s a sort of convergence towards symbols which can 

represent a circular progression or readiness in action: which means that any way 

the goal of the course was reached. 

The choice of one of the group for the “intermingled” arrow can be justified by the 

perception of the difficulty a teacher can face in leading their students to a 

democratic path. 

Durante il primo incontro i gruppi erano un pò disorientati e, di conseguenza, hanno 

scelto un più ampio numero di simboli, soprattutto se si fa un confronto con quanto 

accaduto negli incontri successivi. 

Nel terzo incontro c’è una certa convergenza versi simboli che rappresentano una 

progressione circolare o il sentirsi pronti ad agire: il che significa che l’obiettivo del 

corso è stato raggiunto. 

La scelta di uno dei gruppi della freccia “ingarbugliata” si giustifica con la percezione 

delle difficoltà che un insegnante inevitabilmente deve affrontare guidando gli 

alunni in un percorso di democrazia. 


The End 

And now my dear bees 

…it’s time to spread 

what you have learned

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