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Scientific area

Area 11 – Historical, philosophical, pedagogical and psychological sciences

Identification code

DR 1288-2022

The aim of the national doctorate in Learning Sciences and digital technologies is to train the next generation of researchers and experts in the field of design of new environments and development of new teaching and learning methodologies. The doctoral course will focus on educational innovation in formal, informal and non-formal contexts: from school, to personal services, to industry, to leisure, with a specific focus on lifelong and ubiquitous learning. The doctorate aims to represent a national and international point of reference in this field of studies, through a network of laboratories and research centers located in the main Italian universities with a faculty composed of professors mainly from the fields of psychology, pedagogy and engineering.

The productive integration between different research perspectives in the field of instructional design and digital education will generate a truly transdisciplinary training curriculum. In addition to the training, scientific and laboratory activities produced in the various locations, the doctoral students will benefit from a national learning community with an offer of transversal teachings of a methodological, managerial and design nature, proposing the training of researchers with multidisciplinary knowledge and able to integrate different scientific approaches to respond to the complex challenges of the future of education and inclusion.

The PhD program is designed to deepen the functioning of the mind in its interaction with technologies in educational processes. PhD students will study the neuroscientific bases of learning, the main pedagogical-didactic theories and digital design with the aim of developing new technologies, analyzing large-scale educational data, designing new training and docimological methods. A special focus will be dedicated to the training of subjects with disabilities in formal, informal or non-formal contexts and to educational and rehabilitative strategies in vulnerable populations or in conditions of social disadvantage.

Students enrolled in the doctoral program in Learning Sciences and digital technologies will be able to explore the use of technologies to solve complex problems through the implementation of theoretical and empirical studies. Students will develop their specialized knowledge through participation in relevant research projects that will involve both the academic and industrial/professional communities. Participation in research projects conducted within our laboratories and research centers, laboratories of affiliated entities (industries, schools, hospitals, clinical centers-IRCCS) and public and/or private research institutes will be promoted. This will allow us to address, through research, issues that have important implications on the well-being of individuals and on active participation in the various contexts of reference; it will allow us to develop skills in building research projects and in using the results obtained to implement interventions and good practices capable of transforming training practices also in an inclusive perspective. Students will then be able to apply the outcomes of theoretical or technical work in a technology-mediated innovation aimed at promoting educational experiences that enhance the quality of life of children, adolescents and adults, in different contexts.

The program was developed with the awareness that design, social and contextual variables of learning, educational sciences, neuroscience and cognitive psychology and special pedagogy are fundamental skills to rethink training also in special educational contexts.

All students will have the opportunity to choose an application project in a technological area of their choice, such as: programming, digital animation, simulation, robotics, interaction design, serious games, tangible interfaces, application of AI modules for learning environments, development of applications to promote learning processes in clinical or atypical populations, augmented reality, digital and Data Literacy. The laboratory experiences will aggregate disciplinary knowledge on specific problems and the entire training plan will be built in constant dialogue between theory and practice, through methodologies such as EAS and PBL to promote student creativity in constant confrontation with real problems. Up to 40% of the training will be delivered online; courses and training activities will be able to benefit from the contribution of teachers from international universities and research centers and will be delivered in English up to a maximum of 70% of the entire curriculum.

Upon completion of the course, students will have a variety of career opportunities: research in the educational, training and technological fields in public and private institutions; product development in training companies and in edutainment, Instructional Designer in industrial contexts and in public and private contexts.

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