FROM CIVIC TO CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION

This research is the acquisition of knowledge and behaviors of citizenship education in activities made by some upper secondary schools in Campania. In the current socio-political-economic framework, citizenship education is considered the only possibility of change for future generations which gives pupils knowledge, skills and understanding to become informed citizens, aware of their rights, duties and responsibilities. The reference model relates to the theories of the ecological development, the situated cognition (Lave and Wenger, 2006), and situative approach (Greeno, Collins, Resnick, 1996). Consequently, it is necessary to develop effective citizenship skills and to pay attention, of course, to the role of training agencies and, in particular, to schools educational activities. For this reason, considering the increasingly urgent demand of community and national institutions to make training a real experience of citizenship, schools, with a strong interaction with the territory, are open to educational planning issues of active citizenship. The research started from several but often isolated school initiatives. The objectives of the survey were as follows: - check students and teachers opinion about the meaning of citizenship through questionnaires; - analyze the projects implemented in educational institutions on citizenship education; - verify the quality of knowledge and skills achieved, related to citizenship education through the use of a test. Research hypotheses argued that students attending schools in which projects and specific training courses about citizenship education were planned and implemented, obtained better results and were able to face and solve practical problems in a more cooperative and democratic way compared to students attending schools where there were not these projects and training courses.