In an interview printed today on the Corriere della Sera Tullio De Mauro declared that “mixed together, students tend to learn more.”
Are special “insertion classes” necessary for foreign students? The interview with Prof. Tullio De Mauro, renowned linguist and President of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, by Mario Purqueddu was published in the Corriere della Sera on October 17, 2008.
MILAN – Has the Lega Nord identified a true problem? “No. The idea that mixing students with different levels of proficiency could be a problem is absolutely ridiculous.”
Could the quality of teaching decline from mixing students at very different levels?
“Research conducted worldwide reveals that the more heterogeneous classes are, the better student’s results are. Everybody’s: from the best to the worst.
Tullio De Mauro is a Professor of Linguistics at the Rome La Sapienza University. He may not like the idea of placing immigrants who do not speak good Italian into separate classes at all, but he contests it as a scholar of education systems, rather than as the former education minister of the Centre-left coalition. “Governors may choose to do as they wish, within the limits set by the constitution, but before acting they should be well informed.”
“Since the 1970s, when we began measuring the competence level of students around the world, to present, research results reveal that the myth of the do-gooder, who thinks that separating the brighter students from the slower ones will help everyone to progress more steadily, is false. The more heterogeneous classes are, the better. In France, if schools turn out to have too stark differences, the students are redistributed in new classes at the beginning of the following school year.”
In Italy, though, we have parents removing their children from classes with too many immigrants …
“It depends on the type of information that they receive from the media that often fuels their fears of foreigners. The fact is that Italian elementary schools have operated very well. Their objective is to bring everyone forward and they currently place fifth or sixth worldwide. The lower-level students that complete our school programmes, in comparative studies, place better than the lower-level students from more selective school systems or schools with less immigrant children or disabled children, who were admitted to Italian schools in 1966.”
“Even the best students benefit from a heterogeneous class system. All the studies focused on the progress of students over the years have confirmed this.”
Doesn’t this complicate the work of teachers?
“We certainly need good teachers and our elementary teachers are good. They benefit from the training organised by Minister Falcucci, who in 1985 promoted a clean cut professional updating of all teachers. We are still reaping the benefits of this, but now there is talk about eliminating teacher teams and reducing full time. Ms. Gelmini said she wouldn’t do this, so let’s cross our fingers …”
Schooling is expensive. Doesn’t it make sense to apply criteria that will save money?
“When I was a Minister I used to save paper. I’d rip the unused parts off and use them. Nonetheless, Italy spends a good amount, not less than other countries, on elementary schools. And this is still a minimum fraction of the GDP, but we hardly invest anything in high schools, universities and research.”
