Esperienze formative nella prospettiva del Lifelong Learning: i progetti Car.Sek, Edueat e Edujob

This research is divided into three chapters dealing three different project works carried out during the Eureka Doctoral Program. The central idea of this research is the theme of lifelong learning seen as continuing training aimed to improve the life quality of the human being. The research path deals three different training projects connected to three different targets: elderly, children and adults. The training projects are centered to the wellbeing of people both related to the acquisition of a healthy lifestyles and to the professional fulfillment. The first chapter regards a Pilot Project, named Car.Sek, about the domotics realized in cooperation with the INRCA (National Institute Retirement and Care for the Elderly). The theoretical framework is offered by the life cycle psychology studies that provide to support the basic research topics such as lifelong learning and active aging. The critical issues emerged in the Car.Sek Project have generated reflections concerning the role of education as an instrument of change and the reorganized of the meanings system of the people within the research group. This has directed the study towards two investigative perspectives: the development of healthy lifestyles and professional training. The acquisition of an healthy lifestyles, especially in the nutrition field, is strongly influenced by behaviors and habits learned during childhood. In this sense exist the need for interventions of food and nutrition education in the first years of life, in a phase in which the plasticity of the brain is more active. Furthermore the food and nutrition education of children could become a good tool for changing the entire family lifestyles. For that reason the second chapter focuses on the development of Edueat Project, a food and nutrition educational course for children and adults based on the sensorial exploration of food through a playful approach. Starting from the elaboration of a Manifesto for conscious education of children in the family context and school, the project involves the creation of different tools in order to involve all actors that mediate the children nutrition: family and school. Data from focus groups conducted with families and the results of laboratory experiences with parents and children are presented in the chapter. According to the latest studies on adult learning, the third chapter designs a new educational model based on the enhancement of learners with as an active subject. This to support a learning process characterized by circularity between theory and practice and the development of self-reflection and self-evaluation skills. The main topic behind this study regards the concept that the training courses managed in an autonomous way by the adult produce a more lasting learning than an imposed interventions by external subjects.