This study is one of the first investigations conducted within the Italian school system to capture teachers’ perspective, experiences and perceptions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on school education. It was performed two months after the beginning of lockdown, when online teaching and learning processes were fully in place and had reached a steady state. The paper reports a descriptive analysis together with a network analysis, and the search for causal relationships among the variables that have been investigated. Generally, respondents reported that the reactions of educational institutions and individual teachers were satisfactory, preventing the collapse of the education system in spite of loss of contact with 6-10% of the student population and a significant teacher workload increase that posed individual time management challenges. Although teachers tended to adopt teaching strategies that reproduced standard classroom dynamics, the possibility of operating in this comfort zone generated a positive feeling about using technologies, a perception of increased digital skills mastery and a change in mindset about educational processes. In turn, this led to an increase in the perceived sustainability of online education, with about a third of the teachers expressing the wish to adopt a blended configuration for future teaching activities. Almost all participants recognized the significance of a digital pedagogy and the need to include it in the training curricula to prepare future teachers.

Language scientists have broadly addressed the problem of explaining how language users recognize the kind of speech act performed by a speaker uttering a sentence in a particular context. They have done so by investigating the role played by the illocutionary force indicating devices (IFIDs), i.e., all linguistic elements that indicate the illocutionary force of an utterance. The present work takes a first step in the direction of an experimental investigation of non-verbal IFIDs because it investigates the role played by facial expressions and, in particular, of upper-face action units (AUs) in the comprehension of three basic types of illocutionary force: assertions, questions, and orders. The results from a pilot experiment on production and two comprehension experiments showed that (1) certain upper-face AUs seem to constitute non-verbal signals that contribute to the understanding of the illocutionary force of questions and orders; (2) assertions are not expected to be marked by any upper-face AU; (3) some upper-face AUs can be associated, with different degrees of compatibility, with both questions and orders.

The present study investigated implicit associations of stereotypical feminine and masculine gay men pictures with word stimuli referring to negative (vs. positive) and with self (vs. others) categories, among heterosexual and gay/bisexual men. We manipulated participants' masculinity threat through a fictitious personality score and measured their sexual prejudice, internalized sexual stigma, adherence to traditional masculinity, and the norms of traditional masculinity ideology. We conducted two preliminary studies (n total = 186) to create and select the picture stimuli for the implicit association test (IAT), whereas the first (n = 180) and the second (n = 301) studies tested our research hypotheses. In Study 1, the IAT detected the associations between the pictures with positive and negative word stimuli, and in Study 2 the word stimuli referred to the self and others categories. The results indicated that in the condition of masculinity threat, compared to masculinity confirmation and control groups, both heterosexual and gay/bisexual participants were more likely to associate the stereotypical feminine gay men pictures to the self (vs. others), but not to negative (vs. positive) category. Furthermore, results showed that adherence to traditional masculinity has the strongest relations with the implicit association test (IAT) scores, and that internalized sexual stigma assumes a moderating role for gay men. Limitations and further directions are discussed.

Background: Several studies have focused on the relationship between context variables and self-efficacy. Among the social variables, limited attention has been given to social capital and teacher-student relationship in the school community. Objective: This study aims to explore how social capital in the school community and teacher-student relationship may influence students’ self-efficacy and school satisfaction. Furthermore, is it suggested that these relations change according to school grade or transition point,i.e. first and final year of high school, and in relation to the student’s gender. Methods: A total of number of 2,623 high school students in their first and final years filled in questionnaires in Italy. We used Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to test an ad hoc model that aimed to assess how the school context variables considered may influence students’ self-efficacy beliefs and school satisfaction. Results: Four different models were developed to categorise four different school grade sub-groups,i.e. first and final year students, and gender, i.e. boys and girls. The analyses of the results within the sub-samples reveal that social capital and teacher-student relationships influence students’ self-efficacy and school satisfaction differently. Conclusion: The results remarked the importance of differentiating guidance counselling for students in relation to specific transition and gender. Further implications for relevant educational practice are discussed at the end of this article.

Social touch is essential in relationships and well-being, but the unique personal experience of touch is not assessed and taken into account in health and social care services. The pleasantness of gentle stroking is influenced by gender, toucher genre, toucher familiarity, culture, and age. Moreover, pleasantness is influenced by touch avoidance, the attitude toward interpersonal touch. The aim of this article is to present the translation, adaptation, and validation in Italian of two scales to measure touch avoidance. For translation and validation, we selected the most used scale, the Touch Avoidance Measure (TAM) and a more recent scale, the Touch Avoidance Questionnaire (TAQ). Confirmatory factor analyses reported good model fit for the TAM [comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.947, Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) = 0.940, root-mean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.065] and excellent model fit for the TAQ (CFI = 0.954, TLI = 0.950, RMSEA = 0.058). Internal consistency was high for all subscales, except the TAQ "Stranger" subscale. One-month test-retest reliability ranged from 0.67 to 0.90 for each subscale. Lastly, convergent validity between the TAM and TAQ was also found to be high. We conclude that the TAM and TAQ can be used to assess touch avoidance with Italian samples. The instrument can be used to support healthcare professionals and to assess attitudes toward touch in individuals with interpersonal difficulties.