Explorans - Dip. Psicologia e Scienze Cognitive UniTrento

ROVERETO - Great satisfaction for the First International conference Social Health Education & Training that was held on 2015 January 30 and 31 on the University of Trento, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science.
150 Italian and European scholars dialogued on research activities and projects; an event designed to facilitate the process of academic internationalization.                    

Remo Job,  Director of the Department hosting the Undergraduate course in Social Health Education in collaboration with the University of Ferrara, opened the conference.
After opening welcome and thanks to the organizers, Director said that the sector has potential implications on the political, social and individual themes. "I'm sure - he concluded - that these days will be intense, rich and productive". 

Violetta Plotegher, Regional Minister for Social Welfare and councilor of Autonomous Province of Trento explained that the local administration supports the university course of "this profession strategic for modern social and health policies. We are happy to be there first to organize this international conference”.

Benny Andersen, President of the International Association of Social Educators AIEJI, in his videomessage  from Copenhagen, encouraged to connect the Italian research with rest of the world reserchers and invited all attendees at the Sao Paulo World Congress in 2017, together the members of ANEP italian association of social health educators.


"The Italian research in  Social Health Education is taking its first steps - said Conference Scientific Director Dario Fortin - although in Italy people involved in helping relationships are five million, including volunteers and employees but seem that politicians haven’t seen it; there were and are many obstacles and difficulties to get ahead.
In the last twenty years, challenges have been important, but there hasn’t been a multi-annual programming, hurting  most vulnerable people. In Italy there are only fourteen Undergraduate courses in Social Health Education and investment in research are almost nil".
Important data for this conference: 55 research papers on best practices training inside and outside university and 80 authors. "Throught this conference, we are building a new scientific community. For this purpose we created www.explorans.it,  an open space for reporting progress of scientific research and there are good premises - he concluded - to launch an open access international journal".

Silvia Gherardi,  professor emeritus of the RUCOLA research unit in University of Trento, explained that the practical knowledge allows us to address a variability of problems because knowledge  processes are  activities located and are not easily exportable:“The climbing is a metaphor of learning, that becames effective only when it is contextualized because the rocks have always different forms "


Juliet Koprowska (Department of Social Work at the University of York in England), has explained her research methods related to learning (communication skills) that involving english university students in social work, these methods are crucial for helping professional profiles that need to be supported by different media.  Fundamental intersections between self-assessment and objective evaluation "We try to make the person grow as a human being -  she said - we must be able to evaluate social workers when they are in training through the ICT."


"We are living in a transitional period - Fabio Salviato (President of FEBEA Federation of banks ethical alternative) explained   - we need to find innovative and original solutions to recover human relations."  He proposed concrete solutions to plan a new economy. Many sectors that are giving excellent results: renewable energy, organic farming, green building, social housing and responsible tourism. He has shown good practices that intercept social needs: social impact bonds, already active in England, and community foundations "Sustainable development is crucial,  we don't have to  stay in our worlds but  be contagious - he concluded - because the highest interest  is to everyone.”

The opening plenary session was concluded by Alberto Zucconi (President IACP - Person-Centered Approach Institute and director of the World University Consortium) that focused on the education and training of the professions in the university "would be important to give an effective compass, anchored in ethical values. He proposed the adoption of the Poznan Declaration “to generate a self-awareness in students and effective solutions to the real problems”.  The conference continued with paper sessions, workshops and posters: teachers, educators, graduate students and researchers have discussed research methods and results of educational interventions and university education.



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