ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the results of the research carried out in 14 educational institutions, 7 of which were high schools, 5 comprehensive schools, 1 junior high school, and 1 primary and nursery school. Two associations are also described – along with their related projects – which work to reintegrate the students who have left school and which represent particularly innovative learning environments in the sense indicated by the authors.
The authors show the relationship between the results of the analysis of the innovation of learning environments and the analysis of the capabilities in the 14 schools considered. It is possible to notice that there is a good correlation between the innovation of the learning environments and the organizational capabilities typical of self-organization: that is, the greater the school’s self-organization, the greater the possible innovation of its learning environment.
The chapter includes an analysis of the most active players in the processes of self-organization in the 14 case studies (principals, teachers, teacher networks, students, parents) and the investigation of the role of external players (schools, territorial bodies, national or international companies and institutes) in such processes.
The chapter also covers the limits to and the prospects for the research.
