Classified "A" by ANVUR in the fields 11/D1, 11/D2 Scientific in the field 14.
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of improvement interventions understood as continuous performance improvement, and empowerment, i.e., a value orientation for working in the community and a theoretical model for comprehending the process and consequences of efforts to exert control and influence over decisions that affect one's life, organizational functioning, and the quality of community existence (Perkins & Zimmerman, 1995; Rappaport, 1981; Zimmerman & Warschausky, 1998). The intervention was conducted in the period following the first lockdown, and involved training a sample of 65 professional educators working in educational services, such as school-based education, home-based education, residential communities for minors, Home-Care for Minors, youth aggregation centers (Italian acronym c.a.g.), Socio-Educational Centers. On the basis of the need detected by the client company, operating in the Lombardy region, the training was a dual one and specifically related to (1) the use of a particular software designed for educational interventions with subjects affected by ADHD and (2) video modelling, for the improvement and enhancement of autonomy skills of users with cognitive disabilities. The dimensions assessed through the test are those related to perception of professional success, relationship, affiliation, self-actualization, protection and security, emotional maturity, finalization to action, relational fluency and ability to analyze the context. The scale, taken from a work by Getuli, Salvi and Avallone (1998), assesses the attribution of meaning that the educator gives to his or her work, to (professional) needs, to the value of his or her intervention, and thus the detection of conceptions of work experience after a specific training course. Considering the results as a whole, an articulated picture emerges of how they define needs and values of their professional life. Significant importance is attributed to the set of values that contribute to the area of openness to change.
