The Future of Education

In the Italian secondary school system, the predominance of traditional, teacher-centred instruction leaves limited space for the development of transversal competences through active and experiential approaches [1, 2]. Extracurricular programmes have increasingly sought to fill this gap, yet few have developed structured instruments to document and measure their impact. This paper presents a case study of the Discentis laboratory model, an extracurricular active learning programme for secondary school students designed around a learning-by-doing approach [1] and implemented across multiple thematic areas in Italian secondary schools.

Each laboratory programme consists of 12 hands-on sessions combining collaborative small-group work, experimentation, debate, and creative production. Central to the model is the Learning Diary, a structured reflective tool completed by students after each session. The diary integrates quantitative items (Likert-scale self-assessments of transversal competences, motivation, and engagement) with open-ended qualitative prompts on what was learned, difficulties encountered, problem-solving strategies adopted, emotional responses, and connections to school curricula. This design, combining self-assessment scales and structured reflective writing, draws on established frameworks for reflective journaling as a tool for self-regulated learning and metacognitive development [3, 4], and functions both as a pedagogical instrument for students and as a data collection tool for programme evaluation.

This paper reports on data collected through the Learning Diary across three out of the six ongoing implementation of the model. Preliminary findings from the three completed programmes provide initial evidence of the model's effectiveness. Student motivation remained high and stable throughout all 12 sessions, pre-post comparisons show positive growth in all three transversal competences measured, with the largest gain in collaborative skills. Qualitative data document a progressive shift in problem-solving strategies from facilitated to autonomous, and a broadening of student perspectives from instrumental engagement to critical and ethical awareness.

This case study documents the application of well-established active learning principles in a real extracurricular context, and demonstrates that a structured reflective instrument can effectively support student metacognition. The findings suggest that active learning is a meaningful driver of student engagement and, when paired with structured reflection, is a concrete means for learners to recognise and own their progress.