Abstract:

Schools and teachers are called upon, in the age of complexity, to deal with a plurality of problems related to the many stimuli arising from the personal and environmental influences of students. Complexity requires teachers to be in constant training and updating, to be able to propose flexible and adaptable teaching paths for the individual learner. This type of action implies a change of perspective in the way of working, leading to the stimulation of lateral thinking, capable of generating creativity. Creativity and lateral thinking imply the activation of metacognitive mechanisms, which are useful for teachers to reflect on their actions and improve their work with students, especially from an inclusive perspective. This paper presents the results of an exploratory activity, conducted on 657 teachers in training at the university of salerno, as part of the training activities for teaching support to pupils with special educational needs. The aim was to investigate whether teachers in training can develop lateral thinking, based on suggestions derived from de bono's studies (2015a) and, specifically, his theory of "the six hats for thinking" highlighting points of agreement with the theory of simplexity proposed by berthoz (2011).