Abstract:

Introduction:
In the last two decades, the theme of teacher training (Initial Teacher Education; Continuous Professonal Development) has assumed centrality in the European debate also thanks to the production, on the one hand, of documents from international organizations and, on the other, of specific pedagogical literature. In this sense (Eurydice, 2021), it is agreed on the need to harmonize teacher training policies in Europe through strategic priorities, including: "Improving the competencies and motivation of teachers in education professions" (ET 2030, 2021). In fact, main theoretical indications, also due to the impacts of the pandemic on student motivation (Azevedo, et al. 2021), place the emphasis on training opportunities to increase teachers' reflexivity on their own social and emotional skills for educational purposes. In parallel, the 2021 Italian law proposal on the national experimentation of activities aimed at the development of non-cognitive skills in all school grades provides for the training of teachers, as advocated by the consultation of Italian pedagogical societies to be carried out through experiential training activities aimed at enhancing interpersonal skills.

Objective:
In consideration of this scenario, the paper presents the case of a social promotion association (located in Lecce - Italy) that carried out a formative evaluation model in an experiential learning and outdoor training setting for teachers training. This model is aimed at developing awareness and capacity for action in the "management of emotions" as a fundamental social and emotional competence for teaching professionalism. The proposed formative evaluation model intends to make teachers participating in the experiential learning activity aware of the latent processes underlying learning (deep learning) as a key to interpreting their social and emotional competence for their own didactic action.
The research question is: What role and function can the formative evaluation have within the training processes and the actions of the professional teacher?

Methodology:
The formative evaluation model intends to explore in the participants the level of deep learning regarding the social and emotional competence "management of emotions" object of the experiential learning activity. The tool used for the formative evaluation is the self-report set up on a track with an open question concerning the management of emotions during the performace tasks carried out in the learning setting. The self-report was compiled by the participants at the beginning and at the end of the learning activities. The self-report with its textual corpus analysis was analyzed through a qualitative methodology with exploratory research strategy and inductive analysis strategy. The analysis technique is interpretative with "Thematic Coding" supported by the MAX-QDA software.

Results:
Starting from the results of the formative evaluation experimented in the experiential training activities promoted by "Ecosistemi formativi esperienziali", the following are presented: theoretical assumptions, methodological criteria and operational steps for the use of the formative evaluation model on deep learning processes developed in the experiential setting for enhance the social and emotional competence "management of emotions".

Keywords:

Teacher training, social and emotional skills, experiential learning, deep learning, formative evaluation.