Abstract:

In contemporary society, the role and functions of university education have undergone a profound change. The university is no longer a place of élite education reserved for the training of some professions traditionally considered prestigious, nor does it deal exclusively with theoretical and applicative research, but, following the overall evolution of the training systems, it has taken on the typical characteristics a mandatory segment of the training system, that is, necessary for access to most of the contemporary professions. In this context, the individual is increasingly in need of an environment that provides him with the cognitive, emotional, relational and managerial skills necessary for an autonomous and responsible choice in his career path. Therefore, university teaching has the task of generating a profound change in its organization, in relation to the needs of the socio-cultural-working context and the development of different professions. In this context, great attention is paid to the activity of the university laboratory, in terms of reorganization of teaching and as a pedagogical space in which alternative solutions are tested that pave the way for an integration between theory and practice. A place of conjugation between teachers, students and researchers, which requires reflection on the purposes of education and knowledge of the disciplines of study. The laboratories, within the university course, were conceived as a hinge capable of welding the times of formal preparation and practical preparation through analysis, planning and meta-reflection (Damiano 1998, 2004, 2006) or as a place / operationalization structure of the theory-practice-theory nexus (Perrucca, 2005, p. 89). The laboratory can become an effective tool to strengthen the relationship between training and the world of work, it can become a place capable of nourishing and legitimizing the development of professionalization (Damiano, 2004). If we consider the dimension of the spiral articulation of theory and practice, the learning does not only concern decontextualized knowledge or declinations of knowledge in knowing how to do or knowing how to be, but converge on the construction of skills: disciplinary contents, interdisciplinary plots and skills here they are not an object of learning in themselves but become a means at the service of the treatment of certain situations. The purpose of this work is to theoretically investigate the importance of laboratory activity in the university environment, not only in terms of the application of theory, but as a research space and pedagogical area, in which possible strategies for solving problems are tested that professionalism will face in the world of work. Specifically, it presents a university laboratory experience of Experimental Pedagogy, lived with the students of the Master's Degree Course in Pedagogical Sciences (LM 85) of the University of Salerno. This contribution lays the foundations for a subsequent empirical investigation to be conducted on the laboratory activities present in the degree courses of the educational professions (L19, LM85 and LM57) of the aforementioned University, to understand the logical levels of the learning that takes place in this phase, in relationship to the transfer of disciplines, and its impacts in response to the world of work.

Keywords:

University education, laboratory, educational professionalism, learning levels, world of work.