Indagine su competenze in ambito scientifico in uscita dalla scuola media

We tested the achievement in physics and mathematics for boys and girls leaving the lower secondary school (“scuola media”, now “scuola secondaria di primo grado”) aged 14. The test consisted of 12 multiple choice questions and 4 simple problems. It was given to 1089 students, in the Pisa province and one school of the town of Lucca. Only about half of the 12 questions have given a good number of right answers. The results of the problems cannot be easily summarized. The number of right solutions varied with the problem, from good to poor. A widespread difficulty was encountered in explaining the solution given, even when it was correct. Rather frequently the wording was inadequate, also with grammatical errors. We also noted a less than satisfactory mastering of facts and phenomena of everyday life.