Elisa Guasconi

Elisa Guasconi is a fixed-term Researcher (RTD-A) in the SSD of Educational Research – PAED 02/B at the Department of Education Studies “G. M. Bertin”, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, within the three-year research program entitled “Effectiveness of formative assessment in educational contexts: development and experimentation of teacher change models for assessment literacy”.

Previous positions

• From 01/02/2025 to 05/11/2025 she is a research fellow in the PAED 02/B sector at the Department of Education Studies of the University of Bologna. Title of the research grant: “Formative assessment in the classroom: video analysis to promote teachers’ beliefs and practices”.
• From 01/02/2023 to 31/01/2025 she is a research fellow in the PAED 02/B sector at the Department of Education Studies of the University of Bologna. Title of the research grant: “Formative assessment in the classroom: video analysis to promote teachers’ beliefs and practices”.
• From 01/11/2019 to 15/06/2023 she is a PhD student at the Department of Education Studies “G. M. Bertin” of the University of Bologna (PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, in the field of Experimental Pedagogy PAED 02/B).

Education
In 2023 (on 15/06) she obtained a PhD in Pedagogical Sciences, specifically in Educational Research (M‑PED/04) at the Department of Education Studies “G. M. Bertin” of the University of Bologna.

In 2016 she graduated with full marks in Primary Teacher Education (old system), with specialization “primary school” at the Department of Education Studies “G. M. Bertin”, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna.

In 2014 she graduated with full marks in Primary Teacher Education (old system), with specialization “preschool” at the Department of Education Studies “G. M. Bertin”, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna.

Scientific activity
She currently collaborates with the Educational Research group of the Department of Education Studies at the University of Bologna, under the supervision of Prof. Ira Vannini. Her activity is structured into two main strands: Teacher Change and Formative Assessment.
The first strand investigates the factors that influence changes in teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices at all school levels (pre-service and in-service) and the development of their professionalism. In particular, the potential of video analysis is examined as a tool to promote teachers’ reflective and assessment competences. Within the projects, Research‑Training is adopted as an approach involving collaboration between teachers and researchers.
The second strand focuses on the effectiveness of formative assessment on students’ learning outcomes. In particular, it analyzes the conditions under which such practices are effective across different school levels and subject areas. Projects within this research area mainly employ experimental designs. Results are evaluated through statistical analyses and the calculation of effect size to estimate practical impact.

• From 01/02/2025 to 05/11/2025 she is the holder of a research grant within a project entitled “Video analysis in pre-service training for the development of teachers’ professionalism” (tutor: Prof. Ira Vannini) at the Department of Education Studies “Bertin” of the University of Bologna. She participates in all phases of the project, from revising the experimental intervention and tools to the preparation of the dataset, currently under analysis. Research group – Joint coordination: Prof. Alessandra Rosa and Prof. Ira Vannini. Members of the research group: Elena Pacetti, Andrea Ciani, Andrea Maffia, Elisa Guasconi.
• From 10/09/2024 to present she is responsible for activities related to an international systematic review on formative assessment and, specifically, its effectiveness in relation to the improvement of mathematical skills in secondary school. Research group: Elisa Guasconi, Alessandro Oro.
• From 01/02/2023 to 31/01/2025 she is the holder of a research grant within a funded project (Department Strategic Development Project, structural call) entitled “Formative assessment in the classroom: video analysis to promote teachers’ beliefs and practices” (tutor: Prof. Ira Vannini) at the Department of Education Studies “Bertin” of the University of Bologna. She participates in all activities related to the implementation of a single-group pre-experimental design within the Degree Programme in Primary Teacher Education at the University of Bologna and in the development of a system of formative assessment indicators for video analysis activities. Research group – Joint coordination: Prof. Alessandra Rosa and Prof. Ira Vannini. Members: Elena Pacetti, Andrea Ciani, Andrea Maffia, Elisa Guasconi. Universities involved: collaboration with UCI (University of Irvine - CA) and University of South Australia.
• From 01/11/2019 to 15/06/2023 she is a PhD candidate in Pedagogical Sciences at the Department of Education Studies “G. M. Bertin”, University of Bologna. Title of the doctoral thesis: “Formative assessment practices to promote text comprehension skills. An experiment in lower secondary school”. Supervisor: Prof. Ira Vannini; co-supervisor: Prof. Roberta Cardarello.
  • From 15/11/2023 she coordinates the Italian group in the international pre-award project “Combatting the detrimental lack of understanding of how formative assessment works to improve student performance in mathematics: Identifying important mechanisms”. Universities involved: University of Bologna, University of Bolzano, and University of Umeå (Sweden). Principal Investigator: Prof. Torulf Palm. The project is developed by an interdisciplinary and inter-university group involving PAED 02/B and MATH 01/B. It is supervised by John Hattie (University of Melbourne) and Dylan Wiliam (UCL).
• From 01/02/2023 within the PRIN 2022 project she coordinates a case study and a Research‑Training intervention in a lower secondary school in the Bologna area and coordinates the research group on INVALSI data. Project title: “Educational poverty, cultural disadvantage and social inclusion inside and outside school. Teacher professional development and Research‑Training in the post-Covid era”.
• From 26/07/2024 to 26/01/2025 she participates in the research project “Sentire l’inglese nella fascia d’età 0-3-6”, contributing to the construction of data collection tools (questionnaire), quantitative analysis (univariate and bivariate techniques), qualitative analysis (thematic analysis), and reporting.
• From 24/11/2023 to present she participates in a research project on university teaching innovation entitled “Cosa ne pensano gli studenti?”. She contributes to questionnaire design, administration and data analysis.
• From 01/02/2023 she participates in CRESPI Project B “Definition of outcome and effectiveness indicators of Research‑Training”.
• From 01/02/2021 to 01/02/2023 she participates in CRESPI research group 3.
• From 15/11/2019 to 18/02/2021 she participates in a project entitled “Planning and assessment competences in school” funded by the Regional School Office of Emilia-Romagna.
• From 03/10/2016 to 30/06/2017 she participates in the international project FAMT&L (Formative Assessment in Math’s Teaching and Learning).

Membership in research centers and scientific societies
Since 30/05/2026 she is Junior Member of SIRVED (Italian Society for Evaluative, Educational and Didactic Research).
Since 07/10/2024 she is Co-opted Member of SIPED (Italian Society of Pedagogy).
From 29/05/2023 to 07/10/2024 she was Junior Member of SIPED.
Since November 2023 she is Collaborator of CRESPI.

Participation in conferences, conventions and/or seminars
International:
• Participation as a presenter at: EARLI 2025 Conference, “Realising Potentials through Education: Shaping the Minds and Brains for the Future” (Graz, 25–29 August 2025) with a poster entitled: “Develop a Questionnaire to Uncover Engineering Students’ Needs and Improve the Quality of Teaching” (Authors: Elisa Guasconi, Ira Vannini, Luca Mantecchini).
• Participation as a presenter at: Earli – Jure 2024 Conference, “Education and the need for dynamic solutions: shaping the future of the field” (Seville, 24–28 June 2024), with a paper entitled: “Formative assessment for enhancing students' text comprehension abilities: an experiment in Italy” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter at: ATEE Spring 2024 Conference, “Teacher education research in Europe: trends, challenges, practices and perspectives” (Bergamo, 29 May – 01 June 2024), with a paper entitled: “A formative assessment system of items to promote pre-service and in-service teacher change of practices and beliefs on assessment” (Authors: Elisa Guasconi, Alessandro Oro, Ira Vannini).
• Participation as a presenter at: Third International Conference di Scuola Democratica, “Education and/for social justice” (Cagliari, 03–06 June 2024), with a paper entitled: “Formative assessment to ‘not leave students behind’: an experiment to sustain text comprehension abilities in the lower secondary school” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter at: First International Higher Education Pedagogy Conference, “Developing academics’ pedagogical acuity” (Rethymnon, Crete, 15–17 September 2023), with a paper entitled: “Promote Informal Formative Assessment practices in Higher Education through video analysis” (Authors: Ira Vannini, Elisa Guasconi, Alessandro Oro. Presentation delivered by Elisa Guasconi and Alessandro Oro on behalf of Ira Vannini).
• Participation as a presenter in a seminar series organized by the Department of Mathematics and Science Education of the University of Umeå (Sweden). Title of the presentation: “An investigation on formative assessment practices for improving equity and quality in education”. Author: Elisa Guasconi, presented on 30/09/2022.
National:
• Participation as a presenter at: SIPED National Conference 2026, “Università del Futuro, il Futuro dell’Università” (Turin, 22–24 January 2026), with a paper entitled: “Promuovere le competenze valutative degli insegnanti pre-service attraverso la videoanalisi: la proposta di un sistema di indicatori di formative assessment (FA)” (Authors: Elisa Guasconi, Ira Vannini).
• Participation as a presenter at: SIPED National Conference 2025, “La qualità della formazione come responsabilità sociale” (Parma, 19–21 June 2025), with a paper entitled: “Cosa si cela dietro alle “evidenze”? Un’analisi a partire da una rassegna sistematica sul formative assessment” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter within a seminar series promoted by the Department of Education Studies of the University of Bologna. Seminar title: “Videoanalisi e sviluppo della professionalità docente in contesti scolastici e universitari: esperienze e prospettive di ricerca”. Location: University of Bologna. Title of the presentation: “Formazione pre-service e videoanalisi: una ricerca all’interno di un laboratorio di Scienze della Formazione Primaria”. Authors: Andrea Maffia, Elena Pacetti, Elisa Guasconi.
• Participation as a presenter at: SIRD National Conference 2023, “A cosa serve la ricerca educativa? Il dato e il suo valore sociale” (Milan, 21–22 September 2023), with a paper entitled: “In cattedra prima del conseguimento delle abilitazioni all’insegnamento: una ricerca esplorativa nel Corso di Laurea in Scienze della Formazione Primaria dell’Università di Bologna” (Authors: Andrea Ciani, Elena Pacetti, Alessandra Rosa, Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter at: SIPED National Conference 2023, “Dare la parola: professionalità pedagogiche, educative e formative. A 100 anni dalla nascita di Don Milani” (Florence, 15–17 June 2023), with a paper entitled: “Pratiche di formative assessment per promuovere abilità di comprensione dei testi. Una sperimentazione nella scuola secondaria di primo grado” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter at: XVI Seminario dottorandi SIRD (Rome, 09–10 June 2022), with a poster entitled: “Per una valutazione formativa nella scuola secondaria di primo grado: due quasi esperimenti per esplorare l’impatto di prassi di formative assessment sulle abilità di comprensione del testo” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter at: XV Seminario dottorandi SIRD (online, 10–11 June 2021), with a paper entitled: “Per una valutazione formativa nella scuola secondaria di primo grado: l'impatto di prassi di formative assessment sulle abilità di comprensione del testo” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).
• Participation as a presenter at: “Research in Progress” (Bologna, 30 September – 01 October 2021), promoted by the Department of Education Studies of the University of Bologna, with a paper entitled: “Per una valutazione formativa nella scuola secondaria di primo grado: l'impatto di prassi di formative assessment sulle abilità di comprensione del testo” (Author: Elisa Guasconi).

Teaching and academic activity

• From 01/08/2025 to 31/07/2026 she is a contract lecturer for two laboratory courses: “Modelli di progettazione educativa e didattica” and “Teorie e procedure di valutazione degli apprendimenti” within the Degree Programme in Scienze della Formazione Primaria at the Department of Scienze dell’Educazione “G. M. Bertin” of the University of Bologna.
  From 01/08/2024 to 31/07/2025 she is a contract lecturer for two laboratory courses: “Modelli di progettazione educativa e didattica” within the Degree Programme in Scienze della Formazione Primaria at the Department of Scienze dell’Educazione “G. M. Bertin” of the University of Bologna.
• From 01/12/2024 to 30/06/2025 she is a contract lecturer for a laboratory course in “Docimologia” within the Degree Programme in Scienze della Formazione Primaria at the Department of Scienze Umane of the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia.
  In the academic year 2023/2024 she is a tutor (teaching support activities) for courses in M-PED/01–02–04 within the initial teacher education programmes (60 ECTS) of the Centro Formazione Insegnanti of the University of Bologna for secondary school teachers (class A28).
  From 01/08/2023 to 31/07/2024 she is a contract lecturer for a laboratory course: “Modelli di progettazione educativa e didattica” within the Degree Programme in Scienze della Formazione Primaria at the Department of Scienze dell’Educazione “G. M. Bertin” of the University of Bologna.
• From 01/12/2023 to 30/06/2024 she is a contract lecturer for a laboratory course in “Docimologia” within the Degree Programme in Scienze della Formazione Primaria at the Department of Scienze Umane of the Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia.
  From 2017 to 2019 she taught the laboratory of Progettazione e Valutazione scolastica within the corresponding course in the Degree Programme in Scienze della Formazione Primaria at the Department of Scienze dell’Educazione “G. M. Bertin”.
• From 2018 to 2021 she served as an online tutor for the “Corso intensivo annuale per la qualifica di educatore professionale e socio-pedagogico” delivered at the Department of Scienze dell’Educazione “G. M. Bertin” (coordinator: Prof.ssa Giovanna Guerzoni).
  In 2016 she carried out teaching support activities within the Educational Research group at the Department of Scienze dell’Educazione “G. M. Bertin”.
  

Third Mission activities (extra-institutional roles)
She works as researcher‑trainer in several school-based training projects focused on formative assessment, evaluation practices, and curriculum development in primary and secondary education contexts.
School activity
From 2017 to 2019 she is a teacher (general position) at the preschool “Tina Pesaro”, part of the “Casaroli” Comprehensive Institute in the province of Piacenza, and a member of the School Council.