Background

Producing knowledge implies the responsibility to divulge it with quality, making it available for everyone. With the advent of the Internet the possibilities to retransmit knowledge have grown, but the danger is also grown of a deterioration of its quality, as the Nobel prize Gell-mann already denounced in the nineties. The project intends to propose solutions to this kind of problem, contributing to improve the expressive capacity of thesis and graduate students and of the general public, making them capable of generating information of good quality.

Purpose

Develop specific courses to teach theoretical principles and practical exercises for the improvement of the meta-cognitive abilities and the quality of the expression of the participant. Make these latter able to communicate and to express themselves with a better and more adequate level of clarity and quality. Propose the courses to private companies, cultural Foundations and research centers.

Methods

The exercises and the basic principles that have been found are tested during classes taught at the Fondazione dell’Ordine degli Ingegneri della provincia di Torino (FOIT), as part of its training offer. The Executive Council of the FOIT has chosen to teach the same classes for free also to the “categorie protette”, which include people who lost their jobs. The same classes are also offered to private companies.

Results

The tests carried out so far have allowed to reveal a wide training potentiality of the research results obtained. It has been proven experimentally that it is possible to improve the meta-cognitive abilities of an individual, also with regards to complex topics of technical type, making him more able to communicate with audiences of every type, including young children.

Products

Slide shows and publications in congresses and scientific journals.
Teaching programs, practical exercises and classes to be taught in professionals associations and companies.

Conclusions

Tullio De Mauro, famous Italian linguist, has always denounced the high percentage of the Italian population (ranging between 70 and 80 %) who shows to not have enough skills to orient itself in a complex world as our own. Our current researches are devoted to find tools to improve this condition, aiming to facilitate, in particular, the communication of the hydro-geological risk to the population.