“SCHOOL AND HIGHER EDUCATION IN DIALOGUE”

IV RESEARCH SEMINAR

promoted by the journals of the Studium–Marcianum Press publishing group

“NUOVA SECONDARIA”, “DIRIGENTI SCUOLA”, “PROFESSIONALITÀ STUDI”, “NUOVA PROFESSIONALITÀ”, “IO01: umanesimo tecnologico”

on the theme

Laboratory-Based Teaching Between Tradition and Innovation: Theories and Practices

Fondazione Marcianum, Venice (Punta della Dogana)

25–26 September 2026

The journals of the Studium–Marcianum Press publishing group “Nuova Secondaria”, with section “Nuova Secondaria Ricerca”, “Dirigenti Scuola”, “Professionalità Studi”, “Nuova Professionalità” e “Io01: umanesimo tecnologico” are pleased to announce their fourth annual research seminar entitled School and Higher Education in Dialogue.

The seminar will take place from 25 to 26 September 2026 in the elegant and exclusive setting of the classrooms of the Fondazione Marcianum in Venice, located at Punta della Dogana between the Pinault Collection and the Basilica of Santa Maria della Salute.

The aim of the seminar is to foster a space for professional development, research, and in-depth scientific and cultural discussion, promoting dialogue among schools, universities, academies, conservatories, and ITS Academies.

Alongside the opening and closing plenary sessions, the seminar will include a series of parallel sessions devoted to interdisciplinary, intergenerational, and interinstitutional dialogue.

The theme chosen for this year’s seminar is laboratory-based teaching, which in recent decades has emerged as one of the most significant paradigms for rethinking teaching and learning processes across different educational and training contexts. Rooted in a solid pedagogical and didactic tradition, this approach now faces new challenges arising from methodological, technological, and organizational innovation, as well as from the social and cultural changes affecting educational systems.

The laboratory, understood not only as a physical space but also as an epistemological, pedagogical, and methodological device, represents a privileged context for the active construction of knowledge, the integration of theory and practice, and the development of critical, reflective, and collaborative skills. From this perspective, laboratory-based teaching stands at the crossroads between continuity and transformation, between established models and innovative experimentation, both in lower and upper secondary education and in higher tertiary education.

This Call for Abstracts invites scholars, researchers, teachers, and education professionals to contribute theoretical reflections, critical analyses, empirical research, and accounts of significant practices related to laboratory-based teaching, exploring its historical roots, contemporary developments, and future perspectives.

Based on the proposed theme, once the abstract has been selected by the Seminar’s Scientific Committee, the presenter will be assigned to one of the scheduled parallel sessions.

To this end, all teachers, school leaders, master's graduates, doctoral students, PhD researchers, and university, academy, or ITS Academy faculty members interested in participating in the seminar are invited to submit a short abstract of their proposed contribution (maximum 3,000 characters, including spaces) by 30 April 2026, by completing the designated sumbission form.

Abstract proposals will be evaluated by the Seminar’s Scientific Committee, and authors will be notified of acceptance by 15 May 2026.

Following the seminar, participants may submit the full text of their contribution (between 15,000 and 30,000 characters, including spaces), which may be considered for publication in a special issue of the 2026–2027 volume of “Nuova Secondaria-Sezione Ricerca”.

It will also be possible to attend the seminar as a listener. 

For more information you can visit our website or write to the editorial office of Nuova Secondaria: nuovasecondaria@gmail.com