Monitoring and evaluation for the “A scuola di cinema” project

A scuola di cinema – per una didattica del cinema a scuola is a project led by the Education Department of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in partnership with COINOR – Università di Napoli Federico II and Istituto Comprensivo 12 di Bologna, funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR) and the Ministry of Culture’s (MIC) National Cinema and Images Plan for Schools.

Over a two-year period, the Fondazione Cineteca worked with the teachers as part of an introduction to teaching cinema in class, offering mentoring, tutoring and specific meetings.

An online platform for teachers was also launched at the same time, featuring original materials and contents designed and developed by the Cineteca.

Between April and May 2021, a group of teachers conducted twenty-one pilot activities in their classes, both independently and with the support of the Fondazione’s staff.

The activities included taught lessons, practical exercises, external contributions from the Cineteca’s staff and film screenings.

When preparing the activities and carrying them out, the teachers were able to test the materials and tools provided on the platform and give useful feedback to improve them for other Italian teachers.

BAM! worked alongside the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna during the project monitoring and evaluation phase.

We initially drew up a monitoring plan, establishing useful indicators to be observed for the purpose of a pertinent evaluation of the project’s key aspects. A range of tools were then developed and put into practice, such as brief interviews with the pilot group teachers, an internet questionnaire to monitor activities and gather feedback from both the students and teachers, and a focus group involving seven teachers from the pilot group. These activities made it possible to examine the quality of the materials produced, the educational impact on students and any future development opportunities for the Cineteca di Bologna.

The final result was a monitoring report written by BAM! for the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna, which was also useful for reporting on the project to the MIUR and MIC.