An Interview with Giuseppe Corrente on Intelligence Measurements, Italy, Scholastics, and MIUR (Part Four)
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2020/05/15
Abstract
Dr. Giuseppe Corrente is a Computer Science teacher at Torino University. He earned a Ph.D. in Science and High Technology – Computer Science in 2013 at Torino University. He has contributed to the World Intelligence Network’s publication Phenomenon. He discusses: Scholastica in Italy; non-identification of the gifted; intelligence in Italy; selection criteria in academics; MIUR; valorization of Ph.D.; poor quality control mechanisms in Italy; school directors reflecting some of the aforementioned; and the basis for the personal opinions.
Keywords: gifted, Giuseppe Corrente, IQ, Italy, scholastic.
An Interview with Giuseppe Corrente on Intelligence Measurements, Italy, Scholastics, and MIUR (Part Four)[1],[2]*
*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citation style listing after the interview.*
1. Scott Douglas Jacobsen: For the scholastic system in Italy, what is the level of inclusion of the wider international community at the postsecondary level?
Giuseppe Corrente: We are not attractive as funds and also because of not English country language for foreign students and post-docs. For ten Italians that go abroad, the so-called ‘fuga dei cervelli’, I suppose there is only one or two foreign students that come to Italy.
2. Jacobsen: The gifted are either helped or not. Before this question is answered, implied, they’re either identified or not. How is testing and identification of the gifted and talented in Italy?
Corrente: They are not identified here. In Italy, there are only a few exceptions in which some programs for the gifted experiments, but there is no screening of the scholastic population searching for them.
3. Jacobsen: How is intelligence defined in the Italian context? South of the Canadian border, obviously, intelligence is seen as IQ and IQ is seen as the be-all and end-all of intelligence and its identification.
Corrente: The most note tool for IQ testing is WAIS-IV, but I don’t know if it was adapted to scholastic screening or not.
4. Jacobsen: How does this view of intelligence in Italian society influence its selection criteria in universities and considerations of the gifted and talented in Italian society?
Corrente: One of the first reasons of mobbing in Italy is that some heads don’t tolerate being overcome by no one of their employees, also if talented or gifted or overall if talented or gifted. One’ s consideration and prestige can be earned only after reached a good social level, and only if one can express his own talents, and this in Italy is not easy. The universities, the companies, the political and artistic elites are all closed groups and often, not ever but often, it is that more one has talent more he is opposed.
5. Jacobsen: Why did the government decide to split the MIUR into school and university?
Corrente: In the government’s opinion it is to focus better on the specific problem of these two strategic parts. Politically it has been an answer to the previous minister’s self-resignation. He dismissed himself because of a lack of funds from the Italian government for university and school compartment.
6. Jacobsen: What about the valorization or less of the Ph.D. as a title in both public administration and instruction in non-academic systems in Italy? Any thoughts there?
Corrente: It is only from a couple of years that in Italy exists the “Comitato per la valorizzazione del dottorato”, it is promoting the Ph.D. title also outside Academic life and career. There is a need for high competence both in the industry system that in Public Administration, and also inside schools, while the academic jobs are becoming the exception also for who has a Ph.D. title. It is correct in my opinion to not waste and to valorize excellence and expertise promoting the valorization of Ph.D. title also outside Academia.
7. Jacobsen: What are some of the indications of poor quality control mechanisms in the school systems in Italy?
Corrente: Fioramonti’s self-discharge from MIUR’s (Instruction, University and Research) minister position in December of 2019. There are decades that this compartment has fewer funds than necessary, he asked three of 24 billions of euro calculated for renewing and to really invest in schools, university and research usefulness. No one euro was dedicated to these needs. He published a strong Facebook post and discharged himself proudly. Because of this scarcity of funds the quality of the whole MIUR compartment is compromised, the controls are penalized also when urgent, and the quality or control general system null.
8. Jacobsen: Following from the previous question, how is this reflected in the school directors in Italy?
Corrente: Now the directors of Italian schools are as a manager or navy pilot with no guide or central control. It depends on single if some school reaches a good quality, but no great organization can be without some form of central control.
9. Jacobsen: What is the basis for these opinions of yours?
Corrente: In 2017 the Instruction system cost in Italy was less than 1% of the whole public costs, while German, United Kingdom and France spend about 10% of their public costs. In Italy, there are about 190 school inspectors, not enough for the scholastic system of Italy, a country with 60 million persons. The scholastic control system would also promote the improvement of the whole scholastic system and society, but with these numbers nothing of this can be done.
Appendix I: Footnotes
[1] Ph.D. (2013), Science and High Technology – Computer Science, Torino University.
[2] Individual Publication Date: May 15, 2020: http://www.in-sightjournal.com/corrente-four; Full Issue Publication Date: September 1, 2020: https://in-sightjournal.com/insight-issues/.
*High range testing (HRT) should be taken with honest skepticism grounded in the limited empirical development of the field at present, even in spite of honest and sincere efforts. If a higher general intelligence score, then the greater the variability in, and margin of error in, the general intelligence scores because of the greater rarity in the population.
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