la Normale a scuola

The Normale at school

One of the distinctive traits of the mission of the Scuola Normale is its relationship with the schools,  as witness the well-established activities such as training and refresher courses for teachers and orientation courses for students in the penultimate year of high school.

The Normale a Scuola – conceived in 2020 during the first lockdown – was envisaged as a further means of dialogue and mutual understanding between universities and high schools: for students, it is a first direct contact with research, its topics and its challenges; for the Normale and its staff, it is an opportunity to meet with and get to know the world of schools.

The fourth edition presents a series of lectures on a wide range of disciplines, themes and methodological approaches, held by scholars of different generations of the Scuola Normale.

The interdisciplinary approach is emphasised: in many lectures you will find lists of the sectors to which the subject dealt with can be connected, with a view to openness and dialogue among different research fields.

Format, programme and reservations

The lectures, which are free of charge, begin on February 13th, 2023, and continue throughout the school year, until the end of May 2023. The online lectures are held on the TEAMS platform.

All lectures are open to teachers and students of all high school classes of all levels. Entire class groups, or groups of teachers and pupils from different classes, can participate in the lectures.

  • Format (online and in person)

Online connection

The lectures continue again this year in online mode to allow all schools access without geographical constraints: in this way the SNS will be not only a direct interlocutor but also, in perspective, a facilitator of contacts between students of different provenance.

Among the innovations of this year:

  • lectures last a total of one hour so as not to interfere with the timetable of teaching activities
  • a good number of lectures are scheduled in the afternoon, to allow for attendance even after school hours and by students who can register and participate independently

Face-to-face format: request for expressions of interest from schools

The online method will be increasingly accompanied by face-to-face lectures in schools. For this reason, schools that are interested are invited to express their interest by writing to lanormaleascuola@sns.it. The message must specify the period or dates of availability, the theme or themes they would like the lessons to focus on, and the possibility of activating a TEAMS connection (or on a similar platform) so that the lecture can also be used by other classes or students interested in intervening online.

  •  Programme

The lectures are held from Monday to Friday, during and after school hours according to a programme that is available here. Each lecture will have a maximum duration of 60 minutes (including any space for questions).

The programme is constantly updated, and during the year further dates and further titles will be added, based on the availability of the speakers, and communicated periodically.

Clicking on the title of each lecture takes you to a presentation page of the lecture (containing a brief abstract, any reading suggestions and indications as to the classes for which the lecture is most suitable). The page of each lecture contains all the dates and times at which the lecture will be held, and the relative links for booking.

  • Reservations

To participate in each lecture, you must complete an online booking form, available each time on the lecture page of our website. For reservations for multiple users, only the contact details of the teacher or reference person will need to be registered (name, surname, valid e-mail address, telephone number, institute and city of origin). You do not need to enter the contact details of all participants.

Twenty-four hours before the lecture, teachers and students who have made the reservation will receive an email with the link for the connection and a request to confirm their participation

You will need to book as many places as there will be actual individual connections to the platform for the lecture.

To access the booking forms, simply click on the text "book here"; you do not need to enter a password.

  • Certificate of attendance

For both classes and individuals, you can request a certificate of participation (your presence will be traced on the platform) at the address lanormaleascuola@sns.it.