Canalescuola Coop. Soc. onlus was founded on February 2, 2006, in Bolzano, through the commitment of a working group that had emerged several years earlier around a range of shared interests focused on technology and, in particular, its educational and training applications. The group, made up of individuals with highly diverse backgrounds and expertise, formed almost spontaneously through collaborations on training courses, European projects, school initiatives, and academic activities. Over the course of the following decade, the group gradually consolidated its work, especially thanks to the support of the research group on educational technologies associated with the corresponding academic chair at the Faculty of Education of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano.

The Cooperative’s "Vision": why was Canalescuola founded, and what is its purpose? Students, researchers, and teachers involved in this research group reflected on the importance of promoting a critical and informed use of technology within education, starting from the earliest stages of schooling.This goal, supported by research projects and workshops carried out both locally and nationally, became the Cooperative’s primary mission and continues to define both its current direction and future development: the integration of digital technologies into teaching practices and the promotion of critical thinking skills among young people with regard to media content and communication systems.

Areas of Operation
Canalescuola operates throughout Italy thanks to the extensive network of contacts developed over the years by its members and their respective professional communities. The Cooperative serves as a hub for exchange and innovation within the education sector and aims to bring together as many teachers, trainers, and educators as possible in order to foster meaningful improvements in education through the effective use of technology. Over more than a decade of activity, Canalescuola has established offices and laboratories in several Italian regions, including Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Lombardy, Piedmont, Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Molise, Apulia, Calabria, and Sardinia.

The FULL PROGRAM, consisting of 700 HOURS (January–December 2027), is structured into two complementary modules::
- Italian Language Module – 450 hours: Italian as a Second Language (L2) instruction from level A1 to level B2, including a specialized workshop in scientific micro-language
- Scientific Subjects Module – 250 hours: Scientific preparation for the “Filter Semester” required for admission to the Faculties of Medicine and Surgery / Dentistry / Veterinary Medicine

The 600-HOUR PROGRAM (January–July 2027) is structured into two modules:
- Italian Language Module – 450 hours: Italian as a Second Language (L2) instruction from level A1 to level B2, including a specialized workshop in scientific micro-language
- Logic and Scientific Subjects Module – 150 hours - Preparation for the TOLC Admission Test required for admission to other technical and scientific degree programs

EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

ITALIAN LANGUAGE MODULE: Italian as a Second Language (L2) Learning Module - 450 HOURS

The objective of the Italian as a Second Language (L2) module is to enable students to achieve the B2 level required for the university Italian language proficiency examination or for obtaining certification within the CLIQ quality system. In addition, the program aims to help students develop the ability to learn independently and study autonomously in Italian in order to successfully meet university-level academic demands.
The module is divided into two courses and is delivered with the technical support of Alma Edizioni, a publishing house specialized in teaching Italian as a second language (L2).

- ITALIAN AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) - 400 hours
The course covers levels A1, A2, B1, and B2 in accordance with the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. It focuses on strengthening the following language skills: reading comprehension, listening comprehension, and spoken production.
The program develops grammatical and lexical competence through the expansion of high-frequency and high-availability vocabulary. Activities include exercises on collocations, semantic fields, prefixes and suffixes, synonymy and antonymy, rhetorical devices, and specialized sector-specific language.
Students will learn to understand interviews on general-interest topics at both a global and analytical level, follow university lectures across a broad range of academic disciplines ranging from the humanities to the sciences, identify keywords and terminology specific to specialized academic language, and complete texts based on listening activities, initially on general topics and progressively on specialized subjects, drawing logical inferences from the content.
Students will also refine reading strategies (analytical and skimming/scanning techniques) according to the type of text, recognize the distinguishing characteristics of different text genres, understand most of the vocabulary contained in authentic and semi-authentic texts of various kinds by inferring the meaning of unfamiliar words from context, identify keywords, and reorganize both general and specialized texts into logical and sequential order.
The course further develops speaking and oral interaction skills, enabling students to describe personal experiences analytically and in a logical sequence, summarize orally the main points or storyline of a film, narrative text, or specialized text, and present topics coherently using appropriate subject-specific vocabulary across a wide range of disciplines, including law, biology, computer science, and economics.
The program also includes specialized and personalized activities aimed at supporting language acquisition, such as cooperative learning, activities designed to foster self-awareness and the enhancement of individual strengths, structured interviews, and group-class activities, including a mini-conference on ethics in medicine.

Language teaching approach: the language teaching approach is based on learner-centered instruction, inclusive teaching methods that address different learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, etc.), reduction of the affective filter, motivating and varied teaching practices, the communicative method and global approach, and a pedagogy focused on “learning by using the language.” The program also emphasizes the value of interlanguage development and metalinguistic reflection through the principle “I know it if I can explain it,” supported by peer tutoring activities. Learning follows a spiral approach and is continuously monitored through placement tests, ongoing assessments, and final evaluations.

- EDUCATIONAL MICRO-SCIENTIFIC LANGUAGE WORKSHOP - 50 hours
This educational and technology-based workshop is aimed at acquiring specialized scientific language in the fields of chemistry, physics, and biology through cooperative activities and the production of effective study materials for learning, based on the experience developed through Canalescuola’s “Help Me Do It Myself” laboratory methodology.

SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS MODULE: Subject-specific preparation module for the “Filter Semester” required for admission to the Faculties of Medicine and Surgery / Dentistry / Veterinary Medicine - 250 HOURS

The objective of the module is to provide students with advanced subject-specific preparation and ongoing guidance up to the examination dates through dedicated lessons structured in a format similar to university lectures, while maintaining a supportive small-group learning environment. The program also includes simulations with strategic feedback and personalized tutoring activities.

- BIOLOGY - 75 hours
The course covers the fundamental principles of the biological and molecular organization of life, including the cellular mechanisms involved in the transmission and regulation of genetic and epigenetic information, as well as the flow of genetic information. It also addresses the cellular processes responsible for the transmission and regulation of both wild-type and mutated traits. Further topics include cellular structures, their biogenesis, morphology, and functions, as well as the relationship between the cell and its environment, including cellular signaling and signal transduction. The course also examines the regulation of cell proliferation and cell survival.

- CHEMISTRY AND BIOCHEMISTRY FUNDAMENTALS - 75 hours
The course covers the structure of the atom, the periodic table of elements, and chemical bonding. It also includes states of matter and the principles of thermodynamics, as well as mixtures and solutions and the colligative properties of solutions.
General aspects of chemical reactions are addressed, including chemical kinetics and chemical equilibrium. The program also covers acids, bases, salts, pH, and buffer solutions; redox reactions and electrochemistry.
Further topics include the properties of carbon and the reactivity of organic compounds, hydrocarbons, alkyl halides, aromatic hydrocarbons and their derivatives. Functional groups and isomerism are also studied, including alcohols, phenols, ethers, thiols and thioethers; aldehydes and ketones; carboxylic acids and derivatives; amines and amides. The course concludes with amino acids and proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleotides, and polynucleotides.

- PHYSICS - 75 hours
Introduction to the methods of physics. Mechanics. Fluid mechanics. Mechanical waves. Thermodynamics. Electricity and magnetism. Electromagnetic radiation.

- EXAM SIMULATION SESSIONS - 25 hours

LOGICAL-SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS MODULE: Preparation module for the TOLC admission test (for other technical-scientific faculties) - 150 HOURS

The aim of the module is to prepare students who wish to enroll in other technical-scientific faculties for the TOLC admission test (which can be taken until September 2027).
The lessons include common subjects such as logic, reading comprehension, and mathematics, while the contents of biology, chemistry, and physics will be tailored according to the selected faculties.

ATTENTION:
The course schedule takes into account that students must obtain an Italian language L2 certification before July 2027; otherwise, they will not be able to enroll in the Filter Semester or, more generally, register on the Universitaly portal, which allows students to enroll in any degree course in Italy.

TEACHING METHODOLOGIES AND TOOLS

- Software aimed at simplifying and adapting texts
- Concept maps, mind maps, and context-syntax maps
- Digital books in PDF format
- Principles of meaningful learning
- Metacognition
- Analysis of the structure and contents of the admission test covered by the course
- Explanation of theoretical knowledge and problem-solving techniques required for the exercises included in the test; for knowledge-based tests, dedicated lesson cycles are planned for targeted revision of all required topics
- Practical classroom exercises and continuous assessment of acquired knowledge
- Analysis and discussion of questions from official admission tests of recent years
- Final mock test reproducing the contents, timing, and procedures of the official examinations.

STUDY MATERIALS

Study materials, textbooks, concept maps, and outlines will be proposed, developed, and provided free of charge to students. In particular, the course adopts textbooks and multimedia resources provided by ALMA Edizioni. Furthermore, the course will be managed in an integrated way through the use of the Moodle digital platform by Canalescuola.