Learning outcomes

The course general formative object aims to make the social helper understand the importance of a professional pedagogic formation, particularly related to adult life and its existential dynamics.
The centrality of adult life not only comes from the difficult situations and troubles which characterize adult people, but it is also due to the fact that the social helper, working with children (Italian or foreigner) or with elderly people, is always in contact with adults – in the role of parents or children.
The first specific formative object is one of cognitive type: at the end of the course the student will be able to comprehend the pedagogic dimension within the social work.
In the second specific formative object, the student is required to “know”: the meaning of being adult, the periods of adult life and their evolution during the centuries, with particular reference to the problem of “life specific key passages” and of their critic implications: at the end of the course that knowledge will let the student easily understand why there are adults who live in difficult situations.
The third formative object is “operative”: at the end of the course the student will be able to plan new ways of dialogue with adults, following methodologies that are suitable to their situations.
The forth object is one of formative type: at the end of the course the student will have developed the knowledge referring to the interior dimension of adult life, being aware it can be a propitious site where one can activate processes of self-care and of changing.

Program

Contents
The course will deal with the following topics:
- the pedagogic dimension of the social work
- Adult life as a problem
- Who the adults are: theories and existential analysis
- Experiences of suffering and discomfort lived by adults
- Becoming adult: an ever identical and different path
- Adult life and maturity: experience of maturation in life
- Looking for identity: the part of interior life
- Educational plans with adults having problems.

Texts for the exam
Mandatory for everybody:
- D. Loro, Vivere da adulti. Dispensa 2012-2013 ( The “dispensa” will be available at the end of the course by the cartoleria Ateneo, Lungadige Porta Vittoria, 37 . www.ateneovr.it ).
- A. Marcoli, Passaggi di vita. Le crisi che ci spingono a crescere, Milano, ed. Arnoldo Mondadori, 2004, reprint 2009.

Students may choose one among the following texts on the “adult character”, as a literary deepening for the exam.
- V. Andreoli, L’uomo di vetro. La forza della fragilità, Milano, ed. RCS Libri, 2008.
- V. Frankl, Uno psicologo nei lager, trad. it., Milano, ed. Ares, 2008 19° ediz.
- J. Giono, L’uomo che piantava gli alberi, trad. it., Milano, ed. Salani, 1999.
- H. Hesse, Siddharta, Milano ed. Adelphi, 2009 67° ediz.
- P. Levi, Se questo è un uomo, Torino, ed. Einaudi, 2012.

Teaching methods
Lessons will be frontal in the main, with the possibility to intervene with questions and short debates related to the themes of the day.

Examination Methods

The exam consists of a three-hour written text. It consists of 6 open questions, of different types: : descriptive (to show the knowledge of the contents), argumentative (to show the capacity of reflection and associating concepts),applicable (to show the ability of concrete and active thinking on the theoretical contents).
The capacity of efficient communication will be also evaluated by the quality of the written task, which must be correct both grammatically and graphically.
N.B. Each year the programme of the course is updated in its fundamental contents, compared to the earlier years, so, it is scientifically and didactically correct that students enrolled in previous years prepare their exams on the programme of the current academic year, except for those who previously communicate to the teacher their serious reasons for not doing so.