Italian students’ and teachers’ conceptions of “positive school behaviour”. A study in the context of an assessment process.

Recent Italian school legislation has turned the attention of the educational community to the importance of student scholastic behaviour, and asks for a precise evaluation of this. Consequently, schools have begun to seek appropriate evaluative tools. During the process of creating an evaluation rubric in a high school, a research was carried out with the aim of exploring the meanings given by teachers and students to the idea of "positive school behaviour". The participants were 898 students and 101 teachers. Using a mixed method design, researchers individuated some dimensions of the construct of "positive school behaviour" in teachers and students. The analysis highlights this construct refers to a wide range of dimensions, which are not entirely shared by teachers and students. Therefore, there is an emerging need for schools to activate processes of sharing, as a preliminary moment in the behaviour assessment process, and to work towards a “sustainable evaluation”