Phd in COMMUNICATION, SOCIAL RESEARCH AND MARKETING

Thesis title: L’impatto della digitalizzazione sul contesto scolastico: il ruolo dell’autovalutazione nella scuola

This work is a theoretical-empirical investigation into the digital skills of secondary school teachers, explored not as a set of measurable technical abilities, but as an emerging and situated dimension of professional identity. Digital transformation, in fact, is not limited to the adoption of tools, but requires a profound rethinking of the ways in which teachers design, evaluate and attribute meaning to their educational practices. In contrast to traditional assessment approaches, which often focus on standardised logic, this research proposes a generative self-assessment model, built through the integration of Theory-Based Evaluation and Positive Thinking Evaluation. This model not only allows us to measure teachers' levels of digital competence, but also to bring out the conditions, unexpected learning and reflective processes that support their professional development. The analysis of teaching practices allows digital competence to be interpreted as a configuration articulated along several interconnected dimensions – digital awareness, teaching practices, training and professional development, digital collaboration and digital citizenship. The activation of these dimensions does not follow linear trajectories but depends on factors such as organisational culture, available resources and the type of training support offered in school contexts. In particular, the positive cases that emerged prove to be crucial levers for teaching innovation and professional growth, even in complex contexts. These results confirm that assessment, when conceived as a generative practice open to discovery, can be a strategic tool for professional empowerment. From this perspective, the digital school is not defined solely by the adoption of technologies, but by the ability of teachers to design, reflect and learn from experience, activating critical awareness and transformative potential.