Spotlights: Francesca Pazzaglia
Prof. Francesca Pazzaglia, a distinguished researcher and educator at the University of Padova, is renowned for her contributions in cognitive psychology, particularly in working memory, cognitive aging, and spatial cognition. Her diverse roles encompass research, teaching, and serving as a reviewer for esteemed journals and grant committees. As of January 2024 she is Director of the Department of General Psychology at the University of Padova.
Research interests
Prof. Francesca Pazzaglia and her team at the University of Padova focus on working memory, cognitive aging, and spatial cognition. Their research includes developing cognitive enhancement training for diverse populations, including students with DSA and the elderly. They examine cognitive changes due to aging, and the impact of emotional processing on cognitive decline. Their work also explores spatial cognition, particularly how aging affects environmental perception and spatial abilities.
Teaching
She has an extensive teaching portfolio, including courses on natural environment and psychophysical well-being, environmental psychology, and various modules of general psychology. As the director of the master’s in architectural and landscape psychology at the University of Padova, she oversees a program that equips professionals with knowledge in architectural psychology’s theoretical and practical domains. This inter-university master’s, in collaboration with the Università di Venezia IUAV and CIRPA, is designed to train professionals in the application of psychology in diverse architectural contexts and to verify the effectiveness of these interventions. It opens career opportunities in multidisciplinary urban and architectural design projects. The program’s faculty comprises academics and professionals from diverse fields, reflecting Prof. Pazzaglia’s dedication to a comprehensive, interdisciplinary educational approach.
Highly cited
This research investigates the relationship between teaching strategies, positive emotions, and self-confidence in determining job satisfaction among teachers. The underlying hypothesis is that being an effective teacher alone doesn’t ensure job satisfaction; positive feelings and strong self-belief in teaching abilities are also essential. To explore this, 399 teachers filled out self-assessment scales measuring their use of effective teaching methods, their confidence in teaching, their positive emotions, and their job satisfaction. The study employed Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to analyze the data, which revealed that both positive emotions and beliefs about one’s teaching efficacy play a mediating role in linking teaching strategies with job satisfaction. Essentially, the study highlights that a teacher’s emotional state and self-efficacy beliefs are critical factors in how satisfied they feel with their job, in addition to their teaching practices.
Books
The book (written in Italian) specifically addresses five areas, offering concise reflections and guidelines for teachers, as well as practical worksheets for students. It particularly focuses on fostering a sense of competence and skill, on appreciating and being appreciated, and on the ability to motivate and re-motivate oneself, even in the face of challenges and failures. The perspective adopted places students at the centre, portraying them as active protagonists and builders of their own knowledge and the tools to acquire it. The proposed approaches include metacognitive reflections and activities for co-constructing and discovering personal strategies and motivations, with the possibility of refining them subsequently.
Reviewer
Prof. Francesca Pazzaglia has held significant roles as a reviewer in both grant and journal review capacities. As a grant reviewer, she has been involved with several prestigious organizations, including the Israel Science Foundation, the Italian Ministry of Research (MIUR), the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). Her journal review responsibilities encompass a wide range of prestigious publications in the field of psychology and related disciplines. She has reviewed for journals like Applied Cognitive Psychology, Behavioral Sciences, Brain and Cognition, Brain Research, British Journal of Psychology, Cognitive Processing, Journal of Cognitive Psychology, Experimental Psychology, and Frontiers in Psychology. Additionally, her reviewing expertise extends to journals focusing on personality, spatial science, learning, memory, and environmental psychology, among others. This diverse range of reviewing duties underscores her broad expertise and significant contribution to the academic community in psychology.