World Café at Summer School of WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and Community Dentistry

This study is a qualitative evaluation of a teaching method. The 2015 Summer School organized by the WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology and Community Dentistry of Milan took place in Sardinia. The educational objectives of the first day included: make an informal conversation with other members of the summer school; create an interesting exchange of ideas and experiences also between new, “habitué” and beginners with senior professionals of this event; make a group for the works in the next days. Considering the different professional roles, age and context of origin, the purpose of the Pedagogists was to create a positive, relaxed but intimate atmosphere using the pleasure of “informal” conversation, through a creative and practical method: The World Cafè. Materials & methods: The Pedagogists’ first task focused on: caring of the location and the physical setup of the table, creating relevant questions to the concerns of the group, establishing the rules, managing the process to encourage participants to have a non- formal learning experience consequently improving thinking, speaking and listening skills. Finally the participants answered self-administered questionnaire to write about their emotions and cognitive processes that went out during the World Cafè. Results: The analysis of the questionnaires was carried out with Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), The interpretative steps identified two emerging themes: “different vs peer” and “discovering vs practicing”. Conclusions: The World Café experience improves learning by connection; thinking and learning become dynamic processes instead of learning outcomes.