Inglese nel concorso per Dirigenti scolastici - Learning Environments and Education Systems in the European Union

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Chapter One

Learning: Comparative theoretical models

1.5

The pattern of genetic psychology

Genetic psychology has developed gradually as a system of knowledge

oriented towards the study of the “mental development” of the child.

The object of studying this area of psychology, therefore, is not the

“child” in its psychological and behavioural manifestations, but the

processes that characterise the child’s evolution.

The intention of the study of mental development, in the context of

the genetic psychology, is to locate the source and the ways of work-

ing of the thoughts that follow along the development lines linked

with a plurality of factors.

Genetic psychology has moved towards well-defined directions:

it tried to define the issues with the object of study;

it tried to develop research methods with a more scientific basis;

it tried to encode and interpret the data emerging from the studies

carried out.

The object of the study favoured by genetic psychology is, in synthe-

sis, the “child’s mental world”.

Thus, some aspects of this world are instantly detectable and obvious,

such as the ludic dimension.

Other aspects, however, are more hidden and only a systematic obser-

vation activity, a subtle intuitive capacity and an interpretation of data

allow them to be captured.

Often, when approaching the world of childhood, we apply interpre-

tive schemes that belong to the world of adult thinking; therefore the

knowledge of a child’s mental world is approximated and inaccurate.

There are, in fact, marked differences between the consciousness of

the child at various levels of development and that of adults.

Trying to locate identities and differences between the child and the

adult means understanding the basic mechanisms and lines of devel-

opment of different spheres of the mental life, or of the perceptual,

sensomotory, intellectual, emotional and mnemonic activity of the

child.

The purpose of study and research in genetic psychology is, in partic-

ular, to identify the ways in which simple mental structures grow into

increasingly complex mental structures.

This study relies on the research of the factors that contribute to the

mental development, defining the role of heredity and of the envi-

ronment, of the maturation processes and the educational factors.