Child psychology, between development and education

Carlo Trombetta, Anna Silvia Bombi

The paper presents a short historical perspective about some relevant issues, that help to understand the origins and changes over time of the link between the child’s psychological development and the educational processes.

A new paradigm for learning

Arturo Marcello Allega

Understanding and discovering are the two essential aspects of learning, the roots of two diverse and strongly correlated cultural systems: the system of letters and science; the visual, figurative and digital arts system. But, in their function, the two cultural systems have difficulty in communication as one based on a sequential type language and the other on a non-sequential type. The different nature of the two systems implies a tension in the neophyte reader who hardly succeeds in overcoming the barrier between the two languages, being trapped in a bipolar educational condition. The foundations of a new paradigm are posed to overcome this dichotomy of learning.

Socioemotional skills at school: early results of an intervention program aimed to improve Social Problem Solving in eight years old children

Anna Di Norcia, Elena Bonavoglia

The study shows some early results of “CoSE a scuola”, an intervention-research aimed to improve the social competence of children at school, following the Social Information Processing theoretical model (Crick & Dodge, 1994). During the intervention, the teachers learned how to conduct laboratories in class with children, to teach them Social Problem Solving skills. Social Problem Solving assessment was administrated to 115 children (mean age 8,3 years), divided in an intervention group (N = 54) and a control group (N = 61). The results showed that children in intervention group improved their Social Problem Solving Skills.

“Why and how to love children”. A pilot study of evaluation

Silvia Catania, Gabriele Catania, Maria Giulia Olivari

The purpose of the study is to evaluate, on an exploratory basis, the program “Perché e come amare i bambini” (“Why and how to love children”) that is aimed at promoting among parents a greater parental competence and to inform about how to build a secure relationship with the child. Four courses attended by 32 parents (with at least a child aged 0 to 6 years) were evaluated, through the administration of a questionnaire before and after the participation at the course. Results showed that the participation in the program favors an increment in parental competence and an enhancement of knowledge regarding how to build a secure relationship with the child. Finally, participants reported high levels of satisfaction for the course.

Academic burnout, anxiety and resilience: a study among Italian university students

Luciano Romano

University can represent a stressful moment in student’s life. This study examines the role of resilience and anxiety to predict the different levels of academic burnout. The subjects of this research are 93 Italian university students, 30 males and 63 females, aged 21-25 (M = 23.69; DS = 1.242). Two self-report questionnaires have been used: the School Burnout Inventory (SBI) and the Questionario Ansia-Resilienza (QAR). Results suggest a positive association between anxiety and burnout (r=.551), and a negative one between resilience and burnout (r= -.412). The regressive hierarchical analysis shows that anxiety and resilience explain the 35% of academic burnout’s levels among students (F=11.9421; p<.000; β=-.197). The role of University in educating students about resilience has also been discussed.

Students’ errors in written calculation in six- to nine-year old children

Chiara Vernucci, Sara Pezzica, Lucia Bigozzi

The paper examines the different types of children’s errors in the period of acquisition and consolidation of written calculation’s procedures which considered the first three grades of primary school. 155 participants in primary school (73 M and 82 F) performed the calculations tasks proposed by the test AC-MT (ages 6-11) (Cornoldi, Lucangeli, & Bellina, 2002). On the base of the literature, a system of categories has been built and a qualitative analysis of the errors has been carried. The results show: 1. the existence of different types of errors in written calculation; 2. a different distribution of errors in the three classes. The importance of a qualitative analysis of errors in the written calculation is confirmed and it is useful to identify and intervene on the deficit process, by a specific intervention and recommendations for teachers.

“Do we read a story?”. A research on the relationship between reading aloud and some psychological variables in preschool children

Valentina Fenaroli, Arianna De Donno, Angelica Zanovello, Emanuela Saita

Reading aloud positively impacts child health. This study explores: 1. attitudes towards reading aloud in Italian families with under school age children. In addition he looks at the link between the ability to read aloud and: 2. the internal model of attachment, 3. and the development of theory of mind (ToM). 192 mothers and fathers of Italian children between three and six years of age were completed a questionnaire regarding reading aloud attitudes and socio-demographic information. Children were administered the Separation Anxiety Test and the Unexpected Movement Task. Results show that children with a pattern of at risk attachment/disorganized that belongs to families in where either parent did not read aloud to their child. The fact that they belong to families with such an attitude is not bound, however, to an earlier development of theory of mind in children.

Study skills: tactics and strategies to train a multi-component ability

Iris Pelizzoni, Francesca Derba, Valentina Tirelli, Dolores Rollo

The review examines literature regarding study skills and strategies to train and improve them; its goal is to support the development of an effective collaboration between school and home settings. The analysis of literature defines study skills as the complex circular result of the interaction between cognitive, meta-cognitive and emotional-motivational variables (Cornoldi, De Beni, & MT Group, 2001). Starting from a theoretical framework devoted to the analysis of effective and efficient programs, that can be easily applied in daily practice by teachers and educational psychologists, this article examines the main structured study methods and the contribution of Applied Behavior Analysis to the teaching of study skills through goal setting strategies, self-monitoring and contingent reinforcement (Morisano, et al., 2010) and implementation of fluency based instruction (Johnson & Street, 2012).

Educational theatre: a possible instrument for the personal growth in adolescence

Sofia Massei, Zbigniew Formella, Tadeusz Lewicki

In the daily life of today’s teenagers, is there a place for theatre in the traditional education/training environment? The various forms, commonly gathered in the Italian experience under the category of “social theatre”, each time constitute an interesting field for the psycho-educational research. The authors want to present their experience of the lecturer in educational psychology, of the scholar in drama in education and of the psychologist-assistant of a real project/laboratory emphasizing the psycho-educational and cultural value of the theatrical activities. The paper not only wants to be a part of a long tradition of research on the subject, as evidenced by the bibliography but also wishes to continue the debate on art in education at the time dominated by individualism supported by the digital media network in the world.