Dialogues Between Psychology and Education: Mediation of Competence Using a Historic and Cultural Perspective of Human Development

Abstract

The role of school psychology in different educational contexts has paramount importance in the promotion of qualitative leaps and fundamental alterations in human psychological activity. In formal education, this has a rich meaning for the development of children and adults. As a main goal of intervention, a psychologist must intentionally mediate the processes of conscientiousness, autonomy, and independence for an individual’s educational and professional paths, as well as empowering the individual toward personal development. The development of competences is an alternative formation that may contemplate, integrally, the articulation between structured knowledge and flexible-in-action knowledge, coming from both psychology and education. The process of educational formation that arises in the context of schools is an ideal scenario for competence-based work, considering both the development of students as well as the updating of professionals—teachers, psychologists, educators, and others. Learning to identify, mobilize, and intentionally use resources (understood here as knowledge, lore, skills, mental schemes, affections, beliefs, principles, psychological functions, attitudes, behaviors, and other psychological processes), in relationships and in actions, is what builds up the visibility of a competence to be an intrinsic dimension in the process of human development. The reflections presented in this chapter may aid in the comprehension of the competence approach, as linked to psychological human development, with an emphasis on the historic and cultural perspectives. The actions of the school psychologist are favored by the competence approach, which is understood through human development psychology. The school psychologist may mediate the development of competences, with an aim to strengthen a collective action system, regarding the education of students or development of teachers and educators.