Nadia Carlomagno

Motor activities teaching and complexity: a reversal of the classical description of the mechanisms of perception and action

In the last decade we saw a heated debate on the implementation of complex learning theories in Physical Education. In the educational field there has been the difficulty to apply in the teaching practice a conception of the knowledge and learning which, on a theoretical level, has recognized the role of the body in movement, while it struggles, on the operative level, to define methodologies and tools usable in everyday’s activities. The constructivist hypothesis in Physical Education has faced serious difficulties in educationally interpreting the nature of the motor experience. This paper focuses on the concept of action and on the reversal of the process of perception-action operated by the phenomenological tradition (Merleau-Ponty), which has been confirmed in more or less recent neuroscientific evidences (Berthoz, Decety, Jeannerod). In this perspective, the subject builds his world according to his basic needs and action tools. From this point of view, faced with insurmountable difficulties posed by a multidimensional reality, the typical activity of living beings proceeds through the reduction of the dimensionality of the problems, a reduction that addresses complexity simply acting ahead. In other words, the body in action solves local complexity. This idea leads to the disintegration of cognitivist methodological model, based on a concept of information processing that involves discrete, separate, non-overlapping stages of perception-action, and moves in direction of an approach to complexity that shifts from a descriptive level (identification and understanding of the phenomenon) to a pragmatic level (supporting its existence and development).

New Technologies for Writing and Drawing Evaluation

Movement analysis is generally considered the analysis of walking, with the first workshops not by chance being called Gait Analysis Laboratories. Improvement of the technical specifications of these tools and the simplification of user interfaces have allowed these tools to be applied to other motor actions apart from walking. Simple or complex movements of the upper or lower limbs have become the object of movement analysis. The areas of interest range from sports to the clinical. This possibility to refer to several motor actions as well as different areas has meant that these laboratories are now known as Movement Analysis Laboratories. Is it possible to consider the use of these systems in the evaluation of the writing skills of the child. The specific research is part of the screening of special needs education, highlighting important information that is subject to the planning and production of the drawing. The project starts from the desire to investigate the possible integration of the traditional rating scales with digital systems, for this reason, and in order to be a predictive tool of the writing skills of children, the VMI test has been adopted as a working basis. In particular, attention has been given to the first page of the test.