Developmental Learning Theory (DLT): a dialogue with Gloria Fariñas León about P. Ya. Galperin

Abstract

This interview with Professor Doctor Gloria Fariñas León was conducted in July 2022, on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of P. Ya. Galperin’s birth, whose doctoral student she was. During her academic life, Gloria conducted several researches based on Galperin's Theory of the Planned Formation of Mental Actions and Concepts, one of the developmental learning foundations. The interview aimed to know the professor's experiences and opinions about this renowned psychologist. In the first part, Gloria talks about how she came to be Galperin's mentee and her impressions about this man of science. In the second part, she reveals the human, personal and professional sides of her mentor. Gloria answers about her understanding of Galperin's theory, the learning process and challenges in the theory appropriation, as complex, dialectical process of reading, re-reading, contextualizing and making inferences from texts produced by the author, who was characterized by his power of synthesis and depth, which requires certain ways of learning from him. She reflects on the systemic aspects of the theory, emphasizing on the subsystem of the orientation that the subject elaborates on the actions he must conduct to learn, and on the parameters of the actions by which one learns, which characterize the relationship between learning and intellectual development of students. She also emphasizes the importance of deepening, in the context of the theory, the relations between communication and activity. Finally, she highlights the potential and challenges of the theory as a reference for thinking about school in the twenty-first century.