Educare gli abiti in risposta al disorientamento esistenziale: verso un dispositivo di valutazione diagnostica

This article examines youth disorientation by reconceptualising guidance competences as habits of self-direction grounded in cognitive, motivational and affective dispositions. Drawing on Dewey, Bourdieu and Pellerey, it argues that education should cultivate students’ capacity to regulate learning and orient life projects. Empirically, it analyses data from 1,012 first-year students who completed two achievement tests and the Questionnaire on Learning Strategies. A hybrid clustering procedure was cross-validated. Four profiles emerged, differentiated by achievement, self-regulation, volition, anxiety, competence and causal attributions. Findings suggest that vulnerability cannot be reduced to performance, but involves heteroge neous configurations of strategic competences. The article concludes by outlining an integrated ecosystem of educational support and guidance based on strategic competence laboratories, peer mentoring, work-related learning, e-portfolios and a reappraisal subject-specific teaching.