Constructivisme radical et enseignement

Résumé

L’apprentissage est ici entendu comme une activité conceptuelle, et l’enseignement différencié du dressage. Le rôle du langage dans ces processus est examiné. Pour l’auteur, il ne peut y avoir de compréhension sans réflexion. Celle-ci est induite par la verbalisation et peut, par conséquent, être favorisée à travers la conversation. On montre aussi la pertinence de la notion de «conscience opérationnelle » de Ceccato (1974) pour l’enseignement, et sa compatibilité avec le modèle théorique de Piáget (1936).

Executive Summary

The author examines education from a constructivist perspective, assuming that its goal is independent thinking rather than the maintenance of the status quo. He distinguishes training from teaching, stressing that only the latter is concerned with understanding. Concepts and conceptual structures are seen as the material of understanding, and their dependence on language and subjective interpretations is presented. The belief that words refer to observer-independent things rather than to speakers’ and listeners’ experiences is seen as one of the age-old obstacles to conceptual education.

After a brief mention of important steps in the history of epistemology, the naïve realism of popular writings on science and science textbooks is shown to be incompatible with the ideas of the great scientists of the last century, whose views were remarkably close to constructivism.

The construction of concepts is illustrated by an example from visual perception, the conceptual formation of a well-known constellation, and the construction of pluralities. An examination of these constructions yields principles that may be of interest to educators. These principles are then illustrated by means of a didactic experiment in physics teaching.