Author A. Giordan

The idea that the student participates actively in the development of his knowledge is certainly not new. In the past fifty years, Piaget, Bruner, Wallon, Kelly, Gagné, Ausubel, Novak have in turn developed this theme. It is true that this idea was already found with a certain constancy in the pedagogical literature since the Renaissance. Montaigne, Rabelais, Rousseau, Fénelon, Kant, and then Cramaussel, Claparède, Montessori, Decroly, Ferrière, Dewey, Freinet had already emphasized the importance of the child and of its methods of learning, without however giving themselves the actual means to know these methods better. The work on the conceptions of the learners goes however much further when it comes to the mechanisms in play in the act of learning. It renews the question of cognitive learning. I t refutes certain well-established ideas of contemporary psychology, notably showing certain limits of constructivism. Since then, scientific education could no longer target the acquisition of knowledge (contents and modes of reasoning) without concerning itself with the field of significance of that knowledge to the learner. By the same token, it could no longer evade the frameworks and the referential practices which conditioned these acquisitions and their ulterior mobilization. In this context, new models have been produced, for example the allosteric learning model, which we have corroborated in classrooms. As well as providing some insights into the functioning of thought, it puts the accent particularly on a environment which facilitates the learning.