EDUCATION, THE BEST PORTION OF PIAGETS HERITAGE

Several consequences can be drawn from the fundamental piagetian idea that knowledge results from adaptation. One of them has been drawn by Piaget himself, that we should study development to understand what kn owledge consists of. Further consequences are the idea that activity i s the main instrument of adaptation, and also the idea that teaching s hould offer students as many opportunities as possible for them to dev elop operational schemes. The cognitive status of the knowledge contai ned in schemes changes when it is worded and symbolised; Vygotsky stre ssed that point more than Piaget did. But neither Piaget nor Vygotsky paid enough attention to the specific difficulties and processes raise d by the learning and development of specific concepts. This is what d idactics tries to do. This paper analyses with some detail what scheme s are made of and what they address; also the variety of domains in wh ich we develop schemes. The example of additive structures is briefly analysed, as a conceptual field involving quite different classes of s ituations and several interactive concepts: they enable students to de velop a complex network of theorems-in-action over a period of ten yea rs or more. Several other conceptual fields are mentionned, such as mo rals, history, physical education, physics and mathematics. An importa nt consequence of studying the development of specific conceptual fiel ds rather than logical structures is that cognitive development concer ns adults as well as children and adolescents. It takes as much time f or adults to become professionnals (and experts) as it takes children to master elementary arithmetics and algebra. The conclusion stresses three key-ideas for education: transposition, mediation and conceptual ization.