ABSTRACT
The induction of cognitive strategies in 4- to 7-year-olds is aimed at providing children with very general cognitive tools. Such inductions are a particular form of sensu lato learning based on the very laws of development (Piaget, 1959a). The researchers who use induction exercises refer to Piaget’s theory, not so much in an attempt to test it, which seems to be the specific approach of the English-speaking community, but rather to clarify its obscure points. The availability to the French-speaking world of Piaget’s rich writings has allowed Francophone research to clearly distinguish experimentally derived facts from logical formalizations. In support of this claim, note that Inhelder, Sinclair, and Bovet, in the introduction to their book, Apprentissage et structures de la connaissance (1974), pointed out the following open issues: (a) the transition from one developmental stage to the next, (b) the connections between different knowledge domains, (c) dynamic factors, and (d) the interdependence of those factors (equilibration).
