# Revault d'Allonnes: Unveiling the sociocultural dynamics of superordinate schemes in early development

Simon Boyer, Géraldine Rix-Lièvre, Michel Récopé

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Simon Boyer, Géraldine Rix-Lièvre, Michel Récopé. Revault d'Allonnes: Unveiling the sociocultural dynamics of superordinate schemes in early development. Rethinking context as process when studying human development: Implications for theory, practice, and policy, Jean Piaget Society, May 2025, Belgrade, Serbia. **hal-05355525**

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Submitted on 8 Nov 2025

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Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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UNIVERSITÉ
Clermont Auvergne

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ACTÉ
LABORATOIRE
activité > connaissance
transmission > éducation

UQÀM

Université du Québec
à Montréal

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ARDÉCO

ASSOCIATION POUR LA RECHERCHE SUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT DES COMPÉTENCES

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The 54th annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society,
Belgrade, Serbia, May 29-May 31, 2025

Revault d'Allonnes: Unveiling the sociocultural dynamics
of superordinate schemes in early development

Simon Boyer(1), Géraldine Rix-Lièvre(1), Michel Récopé(1)

(1) Laboratoire ACTé, Université Clermont Auvergne

Session organization

Using the 'scheme' to address actual practices
and development facing specific sociocultural contexts

Tribute to Gérard Vergnaud

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UNIVERSITÉ
Clermont Auvergne

<figure><img src="image_7.png" /></figure>

ACTé
LABORATOIRE
activité > connaissance
transmission > éducation
# Revault d'Allonnes: Unveiling the sociocultural dynamics of superordinate schemes in early development

## Revault d'Allonnes' description of six developmental stages of children's activity (1914)

* No predetermined perspective on development

* Non normative goal to reach

* No preconceived idea of what intelligence should be

* A naturalistic methodological approach

* Observation in everyday life
# Revault d'Allonnes: Unveiling the sociocultural dynamics of superordinate schemes in early development

## Revault d'Allonnes' description of six developmental stages of children's activity (1914)

1. Schematic discernment of People vs. Objects

2. Schematic discernment Attention / Inattention in others

3. Schematic cooperation

4. Schematic Exhibition

5. Schematic Emulation

6. Schematic Simulation

Each is structured by a dominant type of action
Descriptions precede later theories on knowledge-in-action
# Revault d'Allonnes: Unveiling the sociocultural dynamics of superordinate schemes in early development

## Revault d'Allonnes' description of six developmental stages of children's activity (1914)

1. Schematic discernment of People vs. Objects

2. Schematic discernment Attention / Inattention in others

3. Schematic cooperation

4. Schematic Exhibition

5. Schematic Emulation

6. Schematic Simulation

## Each is structured by a dominant type of action

Descriptions precede later theories on knowledge-in-action
# Stage 1 : Unnamed Schematic Discernment of People and Objects

Interactions : emotionally charged

Young child's own norms are more consistently satisfied by the objects than people

- Object: predictable, controllable
=> reinforce child's schematic anticipations

<figure><img src="image_8.png" /></figure>
# Stage 1 : Unnamed Schematic Discernment of People and Objects

Interactions : emotionally charged

Young child's own norms are more consistently satisfied by the objects than people

- Object: predictable, controllable
=> reinforce child's schematic anticipations

- People: variable, emotionally unpredictable
=> could defy child's schematic anticipations

<figure><img src="image_9.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_10.png" /></figure>
# Stage 1 : Unnamed Schematic Discernment of People and Objects

Interactions : emotionally charged

Young child's own norms are more consistently satisfied by the objects than people

- Object: predictable, controllable
=> reinforce child's schematic anticipations

- People: variable, emotionally unpredictable
=> could defy child's schematic anticipations

Construction of a superordinate schematic discernment of objects versus people according to personal norms of affective security/insecurity

<figure><img src="image_11.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_12.png" /></figure>
# Stage 2 : Schematic discernment of attention and inattention from others

Action is affectively linked to approval/disapproval in social interaction

- Desire to imitate in relation to sociocultural values
=> satisfying personal norms
=> positive affect

<figure><img src="image_13.png" /></figure>

Source: psychologue.net
Stage 2 : Schematic discernment of attention and inattention from others

Action is affectively linked to approval/disapproval
in social interaction

- Desire to imitate in relation to
sociocultural values
=> satisfying personal norms
=> positive affect

- The child tests their actions through others' gaze
=> avoiding frustration
=> adjusting behavior in relation to
observed or absent attention

<figure><img src="image_14.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_15.png" /></figure>

Source: psychologue.
Stage 2 : Schematic discernment of attention and inattention from others

Action is affectively linked to approval/disapproval
in social interaction

- Desire to imitate in relation to
sociocultural values
=> satisfying personal norms
=> positive affect

- The child tests their actions through others' gaze
=> avoiding frustration
=> adjusting behavior in relation to
observed or absent attention

Construction of a superordinate schematic discernment of attention and inattention

<figure><img src="image_16.png" /></figure>

<figure><img src="image_17.png" /></figure>

Source: psychologue.
Schemes as Knowledge-in-Action

- No explicit conscious reasoning in the construction of superordinate scheme

- Schemes are not yet concepts
  The child acts, builds recurring successful strategies (schemes)
  => later conceptualized or verbalized

- Schemes are recurrent, affect-laden structures for acting

- Understanding what a concept is, means understanding how it emerges from lived experience
# Revault d'Allonnes: A Pioneer of Situated Developmental Epistemology

- Schemes precede concepts (Vergnaud, 1985)

- Action structures understanding (Piaget, 1936, 1967; Vergnaud, 1985, 2009)

- Meaning is ... (Zittoun, 2007)

- Situated (Vergnaud, 2009; Récopé, 2024)

- Affective (Récopé, 2024)

- and Social (Vygotsky, 1978)

- Development = building increasingly complex modes of engaging with others and the world

- Which mediating role of the teacher educator ?
Revault d'Allonnes, G. (1914). L'attention indirecte. *Revue Philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger*, LXXVII, 32-54.

Revault d'Allonnes G. (1915). Le schématisme. *Compte rendu de la 43e session de l'Association Française pour l'Avancement des Sciences* (563-574). Masson et Cie.

Revault d'Allonnes, G. (1920). Le mécanisme de la pensée. *Revue philosophique de la France et de l'Étranger, XC*, 161-202.

Piaget, J. (1936). *La naissance de l'intelligence chez l'enfant*. Delachaux et Niestlé.

Piaget, J. (1967) : *Biologie et connaissance*. Paris : Gallimard.

Piaget, J. (1998) : Le constructivisme épistémologique. *Bulletin de Psychologie*, 51-3, 435, 226-233.

Récopé, M., & Guiet-Silvain, J. (2024). Schématisation, conceptualisation et action, de Revault d'Allonnes à Vergnaud. *Carrefours de l'éducation*, 57, 139-170. DOI: 10.3917/cdle.057.0139

Vergnaud, G. (1985). Concepts et schèmes dans une théorie opératoire de la représentation. *Psychologie française*, 30(327), 245-252.

Vergnaud, G. (2009). The Theory of Conceptual Fields. *Human Development*, 52, 83-94. DOI: 10.1159/000202727

Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes (Vol. 86). Harvard university press.

Zittoun, T., Gillespie, A., Cornish, F., & Psaltis, C. (2007). The Metaphor of the Triangle in Theories of Human Development. *Human Development*, 50, 208-229. DOI: 10.1159/000103361