La construction de connaissances chez des sportifs de haut niveau lors d’une interaction compétitive
C. Sève
J. Saury
J. Theureau
M. Durand
In a semiological framework based on course-of-action theory, this study analyzes the activity of elite table tennis players during a match. Three volunteer table tennis players selected for the Olympic Games in Sydney were filmed during international meets. The videotape data was supplemented with verbalization data from interviews in which the players viewed the videotapes and were asked to describe and comment upon their activity. The players’ actions and verbalizations were mapped to each other in tables. The analysis consisted of breaking down the course of action into elementary units of meaning, and then documenting each unit by specifying the elements the players took into account in deciding what action to take, the centers of interest underlying their activity, and the knowledge they activated and constructed. The results showed that matches start with a discovery period during which players look for what strokes bother their opponent. During games, table tennis players construct and validate new knowledge about the current interactive situation by testing hypotheses, which are necessarily limited in number due to the risk of losing points and the game. New knowledge is built through abductive, deductive, and inductive inferences. Abduction consists in defining a set of hypotheses to account for a fact that cannot be immediately understood. Induction consists in constructing new knowledge by generalizing or by implementing verification procedures. Deduction consists in building new knowledge by relating it to prior knowledge using a formal rule. It includes abductive and inductive inferences. The results of this study show that the activity of table tennis players during a match has a learning component and cannot be reduced to the mere performance of skills acquired during practice. They question the traditional conception of a table tennis player’s activity and the distinction traditionnaly made in sports research and sport training between pratice and competition. Our results lead us to conceive of a table tennis match as a form of pratice which gives rise to new acquisitions. These findings suggest we reconsider the role of practice in the production of expert performance.
Keywords :
Expertise, Inferences, Learning, Knowledge Construction, Table Tennis.
Notre étude a analysé l’activité de pongistes experts lors de matchs, en référence à un cadre d’analyse sémiologique du cours d’action. Des données d’enregistrement ont été recueillies au cours de rencontres internationales et complétées par des verbalisations provoquées. L’analyse du cours d’action des pongistes a permis de mettre en évidence une phase d’enquête lors du début des matchs, au cours de laquelle ils construisent des connaissances sur la situation d’interaction présente. Ces résultats permettent de caractériser l’apprentissage et les inférences mises en jeu dans des situations dynamiques et incertaines, et nous invitent à interroger le rôle de la pratique préalable pour la production d’une performance experte.
Mots-clés :
Performance, Inférences, Apprentissage, Construction de connaissances, Tennis de table.
• I. INTRODUCTION
— I . 1. OBJECTIFS DE L’ÉTUDE
— I . 2. UNE APPROCHE SÉMIOLOGIQUE DE L’ACTIVITÉ
• II. MÉTHODE
— II . 1. PARTICIPANTS ET SITUATIONS
— II . 2. RECUEIL DES DONNÉES
— II . 3. TRAITEMENT DES DONNÉES
• III. RÉSULTATS
— III . 1. LA DYNAMIQUE GLOBALE DE L’ACTIVITÉ AU COURS DES MATCHS
— III . 2. LA CONSTRUCTION DES CONNAISSANCES
• IV. DISCUSSION
— IV . 1. LES CARACTÉRISTIQUES DE L’APPRENTISSAGE LORS DE LA COMPÉTITION
— IV . 2. L’APPRENTISSAGE AU COURS DE LA COMPÉTITION ET L’APPRENTISSAGE AU COURS DE L’ENTRAÎNEMENT
— IV . 3. LES INFÉRENCES MISES EN JEU LORS DE LA CONSTRUCTION DE NOUVELLES CONNAISSANCES
• V. CONCLUSION
•
ANNEXE 1
• BIBLIOGRAPHIE