Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2025

Superordinate scheme, development and learning in a specific cultural practice A case study in volleyball

Résumé

At the crossroads of qualitative psychology, educational sciences and sports sciences, we present a research on the activity of volleyball players. It stems from trainers’ concerns who want to understand the reasons for the increase in learning inequalities. The aim of training is to support players in improving their sporting performance as socially valued. Although largely implicit, the cultural norm sets the expectations of the competitive context and the characteristics of the activity of ideal performers. In volleyball, it establishes a specific challenge: to avoid any break in the rally on one’s side of the net, and to provoke such a break in the opponent’s one. Consequently, players are expected to touch, or even lift, the ball to prevent it falling to the ground on their side of the court, and then have the opportunity to score. The aim of our research is to identify the superordinate scheme that guides and organizes each player’s activity according to his or her own norms. To do so, we observed players’ behaviors during matches, particularly in the defensive phase. We then conducted self-confrontation interviews with each player in order to help him or her to make explicit what he or she perceives, feels and what is important to him or her during the observed moments. Despite the singularity of the contexts, these observations and interviews enabled us to identify both behavioral regularities (in terms of posture, movement, body orientation) and meaning regularities (relating to perceptual focuses, affective valences, player expectations) (Récopé et al., 2024b). Ten different superordinate schemes are distinguished. 1: do everything to avoid the ball falling on our side 2: do the job I’ve been given 3: have a good time 4: intervene when the ball passes close to me 5: not to contribute to human relationships of domination 6: give my all if the match is worth it 7: assert my virility 8: check how much a certain person thinks of me 9: not to hurt myself playing the ball 10: not to be ridiculous to others Each establishes a theorem-in-act, the corresponding expectations, relevant classes of situations and what should be done for the studied player. It establishes, at the moment under consideration, his or her own normativity and thus, a specific relationship to the cultural norm. For example, players whose activity is oriented towards “doing everything to avoid the ball falling on our side” have constructed theorems-in-act, expectations and classes of situations that are different from players whose activity is oriented towards “not hurting myself playing the ball”. For the former, the theorems-in-act refer to all the actions that make it possible to “avoid the break at all costs” – which, incidentally, is not a cost, since it is the break in the rally that affects him or her-. The discriminating criterion for each class of situation relates to the movement of the ball, the vehicle for the danger of breaking the rally: “where and when is the ball likely to fall to the ground? ». His or her expectations of himself or herself and his or her team-mates concern what happens to the ball: “straighten it up, touch it, stand between it and the ground”. For the latter, the theorems-in-act are distinguished according to the speed of the ball: “when the ball is fast, I must avoid it”, “when the ball’s trajectory is bell-shaped, I can intervene”, “I must protect my arms”. The discriminating criterion for each class of situation is: “Is the ball fast and will it hurt me?". His or her expectations relate to reducing the pain he or she feels when intervening on the ball: “limiting the impact of the ball on my arms”. For each player, development is the emergence of a new theorem-in-act. Any new superordinate scheme opens to a restructuring of feelings and meanings, and to new learning. Greater compatibility with the cultural norm encourages specific learning to meet cultural expectations. Training that combats the growth of learning inequalities strives to increase this compatibility for all trainees, in other words, to support development that favors the emergence of a superordinate scheme “doing everything to avoid the ball falling on our side” (Récopé, et al 2024a). These superordinate schemes form a developmental picture (Vergnaud, 1989), providing didactic support for trainers.

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Dates et versions

hal-05190534 , version 1 (29-07-2025)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-05190534 , version 1

Citer

Géraldine Rix-Lièvre, Simon Boyer, Michel Récopé. Superordinate scheme, development and learning in a specific cultural practice A case study in volleyball. The 54th annual meeting of the Jean Piaget Society, May 2025, Belgrade, Serbia. ⟨hal-05190534⟩

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