Emmanuel Sander

Director

Emmanuel Sander is a professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the University of Geneva, where he directs the IDEA Laboratory (Instruction, Development, Education, Learning). His research adopts a cognitive and developmental perspective applied to educational issues. He contributes to the understanding of the cognitive processes involved in learning, particularly those related to generalization and knowledge transfer. He has developed a theory of knowledge construction based on analogy, which he conceives as a central mechanism for apprehending novelty. This approach is accompanied by an in-depth reflection on its epistemological and didactic implications, especially in the fields of mathematics, language, and science. His theory of knowledge construction mechanisms based on analogy—a transversal process that enables the apprehension of novelty—led him to co-author with Douglas Hofstadter a book published in 2013 by Odile Jacob, L’analogie, cœur de la pensée, and by Basic Books, Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and translated into five languages.

Social Medias

© Centre Jean Piaget | 2024