Operative and predicative forms of knowledge

The major aim of this paper is to approach ideas that stem from lessons I have been able to learn from the most diverse types of experiences, especially from the research on psychology and on the and didactics of mathematics in which I have been engaged for over thirty years, and also from competence analyses in adults in relation to the development of their professional work. I have learned much as head of the French network for research on the didactics of mathematics and physics, as well as a scientific rapporteur for a workgroup on competence development within the ECRIN association, which brings together research-industry organizations in the various fields of physics, chemistry, life sciences, and the humanities.