  Our research is part of a technological research program in adult education
conducted in reference to the "course of action" program. Using the
activity-sign hypothesis of this programme, training situations are thought as
opportunities to perturb/relaunch the participants'dynamics of meaning. Our
contribution aims to (i) improve the conceptualization of training situations
that are thought as aids to the understanding and transformation of the
participants situations, and (ii) derive cross-cutting design principles that
allow the enactment of these training situations in different contexts. We rely
on the analysis of training programs aiming either at the management or at the
overcoming of events experienced as unprecedented and critical by the
individuals concerned. Depending on the case, these training programs have a
"restorative" aim (resolving of impasse situations), or have a "preparatory"
aim (prefiguration of crisis situations). The design principles of these
training programs and their effects are analysed with the conceptual tools
developed within the course-of-action, integrating two additional dimensions:
fictional and event-driven. The conditions for the emergence of new meanings
are described in terms of abduction, either for reparative purposes (resolution
of deadlock situations) or for preparatory purposes (prefiguration of crisis
situations). The contribution to course-of-action program and to research on
adult education is discussed through the prism of the hypothesis of
activity-sign.
