Planning

Introduction

The scientific literature about planning provides multiple definitions of the construct because planning has many components and because scholars have focused on different aspects of planning (e.g. Miller, Galanter & Pribram, 1960; Schank & Abelson, 1977; Zelazo, Carter, Reznick & Frye, 1997). A composite definition presents planning as ‘a set of complex conceptual activities that anticipate and regulate behaviour. Planning relies on representation of the environment, anticipation of solutions to problems, and then monitoring of strategies to see whether they meet the problem and follow the plan. To plan is to act simultaneously on three levels: in the reality of the problem, in accordance with an imagined scheme [to reach the desired solution], and in the role of mediator between the scheme and the behaviour’ ...