Évolution des projets de formation de futurs enseignants du primaire au contact de situations probabilistes
There seems to be unfulfilled reciprocal expectations in mathematical education and initial preparation of teachers. While trying to understand the genesis of their expectations, we were interested in the vision that future teachers have of the educational phenomena. Having postulated that these students have a deterministic view of these phenomena and considering that their anticipation guides their training project, we addressed the problem of the encounter of student and educator projects. Two general objectives were formulated: the first aims at describing student training projects while the second addresses the development of a sequence of situations to help enrich their initial projects. This research was conducted among 58 undergraduate students in special education at a single university. They were beginning their initial training in teaching mathematics. In order to explore their initial projects, all students completed a questionnaire to inform on their personal vision of mathematics and its teaching. They also participated in an initial group discussion on the subject. A sequence of probabilistic situations was then presented to induce enrichment of their project. Finally, this experiment was followed by a second group discussion and completed with eight interviews. It was highlighted that the majority of the students met want to evolve primarily as a teacher, developing their ability to teach and stimulate learning and understanding of mathematics. Although some project goals fall into a transmissive perspective, these do not seem representative of the overall goals of the projects. Moreover, although most students want to develop knowledge of techniques and teaching methods, the sensitivity to complexity shown in some projects does not allow to reduce students' expectations regarding their training to the building of a repertoire of teaching techniques deemed effective. Regarding modes of anticipation identified initially, our results highlight anticipations connected with first an adaptive mode and then a forecast mode. We found no initial anticipation connected with a prospective mode. The sequence has allowed students to engage in a dialectic of action, formulation and validation, it prompted them to use a stochastic approach and to make probability judgment that takes into account the complexity of the situation. Afterwards, we observed that the projects of some students had become more complex. We also noted a widening of the majority of projects which opened to considering other vertices of the didactic triangle. Finally, anticipations relating to all modes of anticipation were identified. Anticipations made through a prospective mode helped identify areas of uncertainty and freedom upon which it appears possible to act, to increase sensitivity to the complexity of the educational situations and the act of teaching.
Teacher training Mathematic education Training project Probabilistic situation Didactical situation Judgment of probability Judgmental heuristics Project goal Project objectives Mode of anticipation