Savoirs véhiculés par les manuels scolaires français et québécois à propos de l’aire. Une étude comparative

Abstract

This article presents a comparative study of French and Quebec textbooks on the notion of area. Several research studies have raised students’ difficulties in understanding the concept of area, and recent work suggests studying these difficulties in connection with the learning opportunities offered by textbooks, which are a tool widely used by teachers. In order to highlight the similarities and differences in the knowledge set out in the textbooks of two territories and to interpret them according to the learning of the pupils, we have built a praxeological reference model using the Anthropological Theory of Didactics (TAD). Our results show similar limitations in French and Quebec textbooks, in particular the strong focus on the numerical dimension of the area to the detriment of the elements contributing to a conceptualization of this notion.