Activités robotiques à l'école primaire et apprentissage de concepts informatiques : quelle place du scénario pédagogique ? Les limites du co-apprentissage

Abstract

This research, which takes place within the framework of Baron and Bruillard's research in didactics of computer science,analyzes how primary school teachers, not computer experts, design and implement scenarios involving ground pedagogical robots in their classrooms. The integration of these robots has been studied with the aim of shedding light on their possible pedagogical contributions. It shows how these teachers succeed in defining pedagogical situations of these knowledge objects to which they have never been confronted before and in developing pupils' thinking in action. Student activity was analyzed, through the instrumental approach (Rabardel), in order to understand how the learning of computational concepts emerges from these activities. The question of the learning of concepts and methods specific to the computer domain through robotics is analyzed using the theory of conceptual fields (Vergnaud). This research provides additional understanding how these teachers intuitively develop and implement scenarios to teach a few computer concepts. It demonstrates their ability to integrate tangible or symbolic objects into computer learning sessions by performing a minimum analysis of the robot's functionality. During the activities in which they are mobilized, robotic tools and teaching aids accompany learning. In terms of learning, pupils have forged, through instrumentation and instrumentalities, tools and methods to understand the computer object. The concepts and notions involved are particularly dependent on the technological contexts specific to each robot. Methods specific to software production allowed the sequencing of the programming activity into phases of specification, design, realization and development. Programming paradigms were also approached, such as procedural programming in the case of the Bee-Bot robot and event programming in the case of the study of the behavior of the Thymio robot. Outside the computer field, problem solving, by being placed at the heart of the scenarios, allowed students to develop trial and error approaches in a small group work environment that facilitate exchanges and interactions between students.