REVUE FRANÇAISE DE PÉDAGOGIE N° 80 juil.-août-sept. 1987, 133

SUMMARIES Mathematic teaching

Mathematic teaching in the international context. - From the results of the IEA 2nd international inquiry on mathematic teaching it appears that France is in a favourable situation and is still progressing and that each educational system is culturally marked in this discipline.

Automatization of elementary calculation at school. - Repetition and training induce the subject to automatize data processing. Educational psychology should not stay apart from this promizing field of investigation.

Primary- secondary school transition : which subject contracts in mathematics. - This study presents a « subject-contract » approach (teacher/pupil/subject relationship) in mathematics at upper level of junior school and in 1st form. If, in a first approach to teacher representations, we notice a greater « weight » of the subject in the first year of secondary school, in a second approach using classroom observation issues, we notice — contrary to what we would have thought — very little difference between the primary and secondary levels concerned.

Logo : a context which favours procedural thought. - This paper tries to settle the perspectives of Logo. The author looks to delimitate the core of Papert thought, then he reviews series of American studies which endeavoured to evaluate the effects of Logo practice on problem solving aptitude. Educational psychology research should benefit from this critical survey.

Some conceptual problems in crosscultural comparisons. - Is a general theory of education based upon the study of its role in the production and reproduction of main historical societies possible ? It relies on cross cultural comparison validity depending itself on some conditions. This paper deals with a concept problem and its various aspects.

The ethnographic approach in educational sociology : school and community, educational institutions, classrooms (Third part and general conclusion).

After the introduction, the first part about school and community written by J.-L. Derouet, the second part about school as an institution written by A. Henriot, presented in the Revue Française de Pédagogie, n° 78, January 1987, Régine Sirota deals with the problem of classroom : is it a desperately empty or desperately full set ? In conclusion the three authors discuss about the new methodological approaches or the reconstruction of the field of investigation represented by ethnography in the scope of education.

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