Abstract:

Numerous studies, including the well-known PISA surveys, confirm that French students present significant difficulties in mathematics (OECD, 2010, 2014 and 2015). This skills gap, as has been recognized by several observers, can have a negative impact on the human, social and economic development of a territory (EC, 2011). The problem is even more concerning in the French West Indies, where learning difficulties are linked to an educational ecosystem that is a victim of a colonial heritage and a peripheral position that has not allowed development adapted to the local specificities of the educational structures and resources available (Alì, 2017 and 2019), especially in the strategic area of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Roberts and de Oliveira, 2015; MENESRI, 2019).

Pending a national plan dedicated to the problems of the "overseas school", the Academies have put in place local measures to improve student performance, particularly in the so-called “fundamental” areas, including mathematics. Since 2013, the Academy of Martinique has deployed its Math Plan. One of its aims is to provide teachers in Cycles 1, 2 and 3 with training and dissemination of teaching resources.

The purpose of this communication is to present an initial assessment and evaluation of the results achieved during the first period of operation of the Plan (2013-2017). The results of the first finding showed us that the difficulties of the students are not to be attributed to errors of execution but to a difficulty of understanding the initial concepts. Our questioning around the obstacles that made it difficult to develop an ecosystem positive to mathematical culture in primary school led us to develop a biannual academic training project (2015-2017) based on collective work and a collaborative type of work distribution, from design to evaluation of each activity, according to the criteria defined by Friend and Cook (2007) and professional benchmarks for national education trainers (MENESR, 2015 and 2016). We were aware of the benefits of this organizational modality (a horizontal division of work and the opportunity for all team members to participate in the conceptualization of activities) but also disadvantages in relation to a cooperative type organisation (which would explain and compartmentalize, from the outset, the distribution of tasks. See Dillenburg, 1999; Bruillard and Baron, 2009).

We therefore decided to set up tandems consisting of a first- and second-degree trainer who worked on the basis of three conditions:
• complementarity of discourses (pedagogical and didactic contributions from joint cultures of both degrees);
• enrichment of proposed activities (through the use of digital tools for the creation of learning activities. See, for example, MMPDG, 2017);
• explicit agreement to participate in a trial validated by the hierarchy (in order to ensure the collection of data over the long term).

We hope that this work can contribute to improving continuing training practices for first- and second-degree teachers in the field of mathematics, motivating decision-makers to enhance collective work practices in national education (as claimed by several authors. See Marcel et al., 2007), particularly in contexts marked by strong cultural specificity, as in the "overseas" world.

Keywords:

Mathematics teaching, priority education, teacher training, collaborative work.