The Interpretation and Screening of Learning Difficulties in Mathematics: Regard at the Contribution of the Anthropo-Didactic Approach

Abstract

The aim of this study is to increase knowledge about learning difficulties in mathematics by exploring how different explanatory perspectives on learning difficulties influence the discourse of educational specialists when they take a position on the foundations of learning difficulties in the field of mathematics. A literature review of the learning difficulties in mathematics researches of the last thirty years shows the emergence of two major interpretative perspectives. In the first one, the difficulties are interpreted in terms of the learners’ cognitive characteristics, while the second perspective study learning difficulties as the result of interactions between the student and the school system. Many debates during the last few decades between the proponents of the first perspective and those of the second perspective brought out a third perspective: the anthropo-didactic approach. This research aims to test the relevance of this third perspective by analyzing the discourse of different education professionals. Since this third interpretive perspective of learning disabilities has recently appeared in the scientific literature, to our knowledge, no research to validate this perspective has been done in Canada. Through semi-structured interviews, 14 educational specialists shared their experience and their vision regarding the interpretation of learning difficulties in mathematics. Moreover, they discussed the different methods for screening those difficulties. The results obtained through analysis of their discourse highlight different themes connected to three explanatory perspectives (cognitivist, didactic and social science). In addition, the results reveal the complementary contribution of the anthropo-didactic approach (related to the social science perspective) which, owing to its recent emergence in the Quebec scholarly research, is rarely considered by researchers and professionals working in the field of education.