Les représentations graphiques comme support de raisonnement dans les manuels destinés aux élèves de Grande Section Maternelle

Abstract

This research is devoted to the examination of the status of the writing in the French school and extra-curricular exercise books. We carry out an analysis of the exercises including graphical representations, contained in books of several known publishers. They are exercises of mathematics, intended for children in Kindergarten (5 to 6,5 years old). Our objective is to locate up to what point these exercises support a process of reasoning on behalf of the child. Three cognitive functions are observed : the function of selection-marking, the referential function and the inferential function. The analysis we make shows that the graphical representations (drawings) of the exercises are seldom conceived in order to encourage the children to produce inferences but that, on the other hand, they often put forward referential and semantic correspondences.