Perturbation of the didactical contract and the management of the paradoxes

Abstract

The Didactic Contract proposed by BROUSSEAU (1986) describes the relationships among the teacher, the knowledge and the student, and refers to an existent paradox in the didactic relationship: the teacher should come in a way not to leave everything explicit to the student for not placing in risk its own learning; on the other hand, if he/she doesn't make the necessary mediation, she/he breaks up with the contract. In a perspective in that the teacher is placed as mediator of the teaching process, one of his/her roles is the administration of such paradox. This work intends to show that one way of dealing with such paradox can be the introduction of small " disturbances " in the stability of the contract, starting from closed problems with unexpected innovations for the student, such as: providing unnecessary data, suppressing data already known by the student or situations that request the articulation of knowledge. The disturbance of traditional problems will demand a qualitative reflection and creative investment, of teacher and student, avoiding automatisms and maintaining them open to progresses without, however, to break with the established Didactic Contract.

Keywords

• teaching by mediation
• paradox management
• perturbation of didactical contract