Objects to Learn about and Objects for Learning 1

PrefaceFrom a Conference to a Book on the Role of Objects in the Practices of Teachers

This book is the result of the communications that took place during the conference organized by CAREF (the Amiens Center for Research in Education and Training), part of the University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens. This conference, entitled “Objets pour apprendre, objets à apprendre : quelles pratiques enseignantes pour quels enjeux?” (Objects to Learn About and Objects for Learning: Which Practices for Which Issues?), took place on June 11 and 12, 2019, following a study day on the same theme held on December 10, 2014, in Amiens.

The objective of this colloquium was to question the place and role of objects mobilized within classical or innovative pedagogical practices, from kindergarten to university, in France and in other national contexts. It favored a transversal approach that enabled a coming together of various educational fields (disciplines, subjects, fields of activity), comparing the views of practitioners, trainers and researchers, statuses that are sometimes held cumulatively by the same individuals. From this perspective, the work of the conference focused on the objects that teachers and educators use, ask for, call upon, interrogate or create, together with their pupils, in the various educational fields.

We consider an object to be a “learning object” if it is included within a teaching–learning project. The use of one or more objects results from a pedagogical choice ...