Guy Brousseau (4 February 1933 – 15 February 2024) was a French mathematics
educationalist
Education sciences, also known as education studies or education theory, and traditionally called ''pedagogy'', seek to describe, understand, and prescribe education including education policy. Subfields include comparative education, educationa ...
.
Early life and education
Guy Brousseau was born on 4 February 1933, in
Taza
Taza () is a city in northern Morocco occupying the corridor between the Rif mountains and Middle Atlas mountains, about 120 km east of Fez and 150 km south of Al Hoceima. It recorded a population of 148,406 in the 2019 Moroccan ...
, Morocco. From an early age, he wanted to become a primary school teacher, which he did for several years until he was recruited as an assistant at
Bordeaux
Bordeaux ( ; ; Gascon language, Gascon ; ) is a city on the river Garonne in the Gironde Departments of France, department, southwestern France. A port city, it is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the Prefectures in F ...
University. From 1967 to 1969, he was Director of the Centre de recherches pour l'enseignement des mathématiques at the CRDP de Bordeaux, and in 1969 became Assistant of Mathematics at the Faculté des Sciences de Bordeaux. In 1968, he obtained a bachelor's degree in mathematics and a bachelor's degree in educational science.
Career and research
Brousseau began his career as a teacher in 1953. He began publishing in 1961, followed by a textbook for the first year of elementary school (1965), and continued to publish in the scientific field. In the late 1960s, after obtaining a
degree in mathematics, he joined the
University of Bordeaux
The University of Bordeaux (, ) is a public research university based in Nouvelle-Aquitaine in southwestern France.
It has several campuses in the cities and towns of Bordeaux, Dax, Gradignan, Périgueux, Pessac, and Talence. There are al ...
.
Brousseau founded COREM (Centre pour l'Observation et la Recherche sur l'Enseignement des Mathématiques), which he ran from 1973 to 1998 at the Jules Michelet elementary school in
Talence (Gironde).
The school went on to achieve international renown. He subsequently founded the LADIST (Laboratoire Aquitain de Didactique des Sciences et Techniques), which supported COREM.
In 1986, he obtained a
doctorate in science and, in 1991, became a
university professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...
at the newly-created
IUFM d'
Aquitaine
Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...
, where he worked until 1998. He decided to create the CREM (Centre de Recherche pour l'Enseignement des Mathématiques) in Bordeaux following his meeting with
André Lichnerowicz. He was Professor Emeritus at the IUFM d'Aquitaine. He also held
honorary doctorates from the
University of Montreal (1997) and the
University of Geneva
The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...
(2004).
His main theoretical contribution is the
theory of didactic situations, a theory initiated in the early 1970s. Together with
Gérard Vergnaud's
conceptual field theory and
Yves Chevallard's anthropological theory of didactics, it forms one of the three main theoretical frameworks of the French school of mathematics didactics.
Brousseau published numerous works on mathematics from 1965 to 2001, with the help of numerous collaborators.
Brousseau carried out a large number of research and training missions in Europe, Latin America and North America, as well as in
North Africa
North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
and
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
. His research focuses on the teaching of natural and
decimal
The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers (''decimal fractions'') of th ...
numbers,
probability
Probability is a branch of mathematics and statistics concerning events and numerical descriptions of how likely they are to occur. The probability of an event is a number between 0 and 1; the larger the probability, the more likely an e ...
,
statistics
Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ...
,
geometry
Geometry (; ) is a branch of mathematics concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. Geometry is, along with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. A mathematician w ...
, elementary algebra,
logic
Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
and reasoning.
Brousseau died on 15 February 2024, at the age of 91.
Awards and honours
In 2003, Brousseau was awarded the first
Felix Klein Medal by the
International Commission on Mathematical Instruction.
Publications
* Brousseau, Guy (1965). ''Les mathématiques du cours préparatoire collaboration'' de G. Ratier.
*
*
* Brousseau, Guy; Felix, Lucienne (1972). ''Mathématique et thèmes d'activité à l'école maternelle'' (in French).
* Brousseau, Guy (1986). ''Théorisation des phénomènes d'enseignement des Mathématiques'' (in French).
* Brousseau, Guy; Warfield, Virginia (1998) "The case of GAEL". in Journal of Mathematical Behavior, No. 18 (1), 1–46,
* Brousseau, Guy (2000) ''Que peut-on enseigner en mathématiques à l'école primaire et pourquoi ?'' (in French)
Repères-IREM. (38): pp. 7–10.
* Brousseau, Guy (2001). ''Les erreurs des élèves en mathématiques : Étude dans le cadre de la théorie des situations didactiques'' (in French). Petit x 57, 5–30 (IREM et CRDP de Grenoble)
* Brousseau, Guy (2004). ''L'émergence d'une science de la didactique des mathématiques : motifs et enjeux'' (in French).
Repères-IREM. (55): pp. 19–34.
* Brousseau, Guy (1998). ''La théorie des situations didactiques. Recueil de textes de Didactique des mathématiques 1970-1990" présentés par M. Cooper et N. Balacheff, Rosamund Sutherland et Virginia Warfield'' (in French). (La pensée sauvage, Grenoble).
* He will then publish on local media (18 ''Cahiers de l’IREM de Bordeaux'' de 1969 à 1978).
* Most of these texts have been published in magazines such as R.D.M. or in a collection published in English by Kluwer in 1997 under the title: ''Theory of Didactical Situations in Mathematics.''
* N. and G. BROUSSEAU (1987). ''Rationnels et décimaux dans la scolarité obligatoire'' (in French).
See also
*
Didactic method
A didactic method (from ''didáskein'', "to teach") is a teaching method that follows a consistent scientific approach or educational style to present information to students. The didactic method of instruction is often contrasted with dialecti ...
References
External links
* https://guy-brousseau.com/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brousseau, Guy
1933 births
2024 deaths
French mathematics educators
French educational theorists
Academic staff of the University of Bordeaux
People from Taza