Portrait d’étudiants du collégial dans les cours de mise à niveau pour mathématiques : évaluation des connaissances minimales et exploration des difficultés d’apprentissage

The present study examines mathematics learning difficulties (MLD) among college students enrolled in the Remedial Activities for Secondary IV Mathamatics: Technical and Scientific Option (no 201-016-50) or the Remedial Activities for Secondary V Mathamatics: Technical and Scientific Option (no 201-015-50). The integration of students with disabilities, learning difficulties and disadvantages (DDD) is one of the most important challenges of post-secondary education (Bonnelli, Ferland-Raymond, & Campeau, 2010). The highest increase of students with DDD having accessed CEGEPs in recent years is found among those with learning difficulties (LD) (MELS, 2014). One of the adjustment measures taken by CEGEPs include the creation of remedial activities for mathematics whose failure rates remain very high to this day (Cégep St-Jérôme, 2015, Collège Ahuntsic, 2015). However, there is no admission test to gain access to the remedial courses and the literature shows a significant lack of information concerning the student composition of these courses. The general objective of this study is to provide a portrait of college students enrolled in remadial activities for mathematics, in terms of their prior knowledge and the manifestation of MLD. The data collection was divided in two stages: the first was quantitative and the second qualitative. The first datea collection was conducted with 101 participants and required two tools: an individual writing mathematical knowledge test and a descriptive questionnaire. This allowed an evaluation of participants' prior knowledge (mainly in arithmetic and algebra), an estimation of the prevalence of LD rated "light" MLD and "deep" MLD in these groups as well as a first exploration of the socio-demographic characteristics, of the school pathway. and of cognitive factors of the participants. The second data collection further explored the personal factors (affective, cognitive, and experiential) associated with LD and allowed to refined the quantitative results of the first collection with 2 semi-directed individual interviews.   Our quantitative results show that the student composition of the college mathematics remedial courses is heterogeneous in terms of level of knowledge and that the prevalence of MLD is high. In addition, the results suggest that there is a gender difference in the level of prior knowledge: boys would have an advantage. Concerning affective factors, students show a good academic motivation as well as a positive perception of their skills and performances in mathematics. Moreover, it seems that the teacher represents an influential player for the students' level of interest in mathematics as well as their success in the discipline. Findings on cognitive factors suggest that the teacher is the primary and preferred expert resource for students with significant difficulties. Peers are a more accessible help resource, but working in pairs is appreciated only if the pair is known and considered competent, at risk of slowing down the learning process. Finally, results on mental calculation suggest that a poor acquisition of the arithmetic tables is at the source of slow executions. This study remains a pioneer in the field of MLD exploration among the CEGEP population, but suggests several directions for future research and improvement in field interventions.

Keyphrases: Dyscalculie, Mathematical learning difficulties, Remedial activities for secondary IV mathematics, Remedial activities for secondary V mathematics, Arithmetic, Mental calculation, Dyscalculia, Prior knowledge evaluation, Technical and scientific option, Adult learning