Conception d’un guide d’élaboration d’une épreuve de mathématiques dans une visée certificative pour la fin du cycle primaire au Burkina Faso

The present research is in line with the trend towards the adoption of the Competence-Based Approach in West Africa. Born from rising global economic and professional exigencies, the Competency-Based Approach gained momentum in the 1990s. Consequently, recruitment is based on the competencies of job seekers. Hence, it is legitimate that schools integrate this new reality so that graduates fulfill socio- professional exigencies in a timely manner. De Ketele (2001, in Hirrt, 2009, p.6) is of this view when he says: “ it is indeed the socio-economic climate which has determined the notion of competency as the adults shaped by schools were not sufficiently trained to enter the work force ”. In the Competency Based Approach, schools no longer work in an isolated manner. In this approach, the new challenges associated with teaching, learning, evaluation and assessment practices and the legal framework are being addressed and dealt with in countries which have adopted the Competency Based Approach. For socioeconomic reasons, the Burkina Faso has adopted an eclectic approach, borrowing some didactical and pedagogical basics from the Competency Based Approach. This option aims to provide the Burkinabe educational system of effective and efficient mechanisms for quality education along with guaranteeing the success of the socio-professional integration of the largest number of graduates. Our study is in line with this new reality and aims to improve the evaluation of 6th grade students in primary schooling. To this end, we constructed and validated a guide towards the elaboration of a mathematics examination for same students to help officers in charge of elaborating official examinations. Based on the learning paradigm, constructivism and the methodological approach of Loiselle and Harvey (2009), we examined, firstly, national examinations developed in Quebec and Burkina Faso. This analysis allowed to reveal the characteristics and identify elements which were to be retained in the specification with regards to finishing graduates’ profile as defined in the Burkinabe program. Secondly, a specification (draft version) was developed in four sections with the aim of presenting the principles which underlied same: (1) elaboration of evaluation task (2) development of examination administration tools (3) development of correction and recording tools and (4) evaluation grids. Thirdly, one group of Canadian and two groups of Burkinabe experts gave their views on the relevance and clarity of each section of the draft and corrected version of the guide. Observations and feedback given allowed us to improve the final guide. Generally, the percentage degree of agreement for the relevance and clarity of content developed in each section was satisfactory. However, the experts' recommendations have led to adjustments on different aspects: 1) the contents of the guide: a single examination for the development of the guide instead of three, 2) the contents of some tables: to complete or to merge; 3) the quality of language: some sentences have been reformulated; numbering errors of some subsections have been corrected. The final version would be one adapted to the Burkinabe context. This guide is destined for those responsible for the assessment of learning and experience of students in Burkina Faso. It is also a repository for the initial and continuing training of teachers and teacher trainers. Although this research is methodologically and ethically sound, the implementation of the results is limited to the context of Burkina Faso. However, they can support or direct other research in the same line.

Keyphrases: instrumentation, certificational evaluation, Competency-Based Approach, instrumentation, learning situation, ministerial examinations, mathematics