The role of media-milieu dialectics in the constitution of the “milieu” during an inquiry process

Abstract

Our research questions the place of inquiry in a particular institutional context that places it in the heart of its educational philosophy, particularly when it becomes an institutionally recognized object, sanctioned by a summative assessment. This paper proposes to analyze the internal assessment within the standard level mathematics course in the International Baccalaureate (IB). Each student must produce a written and individual piece of work entitled “Mathematical Exploration” that should involve an investigation in a field of mathematics. Using the tools of the Anthropological theory of didactics (ATD), in particular the Herbartian scheme and the dialectics of questions/answers and media/milieu we analyzed the evolution of the milieu during an inquiry process.