Les enjeux des supports de cours : cas d'un enseignement de statistique en sciences humaines

A l'heure des medias et de l'evolution des pratiques de formation, les tâches de l'enseignant du superieur depassent largement ses prestations face au public. Gerer l'apprentissage suppose notamment d'assurer la production et l'integration de multiples supports de cours : les siens et ceux destines a l'apprentissage. Cette etude prend appui sur le cas d’un cours de statistique en sciences humaines deja evoque lors d’une precedente publication dans la presente revue et qui analysait des outils facilitant la publication de supports sous differentes formes. La chaine editoriale Scenari, preconisee, a ete exploitee dans le cadre de ce cours. Dans ce present article, les auteurs s’interessent au contexte ou prennent place les supports edites. Il n’est pas centre sur la didactique specifique aux notions statistiques. C’est par le truchement de plusieurs enquetes, sur quatre annees, que des difficultes d'integrer ces supports aux demarches d'apprentissage des etudiants ont ete mises en lumiere. Les expliquer a conduit a situer les supports dans leur contexte : le dispositif du cours et les forces contraignantes qui le determinent. Un cadre de reference, presente, a aide a les analyser et a situer les enjeux des supports. Les enquetes ont egalement eclaire les visions des acteurs − la responsable du cours, les etudiants et les encadrants − sur les supports et leurs usages. Elles ont ainsi permis de reperer des dysfonctionnements, de degager quelques pistes pour mieux integrer les supports au dispositif et favoriser un apprentissage en profondeur, et enfin de formuler des questionnements par rapport aux pratiques des etudiants et des encadrants. Mots-cles : support de cours, dispositif d’un cours, kit des supports, usages des etudiants, perception de la statistique, synthese personnelle. On the Challenges of Course Material: Case Study on a Statistics Course in Human Sciences In the era of media and the advancement of education practices, the roles of the university lecturer go largely beyond his teaching services provided to the audience. Managing these activities assumes that diversified course material has been produced and integrated, in first place: these include his own material and those devoted to the teaching activity, as such. The present study builds on an experiment involving a course in statistics for social sciences. That course also motivated a previous article published in this journal that investigates tools that facilitate publication of teaching material under different formats. The usage of Scenari, the editorial software suite, was recommended for this course. In this article, the authors are interested in the context in which this kit takes place. It does not focus on didactics specific to the teaching of statistical concepts. It was through a combination of several surveys and over four years that the difficulties of integrating a teaching material kit into the students learning approach are highlighted. Investigating these difficulties allowed to put the kit into its context and the constraining forces governing it. The present paper proposes a comprehensive framework that contributes in understanding the is-sues pertaining to teaching material. The surveys also have enlightened the visions of the actors − professor, teaching assistants and students − on the teaching material kit and its use. They made it possible to spot dysfunctions, to identify means to better integrate the kit to the course apparatus and promote in-depth learning, and to raise questions about the practices of students and teaching assistants. Keywords: course material, course apparatus, teaching material kit, student’s usage, students’ perception, own course synthesis.