Modélisation : l'apport des logiciels éducatifs

The technology based learning environnement intended for the teaching of physics are studied from the point of view of their contribution, for the training of the pupils of secondary education, with modeling. A study of the existing learning environnement were lead and two learning environnement were selected to be the subject of a cognitive evaluation. These environnements are very contrasted from the point of view of their characteristics. The first ("Physics by the image") plunges the pupil in a mathematically formalized world ; the second ("ModelsCreator") offers a pallet of tools of symbolics notations (images, icones, graphs, numerical, literal) allowing plays of translation and comparison of representations. 92 pupils of lower and higer secondary school were questioned individually (experimentation with objects then with the learning environnement) and their answers were analyzed. The results show that the second technology based learning environnement is adapted better than the first, in particular for the pupils of lower secondary school. Its use supports the process of modeling, in the sense that it induces more a relational interpretation of the physical experiment than the first learning environnement which allows only a mathematical modeling of the experiment.