Problematic learning situations (PLS) arise when students encounter learning difficulties and their teacher encounters difficulties assisting them. The current study looks at student and teacher difficulties revealed during PLS, in the course of instruction of basic geometrical concepts for average and below-average junior high school students,…

Various studies suggest that French students (grades 7 to 10) may solve geometric problems within a paradigmatic framework that differs from that assumed by teachers, a situation prone to misunderstandings. In this paper, we study the extent to which secondary school teachers recognise the conflicting paradigms and how they handle the geometric…

This study attempts to explain certain difficulties which ninth grade students face in tackling geometrical "problems to prove," by relating them to general and to specific rigidity and cognitive style variables. The results confirm the conceptual analysis of Geometric Rigidity (GR). (MP)