The French educational system

findings and prospects for evolution

Abstract

International comparisons and a return on the history of the French education system help to identify "blind spots" that reveal many resistance to change appearing against top-down prescriptions. International evaluation surveys, such as PISA, focus on the efficiency and equity of education systems, elements to be taken into account for the French context. UNESCO has proposed interesting reports on education; they present goals for possible evolution perspectives. A theoretical framework is laid from there, inspired by complex thinking, for the establishment of an international collaborative research: methodologies of research-action / training of teachers and their trainers led to results, presented under the form of transposable propositions resulting from innovative professional didactics. They are based on teaching / learning situations within a (socio) constructivist framework, and could be applied at the micro, meso and macro levels to transform the "actors" of an education system.