Uses of ICT by Pre-service Mathematics Teachers: Towards a Professional Instrumentation?

In this paper, our focus is on 'young' mathematics teachers during their pre-service training because of the conditions that might enable them to develop professional uses of technology more easily than 'older' teachers. By describing some aspects of teacher training in France, especially the distinction between level 1 (general) and level 2 (professional) competence in ICT, we explain our idea of 'professional instrumentation of ICT'. The question we then consider is what 'instrumentation' trainees can achieve in the year of training, a time that is also their first year of teaching. Our empirical data comes from questionnaires and an analysis of trainees' professional dissertations. Given that Level 1 competence, when more or less achieved by a trainee teacher, ensures a limited 'instrumentation' in the part of the trainee's activity outside the classroom (for example, in terms of lesson preparation), we found that, at the moment, a majority of trainees do not go much beyond this, and do not develop, a better 'instrumentation' that might help them to develop 'instrumented' activities related to classroom use of information and communications technology.