Modelling Inquiry in ATD: A Framework to Capture and Analyze the Chronogenesis and Mesogenesis of an Inquiry Process

This paper proposes to present a framework based on the tools of the Anthropological theory of the didactic (the Herbartian scheme, the question–answer and media-milieu dialectics) that allows to capture and analyze the chronogenesis and mesogenesis during an inquiry process. Our research questions the place of inquiry in an institutional context that places it in the heart of its educational philosophy, particularly when it becomes an institutionally recognized object. Within the International Baccalaureate (IB), each student must produce a written and individual piece of work entitled “Mathematical Exploration” that should involve an investigation in a field of mathematics.