Designing a simulator in building trades to transform vocational education

Abstract

This chapter reports on a part of a research work included in a more general project aimed at changing vocational education. In the first part, we present the characteristics of a fundamental professional situation in building work that involves conceptualizations of a geometric nature. In the second part, we describe how this situation is first changed in the current teaching process and second in the computer simulation. The main design choices of this simulation are described. Eventually, we provide a specific example of the use of the simulator by students to illustrate how some relationships with space are transformed.