A didactic sequence for teaching the concept of parabola

This paper presents an experience of using didactic theories in mathematics teaching. We approached the concept of parabola, taught in the third year of secondary school, within the content of analytical geometry, based on a teaching sequence. In order to design the activity, we used the concepts of didactic situations and didactic contracts, which come from French mathematics didactics and make up the theoretical framework of didactic engineering, in order to provide a basis for the development of the teaching sequence. As a research methodology, we used the precepts indicated by Didactic Engineering both in the design of the teaching sequence and the application of the activity in the classroom. We have presented the application of prior analysis, a priori analysis and design, and a posteriori analysis and validation within the scope of our work in order to show how the teaching sequence was developed following the steps dictated by the chosen methodology. We chose to develop a teaching sequence for teaching the concept of parabola based on the use of the Geogebra program as an auxiliary tool in the teaching/learning process.