This article is concerned with an activity of a pupil engaged in a situated approach to learning. The objective was to describe and understand the classroom activity of a pupil identified as an "internal dropout." (Bonnéry, 2005) A semiotic analysis of his activity (Pierce, 1978) evidenced preoccupations, albeit at a distance, with mathematical tasks. The pupil's point of view reveals a concealed activity to the teacher, partly orientated towards a social dimension of learning in mathematics. This result leads us, in a last part, to question the relevance of the individualistic conception of mathematical learning of this type of pupil.
