Doctoral research projects
Winners 2021:
1)Supporting the school-college transition to reinforce fundamental learning: evolution of written production in 9 to 11 year old pupils benefiting from an innovative educational device.
Thesis of Marion Cardinaud under the supervision of Fanny Meunier (CNRS) and Lucie Broc (CNRS).
Summary : An innovative pedagogical device was set up within a reinforced Priority Education Network (REP+) of the city of Nice: Inter-Grade Classes (CID). Within the framework of these classes, teachers from the 1st and 2nd grades collaborate and implement weekly teaching sessions during which pupils from CM1, CM2 and 6ème are grouped and work together. The pedagogical objective of this system is to support the transition from school to collège in order to guarantee, among other things, continuity in the acquisition of basic knowledge, particularly in written production.
The aim of this thesis project is therefore to analyse the evolution of the written production performance of pupils who benefit from CIDs with regard to the specific teaching practices developed throughout Cycle 3. It is based on pragmatic theories of language, since they allow the prediction of a variation of language according to its context of use, and on interactionist theories of development, since they have shownthat repeated interactions between experts (teachers or more advanced students) and novices (less advanced students), and between novices, promote the integration of knowledge first collectively, then individually.
Written skills will be assessed systematically at the beginning and end of the year, throughout Cycle 3, in order to highlight the developmental trajectory of IDA students. At the same time, it is planned to analyse the specific teaching practices developed in the ISCs through the video recording of sessions conducted in cross-curricular areas. The results may make it possible to formulate suggestions for training and support for teachers in the acquisition of fundamental writing skills in a disadvantaged social context and during the period of significant change represented by the transition from school to collège.
2) Citizenship education devices: Design and implementation.
Thesis by Marie-Laure Harmand under the supervision of Thierry Berthet (LEST) Sociology
Abstract: My research project focuses on the design and implementation of citizenship education systems. In France, the latter are part of the transmission of the fundamental knowledge of "respecting others" and constitute a major mission of the school. The question of citizenship is a key issue for any society because the greater or lesser degree of social cohesion that results from it has a direct impact on the level of conflict and tension within it. A shared conception of citizenship makes the world more predictable, less conflictual and, as a result, better protects the individuals belonging to that society. This explains why, beyond national education policy guidelines, citizenship has become a major educational issue on a global scale. For thirty years, and particularly since the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, citizenship education has been encouraged and identified as a key competence for lifelong learning. At the global level, this objective is reaffirmed in the 2015 Incheon Declaration, on the occasion of the World Education Forum. In Quebec, one of the three missions of schools is to socialize students. Thus, on both sides of the Atlantic, the will to implement education for citizenship is present in the devices and programs for students. The acquisition of skills enabling students to become enlightened citizens seems to be a matter of course.
However, in France, this "evidence" becomes less clear when we try to measure its concretization in the daily practice of secondary school teachers. While there is a consensus on citizenship education at all levels of the hierarchy, and itsWhile citizenship education is a consensus at all levels of the hierarchy, and while it is regularly "reactivated" on the political agenda, we are faced with an enigma that this research project aims to solve: how to explain the tacit or explicit resistance of agents in the implementation of citizenship education schemes, even though this constitutes a central mission of the school.
In order to answer this enigma, this research project aims to make a comparative analysis of the French and Quebec education systems in order to identify the levers and obstacles operating in the implementation of citizenship education.This research project aims at answering this enigma through a comparative analysis of the French and Quebec educational systems in order to identify the levers and obstacles operating in the implementation of citizenship education; their impact on the acquisition of fundamental knowledge and on the performance of students.
3) Accompanying the educational success of allophone students newly arrived in France.
Thesis by Luna Russo under the supervision of Virginie Baby-Collin (TELEMME) and Fatina Chnane-Davin (ADEF).
Abstract: School inclusion, defined as "a process of taking into account the diversity of students' needs and responding to them through increased participation in learning" (UNESCO, 2009, p. 14), has become one of the major issues in education. This concept appeared in 20051 in the context of the schooling of pupils with disabilities, and includes - under the general law - all pupils with special educational needs (Éditions de l'éducation et de l'école, 2005).special educational needs (Éduscol, 2021), including newly arrived allophone pupils (EANA). The latter are characterized by two main factors: lack of proficiency in the French language and recent experience of migration. In 2018-19, they accounted for nearly 7 out of every 1,000 pupils enrolled in school in France2 (DEPP, 2020). The major challenge of their first year of schooling in the French system is to learn the French language so that they can be fully included in a regular class. Thus, their care is part of the inclusive school framework, which "aims to ensure quality schooling for all students" (Eduscol, 2021) and reduce social inequalities. In 2012, the creation of Pedagogical Units for Allophone Pupils (UPE2A)3 gives concrete expression to the inclusive policy: "inclusion in regular classes must constitute the main modality of schooling (of EANA)" (Rigoni, 2017, p. 42).
This is a growing population for which arrangements are sometimes created in a hurry and where studies show that teachers are often not specifically trained to receive them (Rigoni, 2020). As students with special educational needs, the implementation of a specific pedagogy of inclusion, orientation and support is necessary.
4)Understanding design activities in the use of digital tools.
Thesis of Yann Vallet under the supervision of Pascal Terrien (CIFRE).
Summary : The thesis is framed by a collaboration (CIFRE grant) between AMPIRIC (with the ANRT), the ADEF laboratory, and the company INTERFORA IFAIP. It questions the use of digital tools, such as virtual reality, and how this use modifies the processes of understanding and pedagogical conceptions among trainers? This research is interested in the epistemology of professional practices (in the phases of conception and use) as well as in the representation of trainers on digital artefacts, in particular on the way they instrumentalise them. The experimentation is based on exchanges and observation of trainers during the design of modules and during teaching situations in different modalities (face-to-face, hybrid and distance learning). This research is part of the theoretical framework of the educational sciences, particularly on the questions of the creative gesture linked to the formative activity. This framework is completed by a multidisciplinary contribution mixing information and communication sciences, digital sciences, but also neurosciences and psychology.
2020 Winners:
1) ANTI-STEREOTYPE: Improving the performance of the child learner through a virtual learning companion that avoids the threat of STEREOTYPE.
Thesis by Marjorie Armando Under the supervision of Magalie Ochs (LIS) and Isabelle Régner (LPC)
Abstract: Several researches in social cognition have shown that the so-called stereotype threat effect hinders students' learning and performance when they are the target of negative stereotypes about their skills, as it is the case for girls in mathematics (Bedyńska et al., 2021; Huguet & Régner, 2007, 2009; Spencer et al., 1999). The present project aims to improve the mathematics learning of secondary school students through a new digital solution that reduces or even neutralizes the perverse effects of these stereotypes on students' cognitive functioning. More precisely, it is a question of testing the effectiveness of virtual learning companions in maths according to whether they embody a model of success with which the students can identify, and whether they establish (or not) a positive socio-emotional relationship with the student (via a convergence of movements and words with the student). An experiment with high school students will allow to evaluate the impact of these companions on learning performance.
2) Pedagogical practice and embodied cognition: the contribution of iconic gesture in vocabulary acquisition and oral comprehension in kindergarten.
Thesis of Anaïs Cauna under the supervision of Marion Tellier (LPL) and Pascale Colé (LPC)
Summary : Reading is one of the fundamental knowledge to acquire during cycle 2 (eduscol.education.fr). Its learning is prepared from kindergarten and vocabulary skills are one of the predictors of its success. However, the latest DEPP survey reports difficulties in oral comprehension among pupils at the start of CP linked to a low level of vocabulary. Given the importance of vocabulary in school learning and in the dynamics of cognitive development, the main objective of this project is to evaluate a pedagogical practice that consists of usingwhich consists in using iconic gestures (illustrating the meaning of the referent) by teachers and their reproduction by students to(Studies 1 & 2) and oral comprehension (Study 3) in children attending primary school and to describe the functional effects with the approach offunctional effects with the embodied cognition approach according to which the functioning of the human mind cannot be dissociated from the body in which it is "embodied". The reproduction of the gesture by the learners should favour the memorization of the vocabulary, allowing a more precise semantic encoding closely connecting the sensory-motor and
conceptual (more abstract) properties of words. In addition, Study 2 will include children from low socio-economic backgrounds for whom delays in oral language development andin particular in vocabulary, have been identified and who constitute children "at risk" for school learning. These studies will be conducted in close collaboration with the teachers who will participate in the design and administration of the studies.
3) Study of the impact of the teaching-learning process on scientific reasoning based on the use of an augmented reality tool, with the aim of improving students' abilities to produce scientific reasoning.
Thesis of Eléna MARTIN under the supervision of Jérémy Castera and Pascale Brandt Pomares (ADEF).
Summary : In France, 21% of the students do not master the scientific skills necessary to cope with everyday life. Access to scientific culture is a key issue in education, whether for the development of students' personal abilities or for access to higher education. Reasoning is one of the five fundamental skills, along with reading, writing, counting and respecting others; producing scientific reasoning is therefore a priority issue assigned to scientific and technological education in primary and secondary schools. In this thesis, we propose to study the impact of an innovative device using augmented reality (AR) on the teaching-learning process of scientific reasoning in 6th grade students.
A control group (15 classes) and an experimental group (15 classes) will be tested over 4 sessions dedicated to the Earth-Sun system and to the characterization of the conditions of terrestrial life in Life and Earth Sciences. A pre-test and a post-test will be carried out to measure their capacity for scientific reasoning. In addition, the experimental group will be further investigated to understand the factors and interactions that may facilitate this reasoning in AR sessions. In this systemic approach, we propose to look at the impact of different teacher approaches and organizations, cognitive load, motivation, and perceived effectiveness of student devices on scientific reasoning. The differences between the experimental and control groups can be evaluated using statistical tests such as ANOVA/MANOVA. The teaching-learning process with AR can be examined through structural equation modelling analyses, thus highlighting the links between the various factors and the acquisition of scientific reasoning.
