Swiss Journal of Educational Research

De la langue courante à la langue scientifique. Contributions à l’enseignement et à la formation des enseignant·e·s

Alain Pache — 2020-12-23

«It‘s not that easy»: Academic discourse practices in class

Imke Lange — 2020-12-23

The paper deals with the study of language practices in the classroom and focuses on the concept of academic discourse practices. The focus is on selected transliterated sequences from a video study examining teaching practices of academic language support. The analysis shows that teachers, both during phases of whole-class work and individual work, offer pupils to participate actively in academic discourse practices.

Language exchanges to build learning. Under what conditions ?

Elise Vinel — 2020-12-23

Within classes, processes of building knowledge are becoming the norm and are gradually replacing transmissive and frontal pedagogies. Consequently, student-student and teacher-student exchanges are very present in classes, but they are often ambiguous and do not allow all students to think and conceptualize. We thus question the nature of the discourse produced within classes, from the point of view of the learning conditions and possibilities they bring, given the exchange situations implemented by teachers. Our analyses draw on an ongoing research on the teaching of spelling and grammar, and the data collected on this occasion.

Which tools to study how daily language turns into a specific school subject ?

Martine Jaubert — 2020-12-23

School practices often consider language to be transparent. Either they are only interested in the content, regardless of the language forms implemented, or they are only interested in the form, regardless of the content. But this dichotomy is detrimental to learning and particularly affects students who are furthest from the school culture and its language uses, including disciplinary uses. In order to reflect on actual student work with regard to the transformation of concepts and discourse, we focus on enunciative processes during rewriting and their relevance for disciplines. Our work explores the links between language and concepts in the frame of historical and cultural theory. and articulates the contributions of Vygotski (1934/1985) and Bakhtine (1984). In this article we introduce and test some of the tools we use to analyse the work of language and disciplinary enunciative position. To do so, we analyse writings of pupils (11 years old), in sciences and literature, collected in the frame of a research on writing skills. We are specifically looking at a case study of one student (out of 744 in the research) at a rate of four texts per student. These tools extend the notion of writing skills to enunciative position and its evolution during learning.

Language activity in science in primary school: what issues and problems for pupils and teachers?

Joël Bisault — 2020-12-23

This article examines the issues and problems related to the use of the language in science activities in primary school in France. We use four examples of school moments from our previous research in science education to analyse the difficulties encountered by pupils and teachers during language activities in science. We show the ambiguity of certain language tasks as well as the interweaving of scientific and language difficulties. Insufficient consideration of the specific context of each moment and of its cognitive stake can lead to uncertainty in the contract between the pupils and their teacher. The problem lies less in the acquisition of a scientific language than in the acquisition of a scientific use of the language which is distinguished from both other school uses and non-school uses of the language.

Coordinating various semiotic registers: An important issue in learning science

Alaric Kohler — 2020-12-23

In this paper, we raise an issue, and support its importance within learning processes in science education : Students are confronted with a diversity of semiotic registers (daily language, mathematics, schemas, etc.) they are expected to coordinate. Such task may induce situations of misunderstanding, as we attempt to show here with a priori analyses of a few examples drawn from teaching manuals.
This idea is taken as the main hypothesis of a collaborative research, addressed to teachers through a half-baked teaching design focusing on modeling activities for high-school students in Switzerland. This paper only presents an illustrative extract of the results, due to the complexity of the examples and the usual limit in size. The presented analysis illustrates the relevance in ordinary teaching practices, of the issue raised in the a priori analyses, and calls on a more deliberate and explicit use of the coordination of semiotic registers in the construction of a didactic environment and learning science.

Epistemic engineering practices regarding the engineering design process for an interdisciplinary discursive community in compulsory schooling

Patrick Roy — 2020-12-23

This article consists of an epistemological and didactic conceptual reflection on technology education centred on the engineering design process. In order to build a school interdisciplinary discursive community in this field, we invite teachers to teach students six epistemic engineering practices: defining a technical problem, generating and selecting solutions using a systematic and iterative approach, analysing and modelling, experimenting and evaluating, communicating and making decisions. These interdisciplinary discursive practices characterising students’ design thinking are coherent with the sociotechnical practices of reference and play a central role in the development of an authentic technical culture.

Language practices promoting the secondarisation process as part of geography lessons in cycle 2

Alain Pache — 2020-12-23

This article is based on the hypothesis that the concept of secondarisation is particularly fruitful linking language practices and knowledge construction in the context of geography lessons in primary school. Based on a Lesson Study type research-training design, authors show that teaching on the production-consumption chain takes a different form as lessons are repeated. Indeed, the central task changes, the language register becomes clearer and the debate takes on a more important role. The results also show a dissymmetry between the cognitive work of pupils and that of the teacher, which makes it necessary to strengthen teacher training.

Conditions for the Transformation of Investigative Language Practices in School History: An Elementary School Case Study

Sylvain Doussot — 2020-12-23

The article addresses case studies that show students’ abilities to mobilize practices that have to do with those of scientists. Two types of investigations are thus possible in history classes: following documentary criticism procedures to establish truth, or articulating the search for truth by analyzing traces of the past and searching for meaning. We document the conditions of transition from one type of investigation to the other by analyzing a case of autonomous work by pupils at the end of primary school. This case questions the idea that the development of skills would take place through the mastery of rules describing historical thinking, and it highlights the fact that academic skills can help students to go beyond the habits of school discipline.

Language-sensitive history teaching as a task of professionalization

Saskia Handro — 2020-12-23

Language-sensitive historical learning is a concept for the promotion of heterogeneity-sensitive historical skills. Its implementation requires that teachers know about the linguistic problems of historical learning, profile language-sensitive support strategies in a subject-specific manner and consider their use as effective for learning in the subject. Interdisciplinary basic and advanced training offers for language-sensitive teaching should therefore be supplemented by subject-didactic professionalization offers. Thisarticle explains the necessity of didactic professionalization in this field and presents the didactic professionalization concept “ProLeGu” for reading development in history classes and initial findings of the project-related research.

Language across the curriculum – Development perspectives for interdisciplinary subject didactics

Claudia Schmellentin — 2020-12-23

The article presents the concept of the so-called «language-conscious subject teaching» and elaborates it as a central element for the fulfilment of the school’s task of enculturation. In addition, the following development perspectives for subject didactics are presented for discussion. First, the discourse on «language across the curriculum» from the 1970s will be presented. Starting from the importance of language for learning, the function of the school subjects and the associated didactics is discussed with a view to a common enculturation mandate for the acquisition of «basic cultural tools» (Baumert, 2002). The new Swiss-German curriculum «Lehrplan 21» is critically reflected with a view to a spiral curriculum coordinated implementation of language-conscious subject teaching. Finally, possible implications of the concept for the further development of subject didactics will be discussed.

I discover and I do. They show me and I do. How to make priority education students succeed?

Céline Guilmois — 2020-12-23

Recent evaluations of the French education system point to its difficulty in making students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds achieve at school. The aim of this paper is to describe the principles underlying socioconstructivist and explicit teaching in order to understand to what extent their application in the classroom allows priority education students’ school achievement. Mirroring these two types of teaching involves comparing the principles of explicit teaching (Northern American approach) and the so-called «teaching more explicitly» orientation (French approach). This comparison is necessary to help REP and REP+ teachers to understand and to integrate the professional actions expected to increase students’ academic achievement. The practical purpose of this article is to support teachers in choosing their pedagogical strategies according to the needs of their students.

Award and implementation of the measure “compensation for disadvantages” at lower secondary level of the Swiss compulsory school

Caroline Sahli Lozano — 2020-12-23

In the course of school integration efforts, various integrative school measures were introduced in Switzerland. These measures are intended to ensure the best possible school and social development for children and adolescents with special educational needs. So far, hardly any research on this topic has been carried out in Switzerland. This article provides the first key data on the integrative measure “compensation for disadvantages“ at lower secondary level. Based on a survey of school managers in the Canton of Berne, the target group of this measure as well as its allocation and implementation, were were critically discussed against the background of the Swiss legal basis, theoretical considerations and the latest research results.

School climate and teachers’ job satisfaction: a challenge for the quality of "living and working at school together"

Solange Ciavaldini-Cartaut — 2020-12-23

The quality of living and working together in the school environment is an educational and occupational health issue for all school stakeholders. The purpose of this research conducted in France was to determine the influence of school climate on job satisfaction. Data was collected from 50 volunteer teachers working in a regional middle school and high school. The results highlight the impact of the climate of belonging to a school community on the intrinsic and extrinsic components of job satisfaction. Several other factors (age, gender, experience, type of institution) determine a profile of rather dissatisfied teachers. For this school, recommendations are made regarding the school manager’s governance with a view to occupational health.

Girls in higher secondary education: a comparison of the unequal participation of girls in Switzerland in the 20th century

Thomas Werner Ruoss — 2020-12-23

This article presents the development of girls’ participation in higher secondary schools in Switzerland during the 20th century based on comprehensive long-term statistical data. First of all, the large historical differences between Swiss Cantons are presented and three phases of the varying participation of girls in grammar school are derived. Explanations for the differences identified are developed with a view to the structural differentiation of higher secondary education. This allows us to discuss the importance of institutional frameworks for gender differences in schools.

Types of parent-school cooperation and possibilities of parental participation in German-speaking Switzerland: An extensive analysis of cantonal regulations

Caroline Villiger — 2020-12-23

The organization of school-parents cooperation is considered as one of the central domains of today’s school development (Wilder, 2014). This study explores how parent and school cooperation is legally regulated in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and discusses possibilities of parental participation. The qualitative content analysis is based on totally 62 documents from 21 cantons (from the years 2005-2019). Findings indicate that cantonal regulations vary regarding the level of elaboration and types of collaboration. This research presents an overview of the current regulations of parent-school cooperation in the German-speaking cantons for actors in education and provides a sound foundation for school development.

Wannack, E. & Beeli-Zimmermann, S. (Hrsg.) (2020). Der Kindergarten im Fokus: Empirische und pädagogische Einblicke. hep verlag. 125 S.

Lucia Amberg — 2020-12-23

Lorbek, M. (2020). Schulen weiterbauen. Strategische Entwicklung von Schulgebäudebeständen. transcript. 252 S.

Cornelia Dinsleder — 2020-12-23

Niwese, M., Lafont-Terranova, J. & Jaubert, M. (2019). Écrire et faire écrire dans l’enseignement postobligatoire : enjeux, modèles et pratiques innovantes. Presses universitaires du Septentrion. 400 pages.

Matthieu Merhan — 2020-12-23

Barreau, J-M. et Riondet, X (dir.). (2019). Les valeurs en éducation. Transmission, conservation, novation. Éditions universitaires de Lorraine. 305 pages.

Danièle Périsset — 2020-12-23

Hofstetter, R., Droux, J. & Michel, C. (dir.) (2020). Construire la paix par l’éducation : réseaux et mouvements internationaux au XXe siècle. Genève au cœur d’une utopie. Edition Alphil. 344 pages.

Myriam Radhouane — 2020-12-23

Vogler, J. (2019). Professionelle Entscheidungen im Sportunterricht. Eine empirische Untersuchung zum fachdidaktischen Wissen von Lehrpersonen. Springer. 390 S.

Flavio Serino — 2020-12-23

Ria, L. (2019). Former les enseignants. Pour un développement professionnel fondé sur les pratiques de classe. ESF. 248 pages.

Katja Vanini De Carlo — 2020-12-23

Nachwuchsförderpreis der SGBF 2020 an Miriam Compagnoni

Doris Edelmann — 2020-12-23