Analysis of the effects of group work activities on the teacher's and students' joint action

Author(s):

Brigitte GRUSONCarole Le Henaff

Conference:

ECER 2008

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 06D, Studies of Interaction & Communication

Paper Session

Time:

2008-09-11

10:30-12:00

Room:

B3 334

Chair:

Alison Hudson

Contribution

The teaching and learning of foreign languages, and especially of English, is developing among French young learners. It has recently evolved a lot and has switched from a teacher-centered approach based mostly on a question-answer system to more dynamic interactions. This shift of practices is particularly due to the development of the communicative approach and the task-based approach recommended in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Because language is considered to be indivisible from culture, it implies that the foreign language teacher’s work takes this relation into account. In such circumstances, the setting up of this link in practices raises interesting issues. Our presentation, based on a research conducted among a class of 11 year-old students in 2006, will examine the following statement: It is nowadays commonly admitted that developing cultural knowledge relies on reflection and the capacity to understand and finely appreciate cultural elements. This point of view implies that the implementation, in classes, of cultural contents depends on didactical choices that differ from usual teaching conditions based on the impartment of knowledge by the teacher. In this perspective, cooperative group work is considered as a means to develop the students’ knowledge and competences. However conceiving and implementing group work activities mean that the teacher’s work and role are redefined. Thus in relation to the theme of the conference, our presentation will focus on a group work activity implemented in a CM2 (year 5). The theoretical tools we use are borrowed to two main research fields. The first ones refer to current theories used in research on the didactics of foreign languages and cultures (Aden, 2006). The second set of notions, which we have specified to our work, belongs to the learning theories of mathematics and the comparative approach to didactics. Among them, the two notions of “milieu” and “didactic contract” (Brousseau, 1998; Chevallard, 1988, 1992) represent essential notions for our work. In addition to this, one of our objectives being to observe how knowledge is being built through the joint action of the teacher and the students, we refer to the “joint action” theory produced to describe didactical situations (Sensevy, Mercier & Schubauer-Leoni, 2000; Sensevy & Mercier 2007).

Method

Our methodology is based on fine-grained analyses conducted from the transcriptions and synopses of English lessons reconstructed from video recordings. These analyses are enlightened by the teacher’s commentaries gathered during interviews integrally transcribed. Before examining the situation, we conduct a thorough study of all the documents used by the teacher and the students during the lesson. This epistemic analysis allows us to give an account of what the implications for the teacher can be when he wants his students to build up knowledge. Then, we analyse more precisely significant episodes presenting the actual group work situation and the way the teacher gets the students’ activity started. In doing this, we observe how the task is defined by the teacher and actually understood and carried out by the learners.

Expected Outcomes

Our research has enabled us to bring to light avoidance strategies set up by the students so as not fulfil the entire task. In our presentation we will show that the documents the students had to use did not produce the expected “milieu” so as to make them build their own knowledge and that the students’ relation to the “didactic contract” unbalanced the course of events planned by the teacher. We will also show that the teacher did not manage to give up his traditional role as the person imparting knowledge notwithstanding his will to change his practice through the setting up of group work. Finally, thanks to these elements, we will tackle the way teacher education can contribute to provide teachers with a more accurate perception of the conditions required for group work activity to participate in the building up of the students’ knowledge.

References

- Aden, J. (dir.) (2006). De Babel à la mondialisation. Apports des sciences humaines à la didactique des langues. Actes du colloque ALDIDAC des 11 et 12 mars 2005 à Cergy-Pontoise. Dijon: CRDP de Bourgogne. - Bange, P. (2005). L’apprentissage d’une langue étrangère – Cognition et interaction. Paris : L’Harmattan. - Brousseau, G. (1998). Théorie des Situations didactiques. Grenoble: La pensée sauvage. - Chevallard, Y. (1988). Remarques sur la notion de contrat didactique: l'âge du capitaine, in Deux études sur les notions de contrat et de situation, IREM d'Aix-Marseille. - Chevallard, Y. (1992). Concepts fondamentaux de la didactique : perspectives apportées par une approche anthropologique. Recherches en Didactique des mathématiques, 12, 1, 73-112. Grenoble: La pensée sauvage. - Coste, D. (2002). L’acquisition en classe de langue. Revue AILE (Acquisition et Interaction en Langue Etrangère), 16. St Denis: Association Encrages. - De Pietro, J.-F., Matthey, M. & Py, B. (1989). "Acquisition et contrat didactique: les séquences potentiellement acquisitionnelles dans la conversation exolingue", in: Actes du troisième Colloque Régional de Linguistique. Université des Sciences Humaines, Strasbourg, 99-124 (réédité dans Gajo, L., Matthey, M., - --Moore, D. & Serra, C. [Eds] (2004). Un parcours au contact des langues. Textes de Bernard Py commentés. Paris, Didier, collection LAL). - Gruson, B. (2007). La prise en compte des univers de référence dans les pratiques de classe. In Construction identitaire et altérité : créations curriculaires et didactique des langues. J. Aden (dir.). Paris, Le Manuscrit Université. Actes du colloque national, Cergy-Pontoise, 24-25 mars 2006. 395-422. - Gruson, B (2007). Agir, interagir et rétroagir en anglais: analyse de la pratique d’un professeur de CM2 et de ses élèves lors d’une situation de « pairwork » (2è partie). Carrefours de l'éducation, 23, 39-54. - Gruson, B. (2006). Agir, interagir et rétroagir en anglais: analyse de la pratique d’un professeur de CM2 et de ses élèves lors d’une situation de « pairwork » (1ère partie). Carrefours de l'éducation, 22, 45-57. - Mercier, A., Schubauer-Leoni, M-L. & Sensevy, G. (2002). Vers une didactique comparée. Vers in didactique comparée, Revue Française de pédagogie, 141. Paris: INRP. - Sensevy, G., Mercier, A. & Schubauer-Leoni, M-L. (2000). Vers un modèle de l’action didactique du professeur. A propos de la course à 20. Recherches en Didactique des Mathématiques, 20, 3, 263-304. - Sensevy, G. (2001). Théories de l’action et action du professeur. Théories de l’action et éducation. J-M Baudouin & J. Friedrich (Eds). (pp. 203-224). Bruxelles: De Boeck. - Sensevy, G., Mercier, A., Schubauer-Leoni, M-L., Ligozat & Perrot (2005). An attempt to Model the Teacher’s action in Mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 59 (1-2-3), 153-181.

Author Information

Brigitte GRUSON

IUFM - Université de Bretagne Occidentale

English and Educational Science

Rennes

Carole Le Henaff

CREAD (Centre de Recherche sur l'Education, les Apprentissages et la Didactique)

Educational Science

KERGLOFF

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