RCÉ Vol. 18, No. 1

Transcription

RCÉ Vol. 18, No. 1

Douglas Stewart
Teaching or Facilitating:
A False Dichotomy
Harro Van Brummelen
Effects of Government Funding on Private Schools:
Appraising the Perceptions of Long-term Principles and Teachers
in British Columbia’s Christian Schools
Dennis Raphael
Accountability and Educational Philosophy: Paradigms and Conflicts
in Ontario Education
Colette Deaudelin, Jean Loiselle et Marielle Pratte
L’utilisation pédagogique d’outils informatiques de gestion de données
à l’école primaire
Salah Benyamna, Jacques Désautels et Marie Larochelle
Du concept à la chose: la notion de particule dans les propos d’étudiants
à l’égard de phénomènes physiques
Contents /
Table des matières
Articles
Douglas Stewart
Harro Van Brummelen
Dennis Raphael
Colette Deaudelin,
Jean Loiselle et
Marielle Pratte
Salah Benyamna,
Jacques Désautels et
Marie Larochelle
1 Teaching or Facilitating: A False
Dichotomy
14 Effects of Government Funding on Private
Schools: Appraising the Perceptions of
Long-term Principles and Teachers in
British Columbia’s Christian Schools
29 Accountability and Educational Philosophy:
Paradigms and Conflicts in Ontario
Education
46 L’utilisation pédagogique d’outils
informatiques de gestion de données
à l’école primaire
62 Du concept à la chose: la notion
de particule dans les propos d’étudiants
Review Essay / Essai critique
James Ryan
79 Studying Effective Schools and Districts:
The Problems with Universals and
Uniformity
Book Reviews / Recensions
Janine Hohl
86 Apprendre à vivre ensemble: Immigration,
société et éducation par Jocelyn Berthelot
Eric Mclean
88 La direction des mémoires et des thèses par
Aimée Leduc
Louise Moran
LeRoi B. Daniels
91 Open Learning and Open Management:
Leadership and Integrity in Distance
Education, by Ross H. Paul
93 Reform and Relevance in Schooling:
Dropouts, De-Streaming and the Common
Curriculum, edited by Derek J. Allison &
Jerry Paquette
Teaching or Facilitating: A False Dichotomy*
Douglas Stewart
university of regina
A recent trend suggests teachers should facilitate learning rather than instruct children.
This alarming idea is couched in the slogan “we facilitate learning, we don’t teach.” I
argue that to take the idea seriously is to eclipse the tradition of teaching and push it to
one side, putting at risk the general education of youngsters. I clarify the terms “teaching”
and “facilitating,” and give reasons why the former, not the latter, should be emphasized.
Une tendance récente suggère que les enseignants devraient faciliter l’apprentissage plutôt
que d’enseigner. L’auteur soutient qu’en retenant cette idée inquiétante, on balaie du
revers de la main toute une tradition de l’enseignement et on met en péril l’éducation
générale des jeunes. L’auteur clarifie les deux approches et explique pourquoi la première,
à savoir l’enseignement, devrait être privilégiée.
INTRODUCTION
One of the latest in a litany of educational slogans to play havoc with the
formation of sound theory and practice advances the idea that teachers don’t
teach, they “facilitate learning.” It is an idea that seems to have caught on with
teacher organizations and is taking hold with students in faculties of education.
In Saskatchewan, “facilitating” made its formal appearance in February 1984,
with the publication of Directions, the final report of the Minister’s Advisory
Committee on Curriculum and Instruction Review and a blueprint for provincial
curriculum reform. According to Directions, a mainly child-centred work, the
“role of the teacher is changing from disseminator of knowledge to facilitator of
learning and this changing role should be acknowledged” (Saskatchewan
Education, February 1984, p. 37, italics added). A similar theme is pressed in a
companion report, Saskatchewan Education: Its Programs and Policies (June
1984), which claims that teachers “need to structure the environment and
facilitate learning to provide opportunities for students to engage in
problem-solving and decision-making about what and how they learn” (p. 54).
Pressure has continued to mount for the replacement of teaching by facilitating.
According to a recent study,
Inherent in the supposition of teachers’ lack of knowledge about how students prefer to
learn is a criticism of the teacher/lesson orientation still visible in the education system
*
I am grateful to J.S. Malikail and anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts
of this paper.
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CANADIAN JOURNAL OF EDUCATION
18:1 (1993)
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DOUGLAS STEWART
of Saskatchewan. The change of teacher role to that of a facilitator of learning has not
been fully incorporated. The emphasis is often still on content and the presentation of
content by the teacher rather than on the learning processes of the students. (Campbell,
1991, p. 107)
These are misleading and dangerous ideas for the education of children not
only in Saskatchewan but generally. I argue that the slogan “we facilitate
learning, we don’t teach” (or versions thereof) is based on a serious misconception of teaching and that were teachers to act consistently on the slogan,
children would be educationally deprived or at least in grave risk of such a state.
If my conceptual analysis of the case and overall arguments for a renewed
emphasis on teaching are sound, then there are good reasons why we should
think twice about handing children over to “facilitators” in our schools, and why
faculties of education should think twice about presenting the teacher’s role as
one of facilitating learning rather than of teaching curriculum subjects.
Teaching: A Summary Analysis
Teaching is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition of learning. It is not
a necessary condition since there can be learning without teaching (a person can
learn by reading, observing, or other means); and it is not sufficient since there
can be teaching without learning (I might teach a class but the students not learn
what I teach them). Teaching and learning are thus logically independent. It
would be incorrect to think that if learning occurs there must have been teaching,
or that if there was no teaching there could not have been learning. Of course,
it is true that “we facilitate learning, we don’t teach” is consistent with the
logical independence of these concepts, but that in itself is not sufficient to
justify the slogan nor a good reason to take it seriously. Logical considerations
alone do not give us a full account of what teaching is. To discard or even
minimize teaching in favour of something called “facilitating” on grounds that
teaching is not necessary to learning would be premature indeed.
Although teaching does not entail learning, it does entail the intention to bring
about learning (Scheffler, 1960; Hirst & Peters, 1970; Hellgren, 1985; Pearson,
1989). To teach something to others — for example, to teach a mathematical fact,
a moral value, a motor skill, or a metaphor — is to intend that others learn these
things. Learning is the central “good” at which teaching necessarily aims. Even
when learning is not the result, teaching could still have occurred provided at
least the purpose or aim to have others learn is present. Although learning as an
outcome is not necessary for teaching proper, if the aim to achieve learning is
removed there can be no teaching. There is, then, an important conceptual link
between teaching and learning. Without a reference to “learning,” as embodied
in the intention criterion, we could not have a concept of teaching — or certainly
not a very coherent and recognizable one.
TEACHING OR FACILITATING
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Given this conceptual link and the fact that learning may often follow teaching
(that is, teaching may often be successful), it might be tempting to conclude that
teaching and learning are related in some further way — causally, for example.
Recent work on the teaching-learning relationship has explored the question of
causal linkages (Ericson & Ellett, 1987; Macmillan & Garrison, 1983, 1986;
Pearson, 1989). But we should tread cautiously here. Causal connections hold
between events, not concepts, and occur in empirical, not conceptual, realms. If
there are causal links, these would need to be brought out in concrete instances
of the concepts in which episodes of teaching (cause) regularly lead to instances
of learning (effect). Since experience cannot confirm what is not logically
possible, and since teaching does not entail learning, instances of teaching cannot
be said to guarantee instances of learning. Teaching (by itself) is not the cause
of learning in the sense of being an empirically sufficient condition for it. That
would be too stringent a test. It would also put in limbo the idea that students
must take some responsibility for learning what they are taught. As others have
pointed out, however, “sufficient causes are only one type of causal relation,” so
that if teaching is not an empirically sufficient condition of learning, it would
“not preclude that teaching and learning are causally related in another way”
(Pearson, 1989, p. 83). Without going into details of a rather complex argument,
it can been seen that teaching is factually or empirically related to learning at
least as a “partial cause” (Pearson, 1989, p. 85) or “causal factor” (Hare, 1990,
p. 201), even though teaching is not always sufficient and is not necessary to
bring about learning.
I have briefly advanced these conceptual and empirical claims to offset in part
the criticism, often made by proponents of facilitating, that teaching is not a
learner-centred activity. Just where critics think the “centre” of teaching actually
lies is not clear, but, since (as I have outlined) the essential purpose of teaching
is to bring about learning in others, and since it can be a causal factor in the
achievement of learning, there can be little doubt as to the confusion from which
such criticism must stem. Teaching is obviously more prominent in learning than
enthusiasts of facilitating are generally willing to concede. Yet, an intention to
achieve learning in others does not in itself do full justice to “teaching” as a
learner-centred activity. The CBC’s Peter Mansbridge and Pamela Wallin (let us
suppose) certainly intend their viewers to learn what they report in the nightly
news, but we do not say they are teaching. Further differentia of “teaching” can
certainly be appealed to, criteria that even strengthen its learner-centred emphasis — for example, that the intended content be first indicated to learners and that
it fall within range of their capabilities (Hirst & Peters, 1970). But it is obvious
that Mansbridge and Wallin can satisfy these additional criteria without much
difficulty.
The distinction we seek between teaching (at least in the context of schooling)
and other activities like news broadcasting lies primarily in the types of learning
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DOUGLAS STEWART
at which they respectively aim. We teach children so they will learn basic
cognitive skills (how to read, write, calculate, estimate) and basic moral-social
dispositions (to be kind, considerate, fair-minded, honest), and with the intent
that they develop an understanding of the reasons why of things (why seasons
change, why famines or revolutions occur, why nations go to war). The purpose
of a news telecast, on the other hand, is to inform people of major events and
happenings in the world, not to develop viewers’ cognitive skills, moral
dispositions, or wider forms of understanding (except, perhaps, incidentally). The
learning objectives associated with teaching are generally more complex and in
some cases more fundamental than those typically associated with news
reporting. Moreover, there can be little doubt that of the two processes, reading
the news from a prepared text and teaching, the latter is easily the more difficult
and complex. In fact, the idea that teaching incorporates a family of activities
guided by an overall aim to achieve learning of certain kinds is critical to the
case against featuring the teacher as “facilitator.”
Activities of Teaching
Analysts (Green, 1971; Hellgren, 1985; Komisar, 1969) have drawn attention to
an important distinction between the intellectual (or logical) acts of teaching
(e.g., explaining, defining, justifying, demonstrating, comparing, questioning,
probing, inferring, concluding, interpreting, illustrating, and proving), and the
strategic acts of teaching (e.g., motivating, planning, encouraging, guiding,
counselling, and disciplining). At the core of teaching are the intellectual acts.
Teaching a motor skill, for example, involves explaining and illustrating the
critical aspects of the skill, and demonstrating it by performance. Teaching a
metaphor involves acts of defining, illustrating, and interpreting. Questioning may
be present in both cases; and so on. The intellectual acts of teaching thus
criss-cross and overlap in a variety of combinations depending on the nature and
complexity of what is taught. The strategic acts, on the other hand, are secondary
to the teaching enterprise in the sense to which Hellgren (1985) has alluded. He
argues that what is most distinctive about these acts is their concern to expedite
or to improve the external practical conditions that make the occurrence of
learning more likely, and he concludes (correctly) that strategic acts are therefore
“subsidiary” to teaching proper (p. 54). In performing just the strategic acts a
person would not actually be teaching, although any episode of teaching would
normally incorporate such acts, along with intellectual acts — for instance, the use
of humour or anecdote at critical points in one’s teaching to heighten student
interest in a topic. Strategic and intellectual acts can be further differentiated by
reference to the general kinds of knowledge each entails — a (psychological)
knowledge of human behaviour, motivation, and learning styles for strategic acts;
a (logical) knowledge concerned with the laws of human thought and ways of
knowing for intellectual acts — and by the fact that the former but not the latter
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are evaluated chiefly by their consequences or outcomes for learning (Green,
1971, p. 7).
According to Green (1971), both types of acts are “indispensable to the
conduct of teaching whenever and wherever it is found,” and the absence of
either “would count heavily [strongly] against the view that teaching was going
on” (p. 6). This seems to make the intellectual and strategic acts necessary not
only for the conduct of teaching, but for the concept as well. On the first point,
that intellectual acts are necessary for the concept and the practice of teaching,
Green is surely right. But he is mistaken in thinking that strategic acts are
necessary for the concept of teaching (though they may have a bearing on the
conceptual issue). That would make learning outcomes part of what “teaching”
means, which, according to the analysis of the concept, is not the case. Teaching
(as a task) does not entail learning, and cannot, therefore, be evaluated strictly
in terms of learning results. “Bad” teaching implies (at least) that the intellectual
acts were incompetently performed, not that “learning did not occur” (learning
may result even when teaching is “bad”). If strategic acts have value or a place
in the wider enterprise of teaching, it is not because they are conceptually
necessary to the latter. Their relation to the occurrence of learning is more
indirect, mediated as it were through material and social conditions that enhance
the achievement of learning or through modifying external environments that
might otherwise make learning more difficult.
One further type of teaching act has not, with few exceptions (see
Fenstermacher, 1990; Sirotnik, 1990), received the attention it deserves. I refer
to the “moral acts” of teaching, such as exemplifying honesty and fairness in
attempting to bring about learning in others; being considerate of others’ views
while at the same time being diligent about matters of truth, evidence, and
argument; showing active concern for standards implicit in the disciplines of
thought, and so on. The moral acts of teaching are important for two reasons.
“Good” teaching is defined in part by reference to them, and, given the intention
to have students emulate the virtues displayed in teaching, the moral acts of
teaching are themselves among the acts of moral formation.
FACILITATING: SKETCH OF A CONCEPT
According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary (8th ed.), “to facilitate” is to make
something less difficult or easier to achieve. Wearing proper boots facilitates
mountain-hiking by making the ascent not quite as arduous; using a sharp knife
facilitates carving by making a cleaner cut. But what is it to facilitate learning?
Is it simply to provide a well-lit and pleasant classroom, or one free of
interruptions, or to ensure that children come to school properly fed and rested?
We may distinguish here between facilitating conditions and empirically
necessary conditions for the achievement of learning. A facilitating condition
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DOUGLAS STEWART
enhances the occurrence of learning but is one whose absence would not make
it impossible, only more difficult. By contrast, an empirically necessary condition
for learning is one whose absence would actually prevent learning’s occurrence.
A well-lit and pleasant classroom, or one free of interruption, is a facilitating
condition, since it would favour the achievement of learning. If such conditions
were absent, learning woud be more difficult, but certainly not impossible. On
the other hand, children coming to school fed and rested is a necessary, not a
facilitating, condition, since lack of food and sleep would seem to thwart the
occurrence of learning altogether. In the standard sense of the term, then, to
“facilitate learning” is to provide or to arrange a set of external material
conditions or social circumstances that make learning easier but whose absence
would not prevent it from being achieved. The following modest list of strategies
is illustrative of facilitating conditions: displaying various curriculum or other
related materials in the classroom; constructing activity centres; making oneself
accessible to students, advising them about projects — how students might get
started and might proceed; establishing co-operative learning groups or other
social contexts that favour problem-solving approaches and (or) discovery
learning; setting individual or group learning contracts; having students access
information for themselves or use resources on their own; offering words of
encouragement, inspiration, praise, or caution, and so on.
Based on this first level of analysis we may conclude that “facilitating
learning” is a strategic act of teaching. It is at home with such activities as
motivating, guiding, and counselling rather than those of defining, justifying,
inferring, and so on. Like other strategic acts, it must be subsidiary to teaching
proper. One who is “facilitating” learning is understood as not engaged in actual
teaching. For those who champion the slogan, however, there is more at stake
than what is entailed by the descriptive use of “facilitate learning.” As Scheffler
(1960, chaps. 1 and 2) has pointed out, when key expressions are programmatically defined — that is, express a choice of program or course of action — and are
then embedded in a slogan they become rallying symbols for educational
movements that are often controversial. “We facilitate learning, we don’t teach”
is no exception. It rallies support for a favoured but problematic principle of
child-centred education: that children ought to choose their own learning. It is
based on the normative assumption that what children should learn be in
accordance with their nature, and on the empirical claim that their choices
faithfully embody that nature. The intent of the slogan is precisely to free
children from adults’ instruction and intervention, from what is seen to be an
unnecessary and unhelpful preoccupation with instruction, and to give children
latitude to manage their own learning independently. It is thus a hand-maiden to
child-centred principles. The slogan also urges teachers to accept the marginalization of teaching and its traditions, and to see this as a “natural” and
desirable progression of their professional role to one more sensitive to learners’
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interests and learning styles. To remove the “tedium” of teacher-determined
learning, facilitating strategies are designed primarily to make learning less
demanding, more fun, and ostensibly more significant.
It should not come as any surprise that teachers might find the idea of
“facilitating” attractive. Yet the reasons for its appeal need to be scrutinized more
closely. It can be argued, for example, that to facilitate learning is important
because it represents a more humane approach to take with children than does
teaching. As we have seen, “facilitating learning” refers to a non-interventionist
strategy that is largely about teachers backing off, freeing children from the
“imposition” of instruction and respecting their individual “autonomy.” Yet if the
activities of teaching are basically rational and moral in kind, then teaching itself
has a strong claim to being “humane.” Nor is teaching at odds with the idea of
developing students’ individual autonomy. Particular instances of authoritarian
or heavy-handed teaching should not be allowed to confuse the issue or jaundice
the conception of what teaching is. Second, it might be argued that facilitating
strategies more actively engage childrens’ minds than do acts of teaching, and
consequently “facilitated” learning is superior to any learning that results from
teaching. There may be elements of truth to the first part of this claim, although
I would point out that the intellectual acts of teaching, and in particular those of
questioning, probing, illustrating, comparing, and explaining, are intrinsically
mind-engaging. Moreover, if “facilitating” is just a euphemism for “children
learning on their own with minimal intervention by the teacher,” then at least for
the earlier and more critical stages of schooling, and given the limited experience
and maturity of children coupled with the low profile of teachers in their role as
facilitator, only fairly minimal and simplistic kinds of learning can reasonably be
expected. Claims for the qualitative superiority of learning that is “facilitated”
should be treated with a healthy skepticism. There is, thirdly, the knowledgeexplosion argument. It is based on the idea that knowledge and information
taught in school is quickly “dated” and that there is no point in continuing to
teach it. The argument concludes that what best aid students to cope effectively
with a rapidly changing world are strategies that facilitate problem-solving and
learning by discovery. But aspects of this line of thought are troublesome too.
It downplays the central value of substantive knowledge in favour of processes
and procedures, and of the need for a judicious selection of knowledge in the
general education of children. It fails as well to recognize that areas at the core
of knowledge, with which schools ought to be primarily concerned (as I shall
argue presently), are remarkably stable and not easily susceptible of becoming
“dated.” A fourth but seldom-acknowledged reason for the attraction of
“facilitating” is the relative ease with which it can be done. Psychologically,
facilitating is (arguably) less stressful since one is not consistently in “front” of
students as one is who teaches; and intellectually demanding since it requires
neither the logical acts of teaching nor the same degree of knowledge and
understanding of subject areas and their wider epistemological frameworks.
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DOUGLAS STEWART
AGAINST FACILITATING
I shall establish two lines of critical argument here. According to the first and
shorter, the facilitating movement (as embodied in the slogan) trades on a
conception of teaching that is narrow and skewed. Teaching is characterized
pejoratively as the act of direct “telling” or “imparting” facts to children
(invariably described as passive and indifferent recipients), or as the act of
“dispensing,” “transmitting” or “disseminating” knowledge (see Saskatchewan
Education, February 1984), as if knowledge were all of a piece and to be handed
out as a block. Small wonder that children might find such prospects tedious.
This one-sided view, present in child-centred literature, sees teaching as a relic
of the past. There is much to be criticized in such literature. It often appeals to
undeniably grim instances of deadening or insensitive teaching from the history
of schooling, then proceeds to offer these as standard or received accounts of
teaching. This is surely a case of attacking “straw men.” No solid base is
provided for the slogan to condemn teaching nor valid premises for it to uphold
facilitating. What is carelessly overlooked by such literature, as well as by those
who would dispose of teaching if they could, are precisely the essential features
already discussed. Teaching is not restricted in its intent to achieve learning of
only one kind. Learning beliefs, skills, rules, and (possibly) attitudes, as well as
concepts, theories, and knowledge of different kinds can all equally be aims of
teaching. There is too the critically related point illustrated at length earlier that
teaching is “polymorphous” (Hirst, 1973; Senchuk, 1984); that is, it takes many
different forms, and is thus improperly conceptualized as limited to essentially
one type of activity such as “telling.” Telling is of course an important logical
act of teaching. To tell children basic facts in mathematics, science, language,
history, geography, or morals is virtually inescapable, and it is an efficient means
of helping them learn at lower levels what is necessary for learning at more
advanced levels of schooling. Yet “telling” is but one of many activities of
teaching and cannot begin to capture the richness of the concept. Reduction of
teaching to a single, linear act is evidence of conceptual muddle.
The second argument concludes that the policy to “facilitate learning rather
than teach” puts at risk the education of children. Behind this claim lies a view
of what schools are for and how their goals are to be achieved. If we did not
object to students learning very little of value in school, or if we thought the
main reason for school was to entertain children or to keep them off the streets,
then having adults as facilitators might be a splendid idea. But this is not what
schools are for.
The primary and certainly most demanding goal of schooling is education,
which (roughly) is the development of mind or consciousness through the
achievement of various kinds of knowledge and understanding (Peters, 1977).
The more knowledge and understanding, the more mind one has to discern what
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is presented to it, and consequently the more fully a person one is. Thus
education, and schooling, to the extent that education is its primary goal, are
fundamentally about empowering learners to better discern and comprehend what
is in the world and to respond intelligently and sensitively to it. Schooling must
therefore be centrally concerned with the growth of childrens’ intellectual
capacities. Remove the development of cognition and there can be little advance
in critical areas of social or emotional growth either (Peters, 1974). Schools have
(of course) other important purposes, notably the achievement of moral
dispositions and of an ability and willingness to relate well to others; basic
preparation for citizenship in a democracy; and achievement of physical health
and fitness and responsible attitudes towards care of the human body. Yet the
achievement of greater awareness through knowledge and understanding remains
the critical mission overall. Cognitive development underpins the moral, social,
and health purposes of schooling and is at the core of the goal to educate.
Such goals are not easily or quickly accomplished. A command of language
is absolutely critical to conceptual and personal development, yet our record on
language competence is not what it should be. Were teachers to adopt a
facilitating mode in place of the activities of teaching the situation would be
worse. Language arts is one area of curriculum where teachers can ill afford to
shy away from acts of direct telling and explaining the basic language facts and
skills, let alone from demonstrating such skills and setting examples of correct
language use for children to emulate. In the second place, the basic “forms of
understanding” or “ways of knowing” — identified in recent formulations as the
scientific, mathematical, social-historical, aesthetic, moral, and religious (see
Hirst, 1974; Reid, 1986) — are central to education and the development of
consciousness of the world. At the same time they are enormously complex
conceptual structures and not immediately or directly accessible to young
learners. This raises serious questions about the means by which children are
initiated into the basic ways of knowing. Given what schools are for and in
particular their primary purpose, I contend that teaching, not facilitating, is what
needs to be at the forefront. Why is this?
Three distinct types of concept are relevant to achievement of a general
education and to how the forms of understanding are developed in children
(Dearden, 1968, chap. 6). Perceptual concepts, among the very first that they
learn and that help bring order and sense into their everyday experience, are
concepts of common physical objects and properties, such as dog, flower, tree,
bird, stone, hot, rough, loud, sticky, and heavy. Practical concepts are also
concepts of physical objects but with the difference that to understand them one
must grasp what people do with objects or what they use them for (Dearden, p.
112). To have a concept of table, chair, pillow, car, clock, coat, telephone, or
street is to recognize how these function in forms of social life. Even before they
start school, most children have quite a number of perceptual and practical
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DOUGLAS STEWART
concepts to discriminate among and relate many things they encounter daily, if
in a limited or rather superficial way. Since perceptual and practical concepts are
commonly learned through social contact and interaction outside formal
instruction, it might be thought that facilitating strategies best suit such learning.
This is not entirely persuasive, however, given that the formal acts of pointing,
illustrating, or instantiating by someone already in possession of the concepts
would seem to be necessary even in the informal social settings of concept
learning. Yet it is also possible that a facilitating strategy such as the
co-operative learning group can provide a useful context for children, clarifying
and expanding the repertoire of their perceptual and practical concepts, provided
this is not redundant of everyday learning experiences and therefore wasteful of
school time.
Perceptual and practical concepts play a less critical role in the development
of human consciousness and understanding than do theoretical concepts. This
third type is integral to the basic forms or traditions of thought. To understand
a theoretical concept entails understanding some relevant body of theory.
Theoretical concepts “organize in highly systematic ways our ordinary ‘common
sense’ experience, and in so doing greatly increase our intellectual understanding
of it” (Dearden, 1968, p. 116, italics added). To see that a fossil, for example,
is more than just a pattern of markings on a stone, that a lunar eclipse is more
than a blocking of the moon’s light, a graph more than a series of lines on paper,
acts of chivalry or of oppression more than overt human movements, it is
necessary to move beyond the limited perceptual level of understanding to grasp
each of these notions in their relationship to wider, more elaborate and
sophisticated theoretical frameworks (Dearden, pp. 116–117). For “fossil,” that
framework consists of principles of biological evolution; for “lunar eclipse,”
principles of the solar system; “graph,” mathematical functions; “chivalry,”
Medieval life; and “oppression,” principles of morality and interpersonal
knowing.
Theoretical or conceptual frameworks do not lie about waiting to rush sensibly
and coherently into untutored minds of children, nor are they readily mastered
in some random and off-hand manner. These systems of thought are manifestly
discontinuous with everyday experience. They are “strange” to children and
represent major breaks with their familiar physical and social worlds, breaks
nonetheless critical to the growth of cognition and understanding (Flodden,
Buchmann, & Schwille, 1987). That young learners could initiate themselves
independently into this necessarily complex and unfamiliar territory, or could
single-handedly achieve even modest scientific, mathematical, historical,
aesthetic, or moral perspectives of the world by means of activity centres,
co-operative learning groups, or individual learning contracts where teachers take
only a peripheral part — unless, of course, a good deal of relevant teaching and
learning had already been accomplished — is a profound delusion and clearly a
recipe for “educational” disaster.
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Where theoretical concepts are concerned, and therefore greater awareness of
the world, the intellectual acts of teaching need to be fully and systematically
engaged at least at critical points. Mathematical conclusions have first to be
“demonstrated” and “proved” according to principles of deduction by someone
in-the-know to help others with less knowledge and experience get the “hang”
of mathematically reasoning; natural phenomena must first be “identified,”
“illustrated,” and “explained” in light of scientific laws and principles; moral
judgments and actions “justified” in contexts of moral principles and relevant
facts; works “interpreted” in light of aesthetic criteria; political or social
movements “probed” and “explained” in terms of human aims, purposes, and
emotions; and so on. How such objectives might be achieved systematically and
meaningfully in the absence of informed and dedicated instruction by those
already “inside” the forms of understanding, armed with the intellectual and
moral acts of teaching, is unclear.
CONCLUSION
If much of the school curriculum can simply be “facilitated” — that is, if what
students are expected to learn at school is already more or less familiar to them
from everyday experience, or is easy and straightforward enough to be grasped
independently with only a facilitator standing by — then for “educational”
purposes we have a bad curriculum, one that should be discarded. Parents should
be outraged if the learning their children are required to do is not strange to them
and does not challenge them, and if this learning does not require the activities
of teaching. What reasons could possibly justify a school property tax out of
which teachers are hired and pedagogical materials purchased; or a law, no less,
that compels youngsters to attend school day in and day out, if their time is
squandered on the familiar, the trivial, or the easy? Unless in the schooling
process youngsters are taught the more complex factual and conceptual material
necessary for their “education” and growth as persons, compulsory schooling is
an economic and moral outrage.
To the extent that “we facilitate learning, we don’t teach” opposes the
intervention of teaching in any significant and sustained sense, facilitating per se
is manifestly not what we need in our schools. It has a role, to be sure, but it is
secondary to actual teaching and should be firmly kept in that perspective.
Problems are created when, on the basis of either-or reasoning, facilitating is
happily taken to extremes and teaching pushed to one side, if not over the edge,
on trumped-up charges that it is outdated, useless, heavy-handed, authoritarian,
or whatever. It is not nearly enough that we have teachers who care about
children and are skilled at creating amicable learning environments. The time has
come for a renewed understanding and dedication to teaching and its activities,
and to a knowledge and understanding — both logical, in the sense of having at
least a moderate comprehension of the basic disciplines of thought relevant to
12
DOUGLAS STEWART
schooling and its purposes, and psychological in the sense of knowing about
children and their ways of learning — that teachers need in order to teach
worthwhile learning competently.
Canadian universities have recently been criticized (for different reasons) for
not giving sufficient attention to teaching (Smith, 1991). It would be a tragic
irony, and worse, were teachers in Canadian schools to give it too little, foolishly
thinking there is a greater and more urgent value in “facilitating learning” than
in actual teaching.
REFERENCES
Campbell, M. (1991). Teachers’ perceptions of learning styles and teaching strategies in relation to
children of Indian ancestry. Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Regina.
Dearden, R.F. (1968). The philosophy of primary education: An introduction. London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul.
Ericson, D.P., & Ellett, F.S. (1987). Teacher accountability and the causal theory of teaching.
Educational Theory, 37, 277–293.
Fenstermacher, G.D. (1990). Some moral considerations on teaching as a profession. In J. Goodlad,
R. Soder, & K. Sirotnik (Eds.), The moral dimensions of teaching (pp. 130–151). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
Flodden, R., Buchmann, M., & Schwille, J. (1987). Breaking with everyday experience. Teacher’s
College Record, 88, 485–506.
Green, T. (1971). The activities of teaching. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Hare, W. (1990). Teaching: Nature, norm and numbers. In E.O. Miranda & R.F. Magsino (Eds.),
Teaching, schools and society (pp. 195–213). London: The Falmer Press.
Hellgren, P. (1985). Teaching: A social concept (Research Report No. 36). Helsinki: University of
Helsinki, Department of Teacher Education.
Hirst, P. (1973). What is teaching? In R.S. Peters (Ed.), The philosophy of education (pp. 163–177).
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hirst, P.H. (1974). Knowledge and the curriculum: A collection of philosophical papers. London:
Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Hirst P.H., & Peters, R.S. (1970). The logic of education. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Komisar, P. (1969). Teaching: Act and enterprise. In C.J.B. Macmillan & T. Nelson (Eds.), Concepts
of teaching: Philosophical essays (pp. 63–88). Chicago: Rand McNally.
Macmillan, C.J.B., & Garrison, J. (1983). An erotetic concept of teaching. Educational Theory, 33,
157–166.
Macmillan, C.J.B., & Garrison, J. (1986). Erotetics revisited. Educational Theory, 36, 335–361.
Pearson, A. (1989). The teacher: Theory and practice in teacher education. New York: Routledge
and Kegan Paul.
Peters, R.S. (1974). Psychology and ethical development. London: Allen and Unwin.
Peters, R.S. (1977). Education and the education of teachers. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Reid, L.A. (1986). Ways of understanding and education. London: Heinemann Educational Books.
13
Saskatchewan Education. (1984, February). Directions: The final report of the Minister’s Advisory
Committee on Curriculum and Instruction Review. Regina: Saskatchewan Education.
Saskatchewan Education. (1984, June). Saskatchewan education: Its programs and policies. Regina:
Saskatchewan Education.
Scheffler, I. (1960). The language of education. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Senchuk, D. (1984). The polymorphous character of teaching. Educational Theory, 34, 183–192.
Sirotnik, K. (1990). Society, schooling, teaching and preparing to teach. In J. Goodlad, R. Soder, &
K. Sirotnik (Eds.), The moral dimensions of teaching (pp. 296–327). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Smith, S. (1991). Commission of inquiry into university education. Ottawa: Association of
Universities and Colleges of Canada.
Douglas Stewart is in the Faculty of Education, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, S4S
0A2.
The Effects of Government Funding on
Private Schools: Appraising the Perceptions
of Long-term Principals and Teachers in
British Columbia’s Christian Schools
Harro Van Brummelen
trinity western university
An increasing proportion of Canadian parents enrol children in private schools. This study
evaluates the changes long-term principals and teachers of the largest organization of
Christian schools in British Columbia perceive to have occurred since partial public
funding began in 1977. Funding has been a factor in salaries, resources, and program
diversity. Some schools have implemented distinctive approaches based on a religious and
educational vision; others have accepted government policies and public school programs
with little critical analysis. The data suggest that a school may maintain its educational
distinctiveness, but only as long as and to the extent that (1) its leaders continue to have
a compelling educational mission shared by a cohesive supporting community, and (2)
funding authorities continue to countenance the schools as true alternatives.
De plus en plus de parents canadiens inscrivent leurs enfants dans des écoles privées.
Cette étude évalue les changements que les directeurs d’école et les enseignants de longue
date des principales écoles chrétiennes de la Colombie-Britannique ont remarqués depuis
le début du financement partiel des écoles privés par le gouvernement en 1977. L’octroi
de subventions a eu un effet sur les salaires, les ressources et la diversité des programmes.
Certaines écoles ont mis en place des approches particulières fondées sur une vision
religieuse et pédagogique; d’autres ont accepté les politiques gouvernementales et les
programmes des écoles publiques en faisant peu d’analyse critique. Les données colligées
donnent à penser qu’une école peut maintenir son caractère distinctif, mais seulement dans
la mesure où (1) ses directeurs continuent à se donner une mission éducative claire,
partagée par une communauté homogène et que (2) les instances assurant le financement
continuent à accepter ces écoles comme des solutions de rechange valables.
During the past decade, a rising proportion of parents have enrolled their children
in private or independent schools in all Canadian provinces except the Atlantic
ones.1 As elsewhere in the industrialized world, this trend has revived the debate
about the desirability of government funding of non-public educational alternatives.2 In British Columbia, which this study emphasized, the proportion of students attending independent schools increased from 4.3 to 7.2 percent between
1977 and 1990, partly because of government funding.3
A medley of provincial policies have resulted from the funding debates.
Saskatchewan and Quebec have provided funding for many years, mainly at
secondary level, whereas Alberta (1967), British Columbia (1977), and Manitoba
14
18:1 (1993)
GOVERNMENT FUNDING AND B.C.’S CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
15
(1978) offer funding for both elementary and secondary schools. Ontario has not
acted on the 1985 Shapiro Commission’s recommendation that private schools
receive grants upon association with a public school board. Jewish and Calvinist
Christian schools launched a court action in 1991 to challenge Ontario’s right to
fund only one religiously-based school system, viz., the separate Catholic
schools.4
Do government policies increasingly constrict independent schools? Do the
schools toe the line to retain funding? Does closer contact with the public sector
lead to conformity? Or does funding bolster the schools’ distinctiveness through
more careful planning and supervision? Previous research has emphasized the
effects of funding on private school policies. I, on the other hand, have been
interested in the internal operations of the schools.
This study analyzes the perceptions of long-term principals and teachers about
changes between 1977 and 1991 in schools belonging to the Society of Christian
Schools in B.C. (hereafter, SCS-BC). As a founding member of B.C.’s Federation of Independent School Associations, the SCS-BC lobbied vigorously to
obtain government funding.5 It sees the government’s educational role as
confined to equitable funding and to ensuring schools provide a responsible level
of education in a safe and secure setting.6
This paper, then, investigates and evaluates how long-term staff members
perceive the effects of government funding on the operations and programs of
SCS-BC schools since 1977.
GOVERNMENT FUNDING OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
British Columbia’s 1977 Independent School Support Act recognized two groups
of funded schools: (1) those with adequate facilities that do not promote racial
or religious intolerance or social change through violent means (eligible for a
subsidy equivalent to 9 percent of public school per-pupil operational costs); and
(2) those that, in addition, hire certificated teachers, allow evaluation teams to
assess their administration and programs, and participate in provincial student
assessment programs (eligible for 30 percent funding). The funding levels were
subsequently raised to 10 percent and a maximum of 50 percent, respectively,
with the eligibility period for funding reduced from five years to one year of
operation.
The Ministry of Education has since made its bureaucratic presence felt in
British Columbia’s independent schools. Schools funded at the higher level —
including all SCS-BC ones — must show annually that they meet teaching time,
course content, and teacher certification stipulations. Evaluation teams assess
each school thoroughly, usually once every four years. Some Ministry officials
assume, perhaps unthinkingly, that new general policies should apply to both
public and independent schools. Thus a 1989 mission statement was to apply to
16
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
“everyone involved in education in our province” — despite objections from some
independent schools.7 Moreover, as Barman has pointed out, private schools
implicitly commit themselves to future government regulations, since ongoing
dependence on funding, especially at the maximum 50-percent level, severely
limits — if not blocks — continued operation without government grants.8
PREVIOUS RESEARCH
In the Netherlands, the government has fully funded non-public schools since the
1920s. Unlike in the United Kingdom and Australia, social class did not account
for the establishment of Dutch private schools; religious values did. Schools offer
required subjects a specified number of hours per year, hire qualified teachers
(paid directly by the state), and administer uniform government exams.9
Although free to develop their own programs, most Dutch schools are uniform
in structure, curriculum, and pedagogy. Exceptions are religious instruction, the
interpretation of history and literature in church-related schools, and the
methodology of Montessori and Waldorf schools. The schools’ homogeneity is
mostly voluntary.10 Significantly, the publication of distinctive programs and
textbooks for Dutch Christian schools reached a peak in the decade before full
government funding.11
The French government implemented modest support for private schools in
1951, assuming most of their operating costs eight years later. Private schools
had to conform almost completely with public education programs. Their admissions policies had to be open and the conduct of classes was to be secular. As
a consequence, few parents enrol children in Catholic schools for religious
reasons. Private schools today offer academic, moral, or social security, rather
than religious or educational distinctiveness. Their lack of determination to
preserve religious singularity led French private schools quickly to become
quasi-state schools, often functioning to segregate the social classes.12
Australia has provided comprehensive aid to private schools since 1964. This
subsidy averages more than 50 percent of operating costs.13 The schools’
graduates do well at compulsory government school leaving examinations, with
a disproportionate number obtaining placement in post-secondary institutions.14
The Labour Party government’s attempt to cut funding to wealthy private schools
in the mid-1980s foundered in the face of a strong coalition of leading citizens
and Catholic bishops.15 Private schools are not closely regulated. Yet state
examinations, whose results yield upper-middle–class support for private schools,
establish government control over curriculum.
In British Columbia, Donald Erickson headed a team between 1978 and 1984
investigating the consequences of funding independent schools.16 Erickson
concluded that typical independent schools became more like their public
counterparts in seeking provincial authorities’ approval. Hence, he claimed,
schools became less responsive to parents and ceased to be close-knit com-
17
munities where commitment to special goals and to each other made education
effective.17 Erickson’s conclusions were based on a comparison of 1978 and 1980
survey results, unrepresentative in sampling and with a truncated time-span.
Moreover, Erickson’s unpublished 1984 follow-up study showed his previous
conclusions were untenable for Catholic and evangelical/Calvinist Christian
schools. Government funding had resulted, for instance, in expanded programs
and more parent involvement and enthusiasm. SCS-BC schools had undertaken
substantial and unique curriculum initiatives, and Erickson expressed surprise that
randomly-chosen parents could convincingly specify how the curriculum could
and should embody a Christian life view — and all the while remain perceptive
and critical of government influence.18
To draw general conclusions about the consequences of government funding
for non-public schools is difficult. The political debate leading up to funding, the
initial regulations accompanying funding, the proportion of the operating cost
covered by funding, the determination of the supporting communities to maintain
unique educational alternatives, the social milieu and educational context of the
schools — all help to account for the consequences. In British Columbia, research
has not yet convincingly unravelled these factors. In choosing to consider
“Christian” schools, I have been guided both by comparative methodological
considerations (the Dutch, Australian, and French examples), and by the current
stage of development of research on private schooling in Canada. In this study,
I had the possibility of “controlling” for two “variables”: politics and religion.
Later research on secular private schools will perhaps deal with other variables.
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND OF SCS–BC SCHOOL COMMUNITIES
The Society of Christian Schools in B.C. comprised locally-controlled schools
that grew from 2,494 students in 22 schools in 1977/78 to 7,479 students in 45
schools in 1990/91. In 1991, it embodied 20 percent of B.C.’s funded private
school enrolment.20 Although today its member schools include diverse Protestant
church groups, SCS-BC was founded by Dutch Calvinist immigrants. Three-quarters of sixty-five long-term principals and teachers in this study had this
background.
The Dutch Calvinists who came to Canada after World War II quickly established their own schools and sought government funding for them. Their beliefs
that life is affected by one’s faith, as well as their view that no one social
institution should dominate any other, meant they distrusted government control
of schooling. Many left Holland to escape what they considered the adverse effects of a life regulated by “socialist” decrees. In Canada, they were independent
farmers and small-business persons. Many at first hoped to establish a Christian
political party. By the 1980s their individualism led them to support the rightleaning Social Credit government that introduced independent school funding.
18
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
Today, observers note that SCS-BC parents are still involved in small local
business enterprises (small construction firms, greenhouses, trucking), with
family income levels apparently close to those of public school parents.21 Their
conservative yet socially oriented sense of religious calling, and the individualism
that, paradoxically, unites them, have meant that parents have stood solidly
behind schools that would socialize their children into familiar traditions and
patterns.
Having experienced government funding for religiously-based schools in
Holland, Dutch Calvinists soon sought funding in Canada. They were outspoken
and politically active in opposing government intervention in their schools,
believing that parents and local boards should set and maintain educational
policies. During the first decade of funding in British Columbia, SCS-BC leaders,
principals, teachers, and parents regularly debated and queried the implications
of government funding.
Can an independent school community such as this resist those contextual
forces that cause private schools to resemble public ones? Does public funding
inevitably accelerate the movement toward similarity? In the present case, will
improving socioeconomic status of Dutch-Canadian Calvinists lead to demands
for high but essentially public school standards? Will the influence of the media
and of general social values on its second and third generations undermine group
cohesiveness and thus their commitment to uphold private schooling as a distinct
alternative? What is the effect of the increasing proportion of non-Calvinist
Christian fundamentalists in the schools? Will epistemological paradigm shifts
in theology, as well as in education, affect the thinking of leaders in the
movement and, eventually, school programs?
METHOD OF INVESTIGATION
In studying changes in SCS-BC schools since 1977, I chose to gather the
opinions of all currently active principals and teachers who have worked in
SCS-BC schools both before and after the appearance of government funding.
Where possible, I have supplemented my survey of opinion with other facts —
social, economic, and administrative. Still, my chief source is the views and
opinions of participants. Later research could and should extend the empirical
base of research.
Of educators contacted, 77 percent had worked in SCS-BC schools continuously since 1977; 15 percent were employed after 1977 by schools
completing the then-required five-year qualifying period for funding; and 8
percent worked for the schools in 1977 but today work in another educational
setting. The principals and still-active ex-principals represent eighteen of the
twenty-two SCS-BC schools in existence in 1977 and four of the newer ones.
The teachers come from nineteen schools, four of which began operation after
1977. Seventeen of the nineteen current administrators, all fourteen previous
19
principals, and twenty-five of the thirty-two teachers returned a completed
questionnaire (a return rate of 86 percent).
The questionnaire contained 87 specific questions in five categories (school
administration, curriculum and instruction, student evaluation procedures, teachers
and students, and parents and board). Almost all questions required two ratings
on a scale from 1 to 5: degree of change (1, much less; 3, no change; 5, much
more), and effect (1, very detrimental; 3, no effect; 5, very beneficial). The
results were tabulated and arithmetical means calculated for all respondents as
well as separately for the three subgroups (current administrators, previous
administrators, and teachers). Whole-group means for individual questions varied
from 2.6 to 4.4 for degree of change and from 2.3 to 4.5 for effect, suggesting
the reliability of the questionnaire and/or the homogeneity of subjects.
Each section of the questionnaire asked for further comment. The final page
asked two open-ended questions: “What, in your view, is the one outstanding
benefit and the one major difficulty with government funding of Christian
schools?” and “What is your overall evaluation of the effect of government
funding under the Independent School Support Act?” Most respondents gave
substantial comments throughout the questionnaire.
On the basis of the responses, a list of questions was prepared to obtain more
reaction on issues where opinions differed markedly and on changes respondents
did not ascribe solely to government funding. Using these questions, I conducted
interviews with five administrators representative of diverse subcommunities in
the SCS-BC (taking into account denominational background, size and location
of school). Interview responses helped clarify and explain questionnaire input;
quantitative results are based solely on questionnaire results.
TEACHERS, PARENTS, AND BOARDS
SCS-BC schools have used government funds variously. Tuition fees are much
lower than they would be without government funding. Teacher salaries are
higher, their qualifications improved, classes are smaller, and teachers attend
more professional development activities. All of this has produced, according to
questionnaire responses, an improved esprit des corps.
The boards of the schools, in most cases locally elected by parents’ associations, take more care in setting enrolment and educational policies, and make
decisions more professionally since funding. Two respondents mentioned that by
having to spend less time on pressing financial concerns, they have become more
aware of educational issues in a Christian framework. Board-staff relations have
improved and become more relaxed, but only slightly so (3.3/3.3; the first number indicates a slight positive change; the second, a slight salutary effect). Boards
review government directives for schools more closely, generally considered a
positive consequence (4.0/3.7).
20
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
The combination of reduced financial jeopardy, and the care boards now take
in making decisions and presenting proposals, have contributed to poor attendance at school association meetings. Yet parental perceptiveness of program
quality is deemed to have increased. Although parental involvement and influence is considered unchanged, it has shifted from fund raising to work with
students. This follows, according to some respondents, from a general social
phenomenon rather than any effect of funding: parents are more knowledgeable
and want to be directly involved in their children’s education.
THE ROLE OF THE PRINCIPAL
Principals, the respondents agreed, spend more time on administrative routines
and paperwork than prior to government funding. At the same time, they think
quantity and quality of teacher supervision and curricular and instructional
leadership to have improved during the past fourteen years. Principals, for
instance, today often work closely with new teachers to help them plan and
implement programs compatible with school aims.
Respondents are divided about the overall effects of an “administrative”
emphasis. Many principals feel “snowed under” with reading and paperwork
pertaining to Ministry matters, with less time to attend to teacher and student
needs. Just coping with the growth brought about by the legitimization of the
schools, one principal claimed, leaves little time for educational leadership.
One-sixth of teachers volunteered that their principals have become more isolated
and bureaucratic, overemphasizing the implementation of government requirements.
Almost as many respondents, however, disagreed, pointing out that the amount
of paperwork, changed little since 1977, has been made easier by computerization. They observed that principals generally use their increased administrative
time for educational purposes. Teachers supported this contention; they indicated,
for instance, that the effect of administrative routines and paperwork has
benefited the schools educationally (3.9). Similarly, topics discussed among
principals have shifted from fund raising and discipline policies to educational
initiatives promoting Christian “uniqueness.” Further, more teachers have been
given educational leadership tasks through appointment as program coordinators,
positions made possible by government funding.
The enhanced role of principals, most respondents believed, also stems from
“growing professionalism” and the influence of SCS-BC education coordinators.
Principals today, as opposed to 1977, are knowledgeable of government education policies, and spend more time thinking about the goals and direction of their
schools. Whether this affects classroom teaching and learning, however, varies
considerably with principal leadership styles and priorities.
21
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Respondents believed three facets of teaching and learning to have changed
considerably: attention given to new public school curriculum proposals (4.4),
availability of resources and equipment (4.2), and overall quality of classroom
instruction (3.9). These changes were deemed beneficial (3.7, 4.2 and 4.0 respectively). However, teachers appreciated the emphasis on public school program
initiatives more than did principals (4.1 vs. 3.2). Teachers were neutral about
adoption of public school time allotments (3.2) whereas principals believed this
detrimental (2.5).
The quality of educational programs, respondents generally agreed, had
improved (3.8), with teachers giving more and (they believed) beneficial attention
to cooperative and long-term planning (change/effect, 3.6/3.7). Areas where
respondents thought schools had experienced limited beneficial change included
use of external curriculum guides and resources (3.4/3.4, both for public and for
Christian ones), inclusion of the Christian perspective in everyday instruction
(3.2/3.3), and time spent on curriculum evaluation (3.5/3.6). The use of textbooks
written specifically for Christian schools remained almost the same after funding
(3.1/3.3), although use of supplemental resources for Christian schools increased
somewhat (3.5/3.6). Both the spread of numerical responses and the interviewee’s
comments indicated schools varied widely in these matters.
Respondents agreed that the quantity and quality of such special programs as
learning assistance and the fine arts had increased. However, they were divided
about the effect of funding on uniqueness of school programs. Six claimed
government funding had caused greater emphasis on teaching “from a Christian
perspective.” Justifying programs for the government, added several, “has led to
a clarification and renewed application of Christian goals and objectives.” Yet
nine others believed schools “are regularly nudged to move into the Ministry of
Education fold.” Still others claimed funding has had little impact on the
Christian distinctiveness of schools’ programs compared with the impact of work
by provincial SCS-BC coordinators. Again, perceptions as well as realities
differed a great deal from school to school.
THE INFLUENCE OF GOVERNMENT DIRECTIVES AND EVALUATION TEAMS
Nine respondents commented that government-imposed school evaluation had
encouraged their staffs to examine long-range plans, develop written goalstatements accentuating their Christian beliefs, and revamp their programs.
Another eight said it had led to clarification of the school’s vision and
contributed to the incorporation of a “Christian perspective in education.”
Yet fourteen respondents indicated their local boards reacted quickly and
unthinkingly to evaluation teams’ criticisms, leading one principal to point out
22
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
a need to “energetically get the board and education committee to look less at
Ministry requirements and more at what the Biblical focus of our school
curriculum and program should be.” Further, said another, although most
government directives are not necessarily intended for independent schools,
boards often receive them as directives “from above.”
Although most evaluation-team members are independent school teachers,
retired public school inspectors have chaired most evaluation teams. As a result,
some SCS-BC principals stated, the measure of independent school quality at
times becomes the public school status quo, implicitly expecting their schools to
conform. The Ministry’s Independent School Branch has sometimes applied such
pressure explicitly: it tried to persuade some schools to implement aspects of the
Year 2000 program when they preferred more “traditional” approaches. The
SCS-BC showed its concern in 1987 by publishing a policy paper that took issue
with
the recommendation of some evaluation team chairmen that the goals of a school should
be stated as measurable behavioural objectives; this brings with it a philosophical
framework whose acceptance or rejection is the prerogative of the school.22
The principals are gate-keepers for external recommendations, whether these
come directly from the Ministry or from an evaluation report. One respondent
stated that “some principals are aware and astute, and show some evidence of
critical analysis. Many, however, buy into the philosophy of a document such as
Year 2000 without standing back. They give little attention to basic issues.”
Some respondents believe principals as well as SCS-BC leaders have adopted the
government’s educational agenda. One of these pointed to an “excessive emphasis” on the process of learning rather than on “culturally-meaningful generative
knowledge”; another added that principals without strong theological and philosophical beliefs succumb to the implicit pressure to conform to the public sector.
On the other hand, all interviewees said principals with a strong curricular or
pedagogical direction and whose competence is trusted by the Ministry are able
to maintain their educational autonomy.
STUDENT EVALUATION
Until 1990, funding had little effect on student assessment in most schools. Some
revised programs on the basis of results of the mandatory Provincial Learning
Assessment Program (for example, placing more emphasis on grades 4–7 geometry). The government’s recent new Year 2000 program has made an impact, however, with some schools revising their assessment procedures and report cards.
One school produced a 20-page primary report card consisting of criterionreferenced learning descriptors (one-third from Year 2000, one-third revisions of
ones in Year 2000, and one-third consistent with the school’s unique character).
23
It is unlikely these changes would have been made without the schools’ close
contact with the Ministry due to funding.
Principals and teachers felt unanimously negative about the re-introduction of
grade 12 school leaving examinations in 1984. Although they agreed that
students’ achievement in grade 12 courses has improved (3.8/3.9), the Christian
emphasis in these courses has suffered (effect, 2.4). There is now more emphasis
on formal teacher presentation (effect, 2.6) and factual memorization (effect, 2.3),
and less on critical thinking (effect, 2.5). Although SCS-BC schools waged a
vigorous (though unsuccessful) political campaign to set their own exams, even
without funding the schools probably would have decided to participate in those
examinations because they were required for students seeking university entrance.
THE RESPONDENTS’ OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
Asked to name one outstanding benefit that had resulted from government funding, 51 percent of respondents mentioned improved educational programs; 29
percent, financial stability and affordability; and 20 percent, staff satisfaction
stemming from salary increases. Only one person said funding caused schools
to emphasize their programs’ uniqueness.
Fewer than three quarters of respondents identified an outstanding drawback,
and specific responses were more varied. One-third, the largest group, commented that schools had become less independent and distinctive, with their agenda
now set by the public sector. Nine percent thought schools faced a major loss of
personal commitment of both parents and staff, and another 9 percent decried
“administrative hassles” as their major concern.
When asked to give their overall evaluation of the effects of government
funding, almost half said funding had been very beneficial. Twelve percent of
respondents said they feared that Christian school independence would gradually
erode, but an almost equal percentage claimed funding had forced their schools
to clarify their vision. The majority agreed that 50-percent funding is a desirable
plateau, with parents maintaining interest in and support for the schools, since
they still pay substantial tuition fees, and the government not yet claiming total
ownership.
A number of respondents remarked that lack of funding does not produce an
absence of government control: non-funded private schools in Iowa and accredited private secondary schools in Ontario, they said, must meet more stringent
stipulations and evaluations than funded schools in British Columbia. Nonetheless, in British Columbia, as elsewhere in the world, the government has insisted
that certain regulations accompany funding of independent schools, if only to
convince itself and the public that such funds are spent responsibly. Regulations
may exist without funding, but funding will not occur without regulations.
Funded schools that value independence will always experience some tension as
they resist bureaucratization and deprivatization.
24
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
CAUSES OF CHANGE IN SCS-BC SCHOOLS
Government funding has improved certain aspects of SCS-BC schools. Teacher
salaries have increased. Schools meet the needs of more students through special
programs. Teachers are more involved in professional development and curriculum planning. Resources, equipment, and facilities are more readily available.
Changes that more directly affect the heart of the schools’ mission present a
decidedly mixed picture, however. Some schools clarify their vision and plan
Christian learning approaches more zealously than before funding; others accept
government directives with little consideration of their implications. Some boards
spend more time considering educational issues that affect the school’s direction;
others jump hastily to implement government evaluation-team recommendations.
Some principals have intensified their direction-giving leadership; others have
become more bureaucratic as they comply with government policies. Some
schools increasingly use teacher resource units developed specifically for
Christian schools; others accept and use government textbooks and guides
without critical analysis. Such data emphasize that the search for causal
connections is complex and that change is not due solely to government funding
but is also affected by social, political, and intellectual factors.
To garner continued support, Christian schools are compelled to be sensitive
to parental attitudes. As Christian school supporters are assimilated into Canadian
society, their attitudes toward schooling became less isolationist.23 One questionnaire respondent said that his defensive, separatist stance of the 1970s reflected
his immigrant mentality, and noted that today
the real objectives of parents in Christian schools . . . coincide rather closely with those
of parents generally, i.e., a reasonable continuity with the home, academic/ intellectual
challenge, a controlled environment, pleasant teachers, and better marks than the kid in
the next desk.
Parents today may place more emphasis on a caring atmosphere or academic
excellence and less on a unique educational program. Several responders added
that the long-established non-funded Calvinist schools in Michigan are more like
public schools than SCS-BC schools, leading them to conclude that cultural
context affects schools more than does government.
Similarly, the trend toward professionalism some respondents identified cannot
be attributed solely to funding. Not only have Canadian parents and teachers
generally become better educated, but children of immigrants usually outdo their
parents’ educational attainments. The improved educational and professional
background of supporters — as well as institutions’ tendency toward increasing
professionalization and accountability — contribute to boards becoming more
astute in dealing with administrative and educational issues. Boards became more
25
demanding of principals and appointed provincial consultants. Government funding has, at most, accelerated this trend.
In British Columbia, funding for independent schools was introduced in a consultative and flexible manner. Through the Federation of Independent Schools,
SCS-BC leaders had regular input into the interpretation of funding regulations.
The Inspectors of Independent Schools allowed substantial curricular freedom;
one respondent noted that his “fears of intrusive demands on the curriculum and
the operation of the schools” were not realized. A confrontation with the Minister
of Education, in 1984, about the imposition of grade 12 government examinations proved, nonetheless, the reality of the government’s ultimate control of
funded schools. By then, economic dependence on funding and parents’ desire
to enable students to go directly to university meant that, despite strong protests,
all students wrote the exams.24
Finally, the rapid growth sparked partly by funding has led to at least two
changes in the schools’ intellectual and religious identity. First, the teaching force
has become more heterogeneous, in both religious and educational background.
The number of new teachers educated at Calvinist colleges dropped from almost
40 percent to less than 10 percent between 1977 and 1991. This may mean, for
instance, that new teachers are more open to recent intellectual forces affecting
education (for example, that humans construct knowledge). Second, an influx of
fundamentalist parents has led to more conflicts about book choice and lifestyle
standards. The effects of this changing composition require further investigation.
CONCLUSION
SCS-BC schools have changed as a result of shifts in their own communities and
social context, as well as due to government funding. The schools differ substantially from each other, however, in how much they diverge from the taken-forgranted norms of the public sector.25 Seventeen respondents claimed that funding
resulted in more attention being paid to mission-driven planning and the implementation of a distinct Christian approach. Almost as many (fourteen), however,
believed that government regulations and evaluation-team recommendations had
eroded their school’s distinctiveness.
The continued uniqueness of funded independent schools depends on three
necessary (but not sufficient) conditions. First, it requires effective, proactive,
principled, and convincing leadership at both the local and provincial levels,
leadership based on clear goals. Second, the school community must form a
cohesive Gemeinschaft, with a strong sense of shared commitment, that insists
on its school reflecting its identity. Third, the government must be willing to
view independent schools as responsible educational alternatives. Under these
conditions, for instance, in one homogeneous, conservative community a highly
respected principal changed the school’s program considerably during the years
26
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
of government funding, making it much more distinctly Calvinist in its orientation.
What characterized interviewees whose schools had maintained distinctive
features was their readiness, determination, and willpower to maintain constant
vigilance with respect to government regulations. Although some respondents
believed the control exercised by a well-focused value community can outweigh
the political and bureaucratic control accompanying funding, most feared that
future government policies and decreasing sensitivity to their potential risks
might ultimately destroy the schools as singular institutions. When questioned,
they perceived, for instance, that an open enrolment policy or the inability to hire
teachers who “fit” the schools’ religious purpose would undermine the school as
a Gemeinschaft and hence, in the long run, as a viable and effective alternative.
Can funded independent schools resist the powerful social, political, and
intellectual forces that press them to abandon their distinctiveness? My evidence
suggests many SCS-BC schools have thus far not lost their distinctiveness, and
in some instances have augmented it since funding came into effect, albeit only
within an overall framework for schooling expected by society-at-large. Unless
independent schools have passion for their mission and wariness about government control, however, funding may well accelerate erosion of the schools’
distinctiveness.
NOTES
1
In British Columbia, the term “independent” describes all non-public schools, including, for
example, Catholic and Protestant Christian, Montessori, Waldorf, and “elite” British-type schools.
This paper uses the terms “private” and “independent” interchangeably. Ontario’s private school
enrolment declined between 1985 and 1991, but only because private Catholic senior secondary
schools became public separate ones.
2
See, for instance, William Lowe Boyd and James G. Cibulka, eds., Private Schools and Public
Policy (New York: Falmer, 1989); William Lowe Boyd and Herbert J. Walberg, eds., Choice in
Education: Potential and Problems (Berkeley, CA: McCutchan, 1990); John Chubb and Terry
Moe, Politics, Markets, and America’s Schools (Washington: The Brookings Institute, 1990);
Geoffrey Walford, Private Schools in Ten Countries: Policy and Practice (London and New York:
Routledge, 1989); and the December 1990/January 1991, vol. 48, no. 4 issue of Educational
Leadership.
3
Information supplied by Statistics Canada and the Federation of Independent School Associations
in B.C. See also John Bergen, “The Emergence and Expansion of Private Schools in Canada,” in
Y. L. Jack Lam, ed., The Canadian Public Education System: Issues and Prospects (Calgary:
Detselig, 1990), p. 13.
4
For funding arrangements in various provinces, see, Stephen T. Eaton, Education in Canada
(Vancouver: The Fraser Institute, 1988), pp. 81ff. The court action is described in the Ontario
Alliance of Christian Schools High School Digest (April 1991): 1. An August 1992 Ontario Court
of Justice decision that the Ontario government’s funding policy, although contrary to the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms, is within its “reasonable limits” escape clause is being appealed
(Christian Week, vol. 6, no. 9 [25 August 1992]: 1).
27
5
See L.W. Downey, “The Aid-to-Independent Schools Movement in British Columbia,” in Nancy
Sheehan, J. Donald Wilson and David Jones, eds., Schools in the West: Essays in Canadian
Educational History (Calgary: Detselig, 1986), pp. 305–23; and Jean Barman, “Deprivatizing
Private Education: The British Columbia Experience,” Canadian Journal of Education 16:1
(Winter 1991), pp. 12–31.
6
See, for instance, H. Van Andel et al., “Report on Government-School Relationships” (Society
of Christian Schools in B.C., 1976), and Board of Trustees of the SCS-BC, “Ministry of
Education Regulations Affecting SCS-BC Schools” (Langley, BC: The Society of Christian
Schools in B.C., 1987), p. 4.
7
British Columbia Ministry of Education, The Primary Program (Victoria: Queen’s Printer, 1989).
8
Barman, p. 24.
9
Karen Seashore Louis and Boudewijn A. M. van Velzen, “A Look at Choice in the Netherlands,”
Educational Leadership, vol. 48, no. 4 (December 1990/January 1991): 67; and Estelle James,
“The Netherlands: Benefits and Costs of Privatized Public Services — Lessons From the Dutch
Educational System,” in Walford, pp. 179–99.
10
Louis and van Velzen, p. 68. See also Charles L. Glenn, “Parent Choice in Four Nations,” in
Boyd and Walberg, pp. 69–76.
11
A never-repeated example is the extensive curriculum developed by W. G. van de Hulst et al. in
Verdieping and Belijning [Deepening and Structuring] (Groningen: Noordhof, 1921), 2 vols.
12
Richard Teese, “France: Catholic Schools, Class Security, and the Public Sector,” in Geoffrey
Walford, Private Schools in Ten Countries: Policy and Practice (London and New York:
Routledge, 1989), pp. 133–50; and Frances C. Fowler, “The French Experience with Public Aid
to Private Schools,” in Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 68, no. 5 (January 1987): 356–59.
13
Don Smart and Janice Dudley, “Australia: Private Schools and Public Policy,” in Walford, p. 222.
14
Denis P. Doyle, “Family Choice in Education: The Case of Denmark, Holland, and Australia,”
(Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1984), p. 17; Smart
and Dudley, p. 122.
15
See Doyle and chapters 7 and 8 in William Lowe Boyd and James G. Cibulka, eds., Private
Schools and Public Policy: International Perspectives (Philadelphia: Falmer, 1989).
16
Donald Erickson et al., “Characteristics and Relationships in Public and Independent Schools”
(San Francisco: Center for Research on Private Education, 1979), and “Victoria’s Secret: The
Effects of British Columbia’s Aid to Independent Schools,” Parts 1, 2 and 3 (Los Angeles:
Institute for the Study of Private Schools, 1984, unpublished monographs).
17
Donald A. Erickson, “Disturbing Evidence about the ’One Best System,’” in Robert B. Everhart,
The Public School Monopoly: A Critical Analysis of Education and the State in American Society
(Cambridge: Ballinger, 1982), pp. 415–17.
18
Erickson, “Victoria’s Secret,” p. 15:55. See also pp. 12:19ff, 13:25, 13:26, 13:28, and 14:35ff.
19
Barman, “Deprivatizing Private Education: The British Columbia Experience.”
20
Based on information supplied by the Society of Christian Schools in B.C. and the B.C. Ministry
of Education.
21
Harro Van Brummelen, Curriculum: Implementation in Three Christian Schools (Grand Rapids:
Calvin College, 1989), p. 28; Frances Bula, “Where Christ Is at the Top of the Class,” Vancouver
Sun, April 2, 1991; and Stephen Easton quoting Erickson in Education in Canada (Vancouver:
Fraser Institute, 1988), p. 88.
28
HARRO VAN BRUMMELEN
22
Board of Trustees of the SCS-BC, “Ministry of Education Regulations Affecting SCS-BC
Schools” (Langley, BC: The Society of Christian Schools, 1987), p. 2.
23
See, for instance, H. Ganzevoort and M. Boekelman, Dutch Immigration to North America
(Toronto: Multicultural History Society, 1983), and Harro Van Brummelen, Telling the Next
Generation: Educational Development in North American Calvinist Christian Schools (Lanham:
University Press of America, 1986).
24
Van Brummelen, Telling the Next Generation, p. 286.
25
For a detailed description of three different SCS-BC schools, see Harro Van Brummelen,
Curriculum: Implementation in Three Christian Schools (Grand Rapids: Calvin College, 1989).
Harro Van Brummelen is in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Education, Trinity Western
University, 7600 Glover Road, Langley, British Columbia, V3A 6H4.
Accountability and Educational Philosophy:
Paradigms and Conflict in Ontario Education
Dennis Raphael
university of toronto
Ontario is one of only two Canadian provinces not carrying out every-student achievement
assessment. Until recently, Ontario did not have a province-wide assessment program. The
Ministry of Education now conducts provincial assessments, and recently released
benchmarks of expected student achievement. The Ministry also participates in
interprovincial and international studies. Involvement in these programs, however, is at
odds with the province’s child-centred educational philosophy. I examine some examples
of consequences of the conflict between the child-centred educational approach and the
development of objectives-based programs, then scrutinize the educational implications
of these two conflicting models (child-centred or organismic, and objectives-based or
mechanistic), highlighting weaknesses of the child-centred approach.
À part une autre province, l’Ontario est la seule à ne pas effectuer des évaluations du
rendement scolaire de l’ensemble des élèves. Jusqu’à tout récemment, l’Ontario ne
disposait pas d’un programme d’évaluation pour toute la province. Le ministère de
l’Éducation fait maintenant des évaluations à la grandeur de la province et a publié
dernièrement des repères pour le rendement escompté des élèves. Le ministère participe
en outre à des recherches interprovinciales et internationales. Ces programmes ne
concordent pas toutfois avec la philosophie de l’éducation de la province, laquelle est
axée sur l’enfant. L’auteur se penche sur certaines des conséquences du conflit entre
l’approche qui privilégie l’enfant et l’élaboration de programmes qui se fondent sur des
objectifs. Il examine ensuite les répercussions sur l’éducation de deux modèles opposés
(organiciste ou axé sur l’enfant et mécaniste ou fondé sur des objectifs), en mettant en
lumière les lacunes de l’approche organiciste.
Every Canadian province examines student achievement through either student
or group assessments. Many do both (Raphael, 1990). Student assessments
provide a test score for each student. These scores contribute to grades and give
students and teachers feedback about a student’s achievement. Student
assessments can also provide school-, district-, and province-wide data through
aggregation of scores. Group assessments produce scores reportable at the school,
district, or provincial level.
British Columbia conducts both student and group assessments: group
assessments at various grades, and student assessments (through course
examinations) for numerous senior-level subjects. Quebec and Alberta also
conduct group and student assessments. New Brunswick and Newfoundland have
well-developed student assessment programs and Manitoba conducts group
assessments in a variety of areas (Raphael, 1990).
29
18:1 (1993)
30
DENNIS RAPHAEL
Prior to 1968, the Ontario Ministry of Education administered province-wide
examinations as a basis for awarding the grade 13 diploma.1 These examinations
were replaced in 1968 by administration, for post-secondary admission purposes,
of the Ontario Tests for Admission to College and University; in turn, these tests
were discontinued in 1974. Since then there has been no provincially-mandated
student assessment (McLean, Raphael, & Wahlstrom, 1984).
In 1987 Ontario instituted a provincial group assessment program modelled
after that of British Columbia, and this now provides estimates of school, school
district, and provincial levels of student achievement in the various subject areas.
Reviews of Canadian geography, senior division chemistry and physics,
elementary-level reading and mathematics, and grades 8, 10, and 12 mathematics
have been completed.
In contrast to its limited focus on within-province assessment, Ontario has
participated in virtually all recent comparative studies of achievement: the
Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS) (McLean, Raphael, & Wahlstrom, 1984), the Second International Science Study (SISS) (Connelly, Crocker,
& Kass, 1989), and the 1988 and 1991 International Assessments of Educational
Achievement (Lapointe, Askew, & Mead, 1992; Lapointe, Mead, & Askew,
1992; Lapointe, Mead, & Phillips, 1989). Ontario is committed to involvement
in the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada School Achievement Project,
the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Indicators
Project, and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study.
The premise of this paper is that Ontario’s lack of emphasis upon provincial
assessment and its reluctance to institute provincial monitoring of student
achievement stems from the ongoing conflict between the predominant childcentred educational philosophy in place since the early 1970s and increasing
concerns with educational accountability.2
PARADIGMS AND WORLD VIEWS
Paradigms impose a view of events in the world, suggest a framework for
organizing these observations, and direct attention to events worth noting (Kuhn,
1962). Communication between adherents of various world views is difficult.
To the extent, as significant as it is incomplete, that two scientific schools disagree about
what is a problem and what a solution, they will inevitably talk through each other when
debating the relative merits of their respective paradigms. In the partially circular
arguments that regularly result, each paradigm will be shown to satisfy more or less the
criteria that it dictates for itself and to fall short of a few of those dictated by its
opponent. . . . Both are looking at the world, and what they look at has not changed. But
in some areas they see different things and they see them in different relations one to
another. (Kuhn, 1962, p. 149)
PARADIGMS AND CONFLICT IN ONTARIO EDUCATION
31
For Reese and Overton (1970), the field of child development is dominated
by two well-defined and irreconcilable world views: the organismic and
mechanistic models. “Organismic” and “mechanistic” refer to two psychological
approaches to understanding child development; in educational theory and
practice they are represented by the terms “child-centred” and “objectives-based,”
respectively. The organismic model of child development is best represented in
contemporary education circles by the acceptance of most of Jean Piaget’s
(Flavell, 1963) notions of development.3
THE CHILD-CENTRED MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT
The assumptions of the child-centred model determine how we view children and
the type of education they should receive (Looft, 1973; Overton & Reese, 1973;
Reese & Overton, 1970). This model is translated by the fields of epistemology
and psychology into the active model of development. The tenets of the active
model are: (a) the organism is inherently and spontaneously active and is the
source of acts, rather than the collection of acts resulting from external forces;
(b) the organism is an organized entity, one that gains meaning from the totality
of organization rather than from the parts of which it is constituted; and (c)
change is assumed as a given and predictability is limited. The epistemological
position derived from this model is constructivism: reality results from an
interaction of the individual with its environment.
The individual who accepts this model will tend to emphasize the significance of process
over products, and qualitative change over quantitative change. Products (behaviours) or
achievements will be employed to infer the necessary conditions for their occurrence, that
is, to infer psychological structures. Changes in psychological structures will be the basic
referents of developmental interest, and these changes will reflect basic qualitative
changes conceptualized as changes in levels of organization or stages. In addition, he will
tend to emphasize the significance of the role of experience in facilitating or inhibiting
the course of development, rather than the effect of training as the source of development.
In general he will emphasize a structural or structure-function analysis of behaviour,
rather than a functional analysis. (Reese & Overton, 1970, pp. 134–135)
Reese and Overton (1970) outline corollary issues associated with the models.
Holism versus elementarism. The dictum the “whole is more than the sum of
the parts” illustrates this view. Piagetian theory is the best example of the holistic
viewpoint and is illustrated in the concept of organization, one of the two basic
functional invariants (the other being adaptation). The concept of conservation
illustrates the relationship between the organized cognitive structures of the
individual and its reflection in behavioural referents.
Elementarism is the view that development is the addition of many smaller
parts comprising the whole. Gagné’s (1968) analysis of skills involved in
conservation and his explication of the role of learning hierarchies in attaining
32
DENNIS RAPHAEL
educational skills illustrates this position in developmental and educational
psychology.
Structure-function versus antecedent-consequence. The child-centred model
directs attention to the relationship of structure to the developmental functions.
A marked teleological bent is seen as development of internal structures has
definite end-purposes. Study emphasizes the development of structures and their
relationship to behaviour. There is a distinction between process and achievement.
Structural versus behavioural change. What changes as children develop? The
adherent to the child-centred viewpoint looks for changing internal structures.
The child thinks differently, according to her/his need to adapt to the environment. These changes may not be apparent and reliance upon external signs of
these changes could be misleading. Changes are self-directed toward identified
end-points.
Discontinuity versus continuity. Structural change is discontinuous. Ways of
looking at the world shift as higher forms of structures are organized. Change is
not the continuous addition of information and knowledge.
The issue of stages. The child moves through stages as new, qualitatively
differing structures appear.
Unidirectional versus multidirectional courses of development. The childcentred viewpoint outlines a single course of development through which
children move at differing rates; multiple developmental courses are not seriously
considered. In Piaget’s theory the end point is formal operational thought.
Sources of development. Although the environment can support or inhibit
movement upon the prescribed course, the impetus for development resides
within.
Table 1 outlines educational practices used by education consultants and
teachers who adhere to the child-centred model. More sophisticated analyses of
how the child-centred emphasis can be correlated with an activist assessment
approach can be developed, but my point is not to design an ideal educational
strategy but to demonstrate how the average policy maker and practitioner use
these paradigms to define and to justify their educational and assessment
activities.
THE ONTARIO EDUCATION SCENE
Ontario educational philosophy since the late 1960s has been child-centred.
Obvious manifestations are the provincial documents and guidelines such as
Living and Learning (Ontario Department of Education, 1968), the Formative
Years, Education in the Primary and Junior Divisions (Ministry of Education,
1975a, 1975b), and most recently Science is Happening Here (Ministry of
Education, 1989a). This worldview has influenced many aspects of Ontario’s
33
TABLE 1
Corollary Issues Associated with the Child-Centred Model of Development
Issue
Child-centred
approach
Active vs. Passive
Active
Child sets the pace; education must be child-centred;
unfair to assess children according to objective,
external criteria; teachers provide learning opportunities but instructional options are limited if child
is not learning.
Holism vs.
Elementarism
Holism
Focus upon the whole child; do not teach or assess
skills in isolation; since cognitive and affective skills
grow in tandem, avoid aversive learning experiences.
Structure-Function
vs. AntecedentConsequence
StructureFunction
Provide positive learning opportunities so the child
will naturally develop advanced structures; since
these structures are unique to each individual and
cannot be mapped onto outward manifestations of
achievement, assess activities rather than objective
outcomes.
Structural vs.
Behavioral Change
Structural
Important change occurs within the child and cannot
be assessed using measures of outward behaviours;
objective measures may not show what the child
really knows; assess attitudes, not achievements.
Qualitative vs.
Quantitative
Change
Qualitative
Change cannot be understood as the accumulation of
parts; it makes no sense to identify components of
learning to teach or to assess.
Stages
Stages Exist
Identify stages or levels of development; promote
movement through general environmental support;
use homogeneous grouping of children for effective
instruction.
Unidirectional vs.
Multidirectional
Course
Unidirectional
Assume one way of developing; children make their
own strategies; group and stream students to teach
those at various developmental points; use methods
that promote this natural progression.
Internal vs.
External Source of
Energy
Internal
Change and motivation emanates from the child; the
environment can only provide support.
Suggested educational practice
education system, among them the Ministry’s role in curriculum development,
ongoing teacher training practices, and student assessment practices.
34
DENNIS RAPHAEL
Curriculum Guidelines
Ontario curriculum guidelines lack specific content and goals, especially at the
elementary level. The reasons for this include adherence by the guidelines’
authors (all of whom have worked in the prevailing ethos) to the child-centred
viewpoint and associated education and assessment assumptions outlined in Table
1. The second is Ontario’s commitment to a decentralized system where the
Ministry outlines broad goals and local school authorities adapt these goals to
local circumstances.
Living and Learning (Ontario Department of Education, 1968) was the report
of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools
of Ontario. The following, taken from the section “The Learning Experience,”
illustrates the child-centred approach to education policy:
Learning by its very nature is a personal matter. There is virtually a metabolism of
learning which is as unique to the individual as the metabolism of digestion. Parents and
teachers may create conditions for learning, and may provide stimulating experiences with
learning in mind, but the actual learning experience is intimate and subjective, for each
human being reaches out to the world in his own idiosyncratic way. . . . Learning is not
always visible to the observer. Solid programming for every moment of time may not of
necessity create a positive learning experience. For the mind, unlike a machine, may make
its leaps in moments of serenity and solitude. . . . The road to learning takes personal
effort, and no human being can jump the hurdles for another. (p. 49)
Education in the Primary and Junior Divisions (Ministry of Education, 1975b)
was released as “an extensive philosophical basis and rationale for the program
of these [primary and junior] divisions” (p. 3). After presenting the behaviourist
approach to learning, the document states:
The cognitive-field development approach is based on the assumption that learning is an
orderly development in successive patterns of increasingly intricate mental structures.
These mental structures develop as the child grows through experience with people,
things, and symbols. According to this theory, learning is purposeful and the child is an
agent in organizing his or her own knowledge. Of the two approaches, a cognitive
explanation is more appropriate in dealing with complex behaviours such as communication, concept-formation, and problem solving. (p. 10)
Circular P1J1: The Formative Years (Ministry of Education, 1975a) outlined
provincial curriculum objectives for the primary and junior divisions (in Ontario,
grades K–6). First issued in 1975, it remains, as does Education in the Primary
and Junior Divisions, Ministry policy for these school years. Although some
specific objectives of learning are delineated, the thrust of Circular P1J1 is
similar to that of Living and Learning.
35
It follows that the curriculum will provide opportunities for each child (to the limit of his
or her potential): to acquire the basic skills fundamental to his or her continuing
education; to develop and maintain confidence and a sense of self-worth; to gain the
knowledge and acquire the attitudes that he or she needs for active participation in
Canadian society; to develop the moral and aesthetic sensitivity necessary for a complete
and responsible life. (p. 4; italics added)
Programs developed at the local level should provide each child with opportunities to
achieve the levels of competence and the forms of growth and development implied in
the aims that follow. Such programs would allow individual children to move beyond the
expectations of the program without subjecting those who cannot reach them to loss of
self esteem or confidence. (p. 5; italics added)
Science is Happening Here (Ministry of Education, 1989a) outlines the science
curriculum for grades 1–6 and is remarkable for its lack of specificity about
what children are expected to learn at each (or any) grade in science. The teacher
is again expected to “provide opportunities” for learning rather than to meet
certain instructional goals.4 Guidelines therefore emphasize how children
supposedly learn (and teachers should teach), rather than expected learning
outcomes. Although recent Ministry statements (see the commentary for Ontario
in A World of Differences [Lapointe, Mead, & Phillips, 1989]) suggest guidelines
are being made more specific, such recent releases as Science is Happening Here
contradict this suggestion.
The shift to the whole-language approach to reading is another manifestation
of the paradigm. This model has been adopted by most Ontario boards (Ministry
of Education, 1990) despite research (see, for example, the United States
Department of Education booklet What Works, 1987) documenting the efficacy
of the phonics method (Chall, 1989).5
Assessment and the Birth and Death of the OAIP
Acceptance of the child-centred model of development makes formulation of
assessment or testing models problematic because assessment of student
outcomes run contrary to the model’s tenets. Teachers must assess and grade,
however, and administrators are sometimes asked for evidence of system-wide
functioning. During the late 1970s the Ministry of Education was concerned
about board assessment practices and commissioned a number of studies of
assessment practices and assessment needs at the board level (Bramwell &
Vigna, 1979; Wahlstrom & Danley, 1976, 1979, 1980; Wahlstrom, Danley, &
Raphael, 1977; Wahlstrom, Raphael, Jones, & Weinstein, 1977). These studies
found that without guidance from the Ministry, schools and school boards applied
a bewildering array of assessment practices but frequently used achievement and
aptitude tests developed in the United States to report system-level data.
36
DENNIS RAPHAEL
Educators depended on materials developed by particularly innovative school
boards (e.g., Making the Grade by the Etobicoke School Board, 1985), the
Ontario Ministry of Education’s Evaluation of Student Achievement: A Resource
Guide (1976), and local teacher-developed materials. I participated in two of
these studies and in our final reports we recommended the Ministry assist boards
by preparing item test banks that could be used at a variety of levels to assess
student attainment of educational objectives. The Ministry moved quickly on the
recommendation. The Ministry Task Force on Evaluation called for the creation
of like instruments, and the Ontario Assessment Instrument Pool (OAIP) was
born (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1981).
OAIP development began in the late 1970s. Contract teams drew on the latest
developments in instructional assessment to develop curriculum-based item banks
for use in Ontario schools. Ministry statements released during this time
anticipated that these item banks, keyed to the Ontario Ministry of Education
Guidelines, would be used at three levels: (a) by teachers at the classroom level
to assess and improve both class and individual student achievement; (b) by
school board personnel to assess system-level functioning and student achievement; and (c) by the Ministry of Education to assess province-wide achievement
through periodic sampling of student performance (Ontario Ministry of
Education, 1981). If educators knew what they were doing well, it was assumed,
they could explain their approaches to others; if they knew what they were doing
poorly, they could modify and improve their instruction. The Ministry also
carried out a series of extensive field trials collecting data on provincial-level
achievement in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and English.
Development of instruments for such important purposes was expensive.
Ontario teachers, consultants, and Ministry advisory committees worked
diligently over two decades to create thousands of assessment items running the
entire spectrum, from multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, essays, and skills
demonstration to lab exercises. The items’ quality was examined psychometrically using the latest computer technology. The instruments themselves were extensively field-tested, and data on provincial-level achievement in selected areas
were collected in a series of field trials (McLean, 1987a, 1987b; Talesniak &
McLean, 1987; Wolfe, McLean, & Gaudino, 1987).
The British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba ministries of education routinely
use OAIP questions in their provincial assessments. Since 1987 the Ontario
Ministry of Education has used OAIP instruments in provincial reviews. Some
were also used by the recent International Assessment of Educational Progress
(IAEP). At a 1988 planning meeting for IAEP in Toronto, representatives from
the 20 participating countries were so impressed with the OAIP pools that
bundles of these measures were carried or sent to countries around the world for
use by classroom teachers in such countries as China, the former Soviet Union,
Ireland, Jordan, Israel, Spain, England, Hungary, Switzerland, and Scotland.
37
The Ministry of Education’s own provincial reviews provided some striking
findings. The Provincial Assessment in Canadian Studies Geography (Ontario
Ministry of Education, 1988a, 1988b) found that almost two-thirds of Ontario
teachers reported using OAIP rarely or not at all. The Ministry’s Senior Division
Advanced Level Chemistry and Physics Provincial reviews (Ontario Ministry of
Education, 1989b, 1989c, 1989d, 1989e) found 23% of physics teachers never
used OAIP instruments and an additional 49% used them occasionally. The
figures for chemistry teachers were 23% and 47%, respectively. The most recent
review found that 67% of grade 6 teachers use the available mathematics
instruments not at all. Although these instruments were distributed to boards, the
Ministry’s own information (personal correspondence, Ontario Ministry of
Education, December, 1990) indicates that no money was allocated for
implementation or monitoring of the instruments’ use.
The absence of systematic research into the rise and decline of the OAIP
makes it impossible to advance definitive reasons for its failure. Some
hypotheses can, however, be advanced. At the very minimum, the rationales for
its development conflict. The Ministry assured teachers’ federations that the
OAIP would be an open system used primarily by classroom teachers. Trustees
were told the banks would be useful for monitoring achievement levels of the
system, school boards, and schools.
I believe the OAIP failed mainly for two reasons. First, the Ministry outlined
a child-centred, non-assessment–oriented educational philosophy, yet produced
a multitude of test items supporting a very different (objectives-based) approach
to instructional practice. Second, the Ministry was unwilling or unable to
mandate educational practice among Ontario school boards consistent with the
decentralized education system. It is clear from Table 1 that use of a set of
instruments assessing components of student learning, presumably affected by
instruction and conducive to public discussion of results, is incompatible with a
model that sees the child as the master of his or her learning rate, whose learning
cannot be assessed on external, objective measures, and whose learning itself is
frequently seen as unaffected by instruction.
Province-Wide Testing and Assessment
As noted earlier, Ontario has consistently been involved in international studies
of student achievement. Yet while supporting such involvement, the Ontario
Ministry of Education resolutely resists imposition of province-wide student
testing at any level (Silipo, 1992). As a Ministry employee set the task of
communicating the value of provincial assessment, I personally encountered
strong resistance to the Ministry group assessment program by elementary-level
educators both at the Ministry and in the field.
Research by Holmes (1991) supports these impressions, indicating significant
differences between views of testing held by Ontario directors of education and
38
DENNIS RAPHAEL
by similarly educated members of the general public. The directors oppose
testing in the elementary years, the public supports it. These differences extend
to educational philosophy, with directors of education being more likely to accept
the progressive or child-centred approach to education than is the public.
It is therefore unsurprising that the education establishment, adhering strongly
to the child-centred model, most oppose standardized assessments. Yet in Ontario
these criticisms are being muted by various factors, among them strong demands
for public accountability (including a recent government-commissioned report
critical of the child-centred approach) and some disturbing results of recent
comparative studies on mathematics and science achievement. Hardly a week
goes by without another Ontario constituency group criticizing the education
system (Raphael, 1990).
During the late 1980s, Ontario’s government established educational
accountability as an important goal, and commissioned a report on the relevance
of education and the issue of drop-outs (Radwanski, 1987). The report was a
scathing indictment of the prevailing child-centred educational philosophy and
approach. According to Radwanski (1987), teachers are expected to provide
opportunities for student learning but the responsibility for learning (or not
learning) falls upon the shoulders of children. It is difficult, then, to specify
common deficiencies in instruction, since common objectives for all children are
usually not outlined. Radwanski also pointed out another major concern: the
Ontario drop-out rate for students in the academic stream is 12% but 62% for
students in the general (non-academic) stream and a whopping 79% for students
in the basic (remedial) stream. Radwanski used his own constructed indices to
arrive at these figures, since he found that the Ministry kept no completely
accurate drop-out records. The Premier’s Council (Ontario Premier’s Council,
1988) also released a critical study of the functioning of the education system.
Both reports called for the institution of student testing.
The 1988 International Assessment of Educational Progress (IAEP) involved
four Canadian provinces. Ontario students knew less mathematics than those in
Quebec, British Columbia, and New Brunswick, and less science than British
Columbia students (Lapointe, Mead, & Phillips, 1989). The 1991 IAEP found
Ontario 13-year-olds knew less mathematics than students in virtually every other
province, and less science than their peers in Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec,
Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and Manitoba. Of 9-year-olds in the four participating provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick,
those in Ontario knew the least mathematics and science (Lapointe, Askew, &
Mead, 1992; Lapoint, Mead, & Askew, 1992). The Minister of Education
described these results as “disturbing” (Silipo, 1992), and the Ministry announced
another plan of action.6
Concurrent with the announcement of the poor 1988 IAEP results, the
Ministry of Education announced a program to develop expected standards of
achievement, that is, benchmarks, and diagnostic tests to allow teachers to
39
ascertain whether students are meeting these standards. Benchmarks in
mathematics and science were to be developed by December 1989. A renewed
commitment to produce benchmarks in mathematics, by June 1992, was made
upon release of the IAEP II results (Silipo, 1992). No work was done on
diagnostic tests, and fulfilling the previous government’s commitment is not a
priority of the present government (personal communication from M. Boyd,
Minister of Education, June 1991).
The Ministry has announced Ontario’s participation in the Council of Ministers
of Education, Canada School Achievement Indicators Project (CMEC, 1991) and
the Third International Mathematics and Science Study. Involvement in these
studies will strengthen the movement toward assessment of outcomes (Raphael,
1990). Aspects of these initiatives, however, are at odds with the child-centred
educational philosophy still on the Ministry books.
THE ALTERNATIVE PARADIGM: THE OBJECTIVES-BASED APPROACH
Recent reviews of provincial educational practices suggest the child-centred ethos
is on the wane in most provinces and nations (OECD, 1989; Raphael, 1990).
Suggestions of a shift are apparent in Ontario, where the Minister of Education
recently stated that the answer to Ontario’s problems lies with common and clear
standards of attainment, improved curricula, and better teaching methods (Silipo,
1992).
The alternative paradigm is the objectives-based (mechanistic) world view. In
some this evokes images of automatons mindlessly digesting facts and numbers.
This view is unfair. It is no coincidence that the philosophy most associated with
mechanism is that of John Locke and empiricism. Empiricism was and continues
to be a cornerstone of democratic thought, arguing as it does that experience
comes mainly through the senses, and that all are equally capable of benefiting
from such experience (Lerner, 1986).
Mechanism takes the metaphor of the machine (Reese & Overton, 1970) and
represents the universe as discrete pieces operating in a spatio-temporal field. In
combination these form the reality to which all complex organizations are
reducible. Forces are applied to these components and prediction is possible.
Purpose is derived through examination of events, and purpose in itself does not
serve as cause. In education the mechanistic view is best illustrated by the
objectives-based strategies of Gagné (1968, 1975, 1977) and Bloom (Block,
1971; Ryan & Schmidt, 1979). Table 2 presents the educational practices that
stem from acceptance of the objectives-based approach.
Radwanski (1987) provides a political statement and Gronlund (1990) an
educational statement of the value of the objectives approach. No one model
satisfies all needs. Admittedly, the objectives-based model neglects somewhat the
role of structure and its influence upon perception and learning. In the field of
child development, Scarr (1982) elaborates on the mechanistic psychological
40
DENNIS RAPHAEL
TABLE 2
Corollary Issues Associated with the Objectives-Based Model of Development
Issue
Objectivesbased approach
Suggested educational practice
Active vs.
Passive
Passive
Teacher sets the pace; education must be teachercentred in that teachers determine the means and
methods of instruction; important to assess according to objective external criteria; teacher can
readjust instruction if child is not learning.
Holism vs.
Elementarism
Elementarism
Focus upon the components of instruction; teach
and assess component skills to derive higher-order
skills; since cognitive and affective skills grow in
tandem, provide successes in learning; since generalization must be taught, provide transfer of
training; assess same.
Structure-Function
vs. AntecedenceConsequence
AntecedenceConsequence
Provide instruction so that successful learning will
occur; since learning should follow successful
instruction, assess the success of instruction through
objective means.
Structural vs.
Behavioural
Change
Behavioural
Since changes within the child cannot be assessed
use objective measures of performance, see what
the child can do at a variety of tasks.
Qualitative vs.
Quantitative
Change
Quantitative
Change occurs as the result of accumulation of
parts; identify components of change; teach, and
assess same.
Stages
No Stages
Identify components of development; promote
movement through teaching of component skills.
Unidirectional vs.
Multidirectional
Course
Multidirectional
Assume many ways of learning; teachers provide a
variety of learning strategies to students such as
cognitive strategies; accept a variety of ways to
learn and teach.
Internal vs.
External
Sources of Energy
External
The environment can direct and effect change; use
assessment to define effectiveness of instructional
approaches.
model and its role; his probabilistic epigenetic approach deals with some of the
model’s weaknesses. Lerner’s (1986) dynamic interactionism moves beyond strict
mechanistic tenets. The strengths and optimism of the objectives-based model,
41
and its suggestions about the role of instruction and assessment in improving
learning, provide a powerful argument for a shift away from the child-centred
model.
Interestingly, researchers in child psychology and development have become
increasingly critical of Piagetian stage-type constructivist approaches. (See Kuhn,
1986 for a recent review.) Kuhn identifies two main weaknesses:
First, the actions generated by the individual’s cognitive system that give rise to change
are described by the model in such general abstract terms that it is not easy to draw on
the model in conceptualizing the varieties of more specific, cognitively salient acts the
individual engages in, and their likely influence on cognitive development. . . . The
second limitation, closely related to the first, is that in emphasizing the role of the
individual’s own self generated actions, the constructivist model neglects the social
context in which these actions, and therefore cognitive development occur. The
constructivist process, whatever its precise nature, does not take place in a vacuum.
(Kuhn, 1986, p. 229)
The dissatisfaction with Piagetian-type constructivist approaches noted by
Kuhn is responsible for the increasing enthusiasm for Vygotskian (Vygotsky,
1962) approaches. As reviewed by Belmont (1989), one aspect of this enthusiasm
is the strong instructional orientation of the Vygotskian approach and its
emphasis on the social nature of learning. Although not explicitly noted by the
objectives-based approach, the social context is necessarily included in the design
and delivery of instruction, a key component of the model.
SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS
Since Living and Learning (Ontario Ministry of Education, 1968), the childcentred credo has dominated Ontario education. Radwanski (1987) and other
critics question the very foundation of the approach; poor achievement results
support these criticisms. This approach limits enthusiasm for assessment and
reduces public accountability, as evidenced by the failure of OAIP. I have outlined the limitations of the child-centred approach and presented the alternative,
objectives-based approach. For those who believe that instruction can make a
difference, that most children can learn most material, especially the basics, and
that assessment provides a powerful tool for ascertaining whether we are reaching our goals, the child-centred view has outlived its usefulness; assessment
programs that can verify achievement of educational objectives are necessary
(Raphael, 1990).
Acceptance of the objectives-based approach is well under way in most
Canadian provinces,7 the United States, and nations around the world (CMEC,
1988; OECD, 1989; Raphael, 1990). The participation of the nine largest
provinces in the 1991 International Assessment of Educational Progress, and the
42
DENNIS RAPHAEL
commitment of all provinces except Saskatchewan (which now has observer
status) to the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, School Achievement
Indicators Project show the increasing acceptance of this approach. The Ontario
education bureaucracy, however,8 still marches to the tune of the child-centred
drummer, even though this tune is no longer popular with the public and is
abandoned almost everywhere else in the world. It remains to be seen how long
the music will continue to play without dancing by or approval from the public.
NOTES
1
University-bound students have traditionally been required to complete a core of additional
courses, hence the grade 13. More recently these courses are now called Ontario Academic Credits
(OAC) rather than grade 13.
2
A version of this paper was first presented at a meeting of the Effects of Changes in Assessment
Policy Group, at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Ontario, in November
1988. The paper was updated for distribution at the December 1989 meeting of the Association
of Educational Research Officers of Ontario (AERO) in Toronto. The present version was written
November 1992, 24 months after election of the NDP provincial government.
3
I have chosen to concentrate on two psychological models and the associated educational
approaches. There are, however, at least four major schools of thought specifically concerned with
children and learning: cognitive developmental, behaviourist, information processing, and
humanistic (Good & Brophy, 1986).
4
An interesting episode illustrates the translation of this approach into educational practice. I made
a presentation on the relatively low level of science achievement in Ontario to a group of teachers
in Ottawa. One teacher said that “If students enjoyed working with science-type materials such
as magnets or mirrors, I really don’t care if they learned anything.” A principal standing nearby
stated, “As an educator I fully agree with that view, but as a parent it scares me to death.”
5
The issue is an active one in Ontario, as shown by contributions such as that by Doreen Kronick
in the Toronto Star (1989, October 2): “Most boards have embraced the whole language approach
to reading and spelling which means that spelling, grammar, decoding, and learning to write have
been replaced by reading for meaning and spontaneous writing. They underestimate the difficulty
inherent in learning to spell, decode and write with skill.”
6
It is impossible to draw upon published documents to identify the strategic processes of how these
decisions are made. Press releases provide politically astute presentations of actions but true
motivations for government action frequently remain obscure.
7
Not surprisingly, the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s attempt to implement aspects of
a child-centred approach through the “Year 2000” initiative is sparking controversy.
8
The Ministry of Education working paper The Common Curriculum (1993) takes the child-centred
approach to even further extremes. The document outlines a non-subject–discipline approach from
grades K to 9: “Subject matter and outcomes are organized into broad program areas rather than
traditional subject disciplines” (p. 1).
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Bramwell, J.R., & Vigna, R. (1979). Evaluation instruments locally developed in Ontario. Toronto:
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Good, T.L., & Brophy, J.E. (1986). Educational psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Longman.
Gronlund, J. (1990). Measurement and evaluation in teaching. New York: MacMillan.
Holmes, M. (1991). The values and beliefs of Ontario’s chief education officers. In K. Leithwood
& D. Musella (Eds.) Understanding school system administration: Studies of the contemporary
chief education officer (pp. 154–174). New York: Falmer.
Kuhn, D. (1988). Cognitive development. In M. Bornstein & M. Lamb (Eds.), Developmental
psychology: An advanced textbook (pp. 205–260). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Kuhn, T.S. (1962). The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Lapoint, A., Askew, J., & Mead, N. (1992). Learning science. Princeton NJ: Educational Testing
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Lapoint, A., Mead, J., & Askew, J. (1992). Learning mathematics. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing
Service.
Lapoint, A., Mead, N., & Phillips, G. (1989). A world of differences: Report of the International
Assessment of Educational Progress. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.
Lerner, R.M. (1986). Concepts and theories of human development. New York: Random House.
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developmental psychology: Personality and socialization (pp. 26–52). New York: Academic
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McLean, L.D. (1987a). Teaching and learning chemistry in Ontario in the Senior Division. Toronto:
McLean, L.D. (1987b). Teaching and learning physics in Ontario in the Senior Division. Toronto:
McLean, L.D., Raphael, D., & Wahlstrom, M.W. (1984). Intentions and attainments in the teaching
and learning of mathematics: Report on the second international mathematics study in Ontario.
Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Education.
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Ontario Department of Education. (1968) Living and learning: The report of the Provincial
Committee on the Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario. Toronto: Author.
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Ontario Ministry of Education. (1989a). Science is happening here. Toronto: Author.
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Scarr, S. (1982). Development is internally guided, not determined. Contemporary Psychology, 27,
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Talesniak, I., & McLean, L.D. (1987). Report of the 1983 field trials in Chemistry, Senior Division.
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Wahlstrom, M.W., Danley, R., & Raphael, D. (1977). Measuring achievement at the primary and
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Dennis Raphael is in the Department of Behavioural Science, Faculty of Medicine, University of
Toronto, McMurrich Building, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1A8.
L’utilisation pédagogique d’outils informatiques
de gestion de données à l’école primaire
Colette Deaudelin
Jean Loiselle
Marielle Pratte
université du québec à trois rivières
Une analyse des recherches portant sur l’utilisation des systèmes de gestion de base de
données et des banques de données dans l’enseignement au primaire et une enquête faite
dans le milieu scolaire québécois mettent en évidence les contributions possibles de ces
outils dans un contexte d’apprentissage. L’article fait également état des limites actuelles
des outils informatiques de gestion de données et propose des éléments de prospective.
Research on database management systems and on databases for primary education available in Quebec show how these tools may be helpful to learners — and in what ways the
tools are limited in educational application.
INTRODUCTION
Au cours des dernières décennies, la quantité d’information que l’individu, qu’il
soit adulte ou enfant, doit traiter s’est accrue de façon considérable. Des outils
informatisés de gestion de l’information maintenant disponibles viennent combler
des lacunes à ce niveau. Outre le fait qu’ils soient bien adaptés à ce type de
tâche, ils possèdent en plus un grand potentiel éducatif, notamment en ce qui a
trait au développement d’habiletés à traiter l’information et à résoudre des
problèmes (Bibeau, 1986; Hunter, 1985; Malo et Cloutier, 1990; Repartir, 1990).
L’introduction de tels outils en milieu scolaire est toutefois récente comme le
montre le nombre de projets INNOVATION1 subventionnés en milieu scolaire
(Meynard, 1987): un seul projet portant sur l’utilisation de systèmes de gestion
de base de données en milieu scolaire a été enregistré de 1984 à 1987. Du côté
de la recherche, ce n’est aussi que récemment que l’on s’est penché sur les outils
informatisés de gestion de l’information en fonction de leur utilisation par des
élèves du primaire.
Quel est l’état de la recherche en ce qui a trait à l’utilisation d’outils informatisés de gestion de l’information par des élèves du primaire, quelle utilisation
fait-on de tels outils à l’école primaire au Québec et quelles sont les tendances
de développement de ces outils, telles sont les questions que nous abordons dans
le présent article. Après une revue de quelques concepts liés aux outils de gestion
de données, nous nous penchons sur les principaux résultats de recherche portant
sur ce type d’outils et les élèves du primaire. Le texte trace ensuite un portrait
46
REVUE CANADIENNE DE L’ÉDUCATION
18:1 (1993)
OUTILS INFORMATIQUES À L’ÉCOLE PRIMAIRE
47
québécois des utilisations pédagogiques des outils informatisés de gestion de
l’information à l’école primaire. Enfin, un regard est jeté sur les développements
technologiques susceptibles de repousser les limites des systèmes de gestion de
bases de données actuellement sur le marché.
BASES, BANQUES ET SYSTÈMES DE GESTION DE BASE DE DONNÉES:
QUELQUES DÉFINITIONS
Généralement, on réfère aux outils informatiques de gestion des données par
l’expression “base de données.” Une revue de la littérature nous confronte
toutefois à des acceptions différentes de cette expression. Une étude des
définitions de Legendre (1988), Plante, Simard, Proulx et Lavoie (1987), Boivin
et Duquet-Picard (1988), Don (1988), de Villers (1989), Ginguay et Lauret
(1987), Matte et Villardier (1987) et Morvan (1988) a permis une définition
exhaustive des concepts de “base de données,” “banque de données” et de
“système de gestion de base de données” (Deaudelin et Pratte, 1990; Pratte,
1990). Cette étude nous amène à retenir les termes de “base” et de “banque de
données” pour référer à des ensembles structurés de données pouvant être
consultés et gérés à l’aide d’un outil informatique. Dans le cas de la base de
données, l’usager peut créer, consulter et traiter l’ensemble des données tandis
que dans celui de la banque, les données ne peuvent être que consultées par
l’usager puisque l’ensemble des données est généralement de grande dimension
et géré par un organisme extérieur. Quant au concept de système de gestion de
base de données (SGBD), il permet de référer à l’outil informatique qui rend
précisément possible la constitution et le traitement de ces contenus.
LES RECHERCHES CONCERNANT L’UTILISATION D’OUTILS DE GESTION
DE DONNÉES AU PRIMAIRE
Une recension des recherches faite à partir des principales banques de données
relatives à l’éducation en Amérique du Nord et en Europe2 met en évidence le
potentiel éducatif de tels outils. La méthode utilisée pour cette recension de
même que les résultats de l’analyse des recherches répertoriées sont présentés
dans les sections qui suivent.
La méthodologie
Le corpus des recherches a été constitué à partir de l’interrogation des principales
banques de données, soit ERIC, FRANCIS, EDUQ, Canadiana, Dissertation
Abstracts International, ONED, Cahier de projets de recherche-développement
1986–1989 (APO Québec, 1989) et enfin l’Inventaire de la recherche universitaire au Québec. Les descripteurs retenus sont les suivants: (1) base de
48
DEAUDELIN, LOISELLE ET PRATTE
données — banque de données — logiciel-outil — progiciel — application; (2) éducation — enseignement — apprentissage — école; (3) primaire — élémentaire; (4)
de 1985 à 1990; (5) tous les types de documents; sauf administration et
bureautique. La consultation de ces différents répertoires a permis d’identifier 16
recherches.
Nous avons recueilli des informations sur les objectifs visés, sur les méthodes
utilisées ainsi que sur les principaux résultats obtenus par ces recherches.
L’examen des objectifs et des résultats des recherches révèle deux ensembles de
préoccupations: celles portant sur la stratégie pédagogique et celles concernant
l’identification ou l’évaluation des caractéristiques des logiciels. Quant à
l’analyse des méthodes de recherche, nous avons retenu une typologie élaborée
en fonction des buts et des méthodes de recherche. Ces buts, tels que présentés
par de Landsheere (1982), sont ici énumérés ainsi que les méthodes les plus
susceptibles d’en permettre l’atteinte selon les auteurs consultés:
— mettre en évidence des relations causales ou des relations fonctionnelles
entre variables: la méthode expérimentale (Borg et Gall, 1983; Ouellet,
1982; Robert, 1982), la méthode comparative (Borg et Gall, 1983; Ouellet,
1982) et la méthode d’identification de relations causales (Selltiz,
Wrightsman et Cook, 1977);
— décrire un processus: méthode historique (Borg et Gall, 1983; Robert,
1982) et méthode descriptive (Ouellet, 1982; Robert, 1982; Selltiz,
Wrightsman et Cook, 1977);
— résoudre un problème: recherche-développement (Borg et Gall, 1983;
Ouellet, 1982);
— évaluer un processus, un produit: méthode évaluative (Borg et Gall, 1983).
Analyse des recherches répertoriées
Les trois aspects pris en compte dans les recherches analysées sont ici présentés.
Les objectifs visés par les recherches analysées
Les objectifs des recherches répertoriées concernent généralement les stratégies
d’intégration pédagogique ou les logiciels utilisés. Il est à noter que toutes les
recherches concernent le deuxième cycle du primaire alors que 30% de ces
recherches s’intéressent aussi au premier cycle du primaire. Une majorité des
recherches (55% dans le cas des SGBD et 50% dans le cas des banques de
données) vise le développement de stratégies pédagogiques permettant l’intégration des systèmes de gestion de bases de données et des banques de données au
primaire (Bordier, Labelle et Paquette, 1987; Dallaire Klinck et Beauchamp
Payer, 1989; Dauphinais, 1986, 1988; Gagné cité dans APO Québec, 1989;
Labelle, Robitaille et Lagacé cité dans APO Québec, 1989; Perron cité dans APO
49
Québec, 1989; Pratte cité dans APO Québec, 1989; Pratte, 1990; Ruelland, 1988;
Skillen, 1986). Certaines décrivent des pratiques permettant la consultation de la
banque de données américaine Compuserve (Teague, Teague et Marchionini,
1987) ou évaluent certains aspects de ces pratiques (par exemple, la capacité
qu’ont des élèves à utiliser des banques de données sur disques compact “CD
ROM”; Teague et al., 1987). D’autres recherches visent également la mise au
point de logiciels mieux adaptés aux besoins des élèves du primaire (Paquette,
1989a, 1989b; Pratte cité dans APO Québec, 1989; Skillen, 1986) alors qu’une
autre vise exclusivement l’élaboration de produits informatisés (Dauphinais,
1986). Enfin, des recherches portent sur les caractéristiques mêmes que devraient
présenter les logiciels s’adressant à des élèves du primaire (Dauphinais, 1989;
Scardamalia, Bereiter, McLean, Smallow et Woodruff, 1989).
Les méthodes utilisées
En regard de la typologie retenue, trois méthodes sont privilégiées. Comme nous
pouvions l’anticiper à la lecture des objectifs, dans 59% des cas, une méthode
de recherche-développement est utilisée. D’autres recherches (24%) s’appuient
plutôt sur des méthodes descriptives ou comportent, dans 24% des cas, une
dimension évaluative.3
Les résultats obtenus dans les recherches analysées
Les résultats des recherches répertoriées concernent principalement les stratégies
d’intégration pédagogique et les caractéristiques des logiciels.
L’analyse des écrits met en évidence certaines caractéristiques sous-jacentes
aux stratégies pédagogiques développées. Parmi les plus souvent mentionnées,
on retrouve: l’intégration des matières (ou à tout le moins le recours à plusieurs
matières); la démarche expérimentale et la démarche de résolution de problèmes;
la créativité; l’aspect signifiant de telles activités; la nécessité que de telles
stratégies mettent l’accent sur le traitement de l’information et les représentations
variées qui favorisent ce processus de traitement.
Quant aux étapes nécessaires à la réalisation de telles stratégies pédagogiques,
une majorité des recherches ayant abordé cette question réfère en fait aux
principales étapes de toute activité éducative, à savoir une mise en situation, une
situation d’apprentissage incluant des activités d’exploration et des activités
d’apprentissage, une situation d’évaluation et une situation de réinvestissement.4
Au plan des caractéristiques générales que devraient présenter les logiciels
conçus pour des élèves du primaire, la recherche de Skillen (1986) souligne que
ces logiciels doivent soutenir la démarche de construction de savoirs de l’élève
par des interventions qui visent essentiellement à rendre manifestes les activités
de construction du savoir, à encourager l’élève à diversifier ses stratégies
50
d’apprentissage, à lui fournir un feedback sur le processus d’apprentissage qu’il
utilise et enfin, à lui permettre de coopérer à l’apprentissage des autres.
Malgré le nombre relativement faible de recherches répertoriées, nous pouvons
néanmoins dégager certaines tendances dans l’utilisation des SGBD et des
banques de données que préconisent ces recherches. On y souligne bien l’importance d’insister sur la démarche de résolution de problèmes en mettant l’accent
sur le développement d’habiletés métacognitives. Quant à la facture des logiciels,
le nombre de recherches est relativement faible et les conclusions qu’on y
retrouve risquent de devenir rapidement désuètes étant donné la rapidité de
développement des nouvelles technologies.
Enfin, en ce qui a trait aux limites de la présente recherche, les méthodologies
utilisées dans la majorité des recherches recensées limitent grandement la
généralisation des résultats rapportés ici. Dans le cas de recherches descriptives
ou évaluatives, les limites sont liées tant aux caractéristiques très particulières et
au nombre souvent peu élevé de sujets interrogés ou observés qu’aux environnements informatiques spécifiques dans lesquels se sont déroulées les recherches.
Dans le cas des recherches dont la préoccupation principale est le développement
de produit, les limites sont liées à deux aspects. D’une part, nous avons dû
recourir à des sources de seconde main. D’autre part, lorsqu’un rapport est
disponible, celui-ci fournit généralement peu d’information sur l’impact de tels
outils sur l’apprentissage des élèves de niveau primaire, dans la mesure où de
telles recherches procèdent à la validation du produit développé auprès d’un
nombre restreint d’élèves.
Les écrits recensés mettent en évidence l’apport possible des SGBD dans un
contexte d’apprentissage, mais renseignent peu sur l’utilisation de tels outils en
milieu scolaire. La section qui suit fait état de cette utilisation à l’école primaire
au Québec.
ÉTAT DE LA SITUATION DANS LES ÉCOLES PRIMAIRES QUÉBÉCOISES
Nous présentons la méthodologie utilisée pour tracer un portrait québécois des
utilisations pédagogiques des systèmes de gestion de base de données (SGBD)
et des banques de données à l’école primaire, pour ensuite faire état des
principaux résultats obtenus.
Méthodologie
La collecte des données
Une enquête faite auprès de quelques 335 responsables du dossier des applications pédagogiques de l’ordinateur dans tous les établissements privés et les
commissions scolaires francophones, anglophones et allophones du Québec a
permis d’identifier 109 expériences d’utilisation d’un SGBD en classe, appelées
51
activités. Un premier questionnaire, composé essentiellement de questions
fermées, a été utilisé afin d’identifier l’activité au moyen d’une courte description
tout en précisant le niveau d’enseignement, le type d’environnement (Macintosh,
IBM ou autre, le nom de l’organisme subventionnaire supportant l’activité (si tel
était le cas), et enfin le nom de la personne responsable de l’activité. Un
deuxième questionnaire envoyé à cette personne a permis de valider les informations recueillies lors de cette première collecte et d’obtenir, au moyen de 11
questions ouvertes, des informations sur:
— la problématique qui a amené l’élaboration du projet;
— les objectifs poursuivis;
— la démarche pédagogique (contextes informatique et pédagogique);
— les principaux apprentissages faits;
— les difficultés rencontrées et des solutions possibles.
L’analyse des données
Différents cadres d’analyse ont été utilisés selon qu’il s’agissait de traiter les
données concernant les objectifs poursuivis et leur degré d’atteinte, ou celles
concernant les démarches pédagogiques utilisées. Quant aux difficultés rencontrées, nous avons analysé les données à partir d’un cadre émergent.
Afin d’analyser les objectifs poursuivis, nous inspirant d’une distinction faite
par le Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec (1985), nous avons considéré les trois
rôles suivants joués par l’application:
(1) objet d’apprentissage: l’objectif d’apprentissage est d’abord de connaître
l’outil;
(2) outil de travail: l’outil informatique est ici utilisé afin de faciliter certaines
étapes d’un travail nécessitant le traitement d’une quantité importante de
données; l’attention n’est alors pas portée sur les apprentissages au niveau
du traitement de l’information, mais plutôt sur la tâche que l’outil permet
de réaliser plus facilement;
(3) outil d’apprentissage: dans ce dernier cas, l’utilisation du logiciel vise
d’abord et avant tout le développement d’habiletés liées au traitement de
l’information.
Étant donné les potentialités des SGBD en regard du développement de
certaines habiletés intellectuelles, il semble important de distinguer, d’après la
typologie de Gagné et Briggs (1979), trois catégories d’objectifs:
(1) les informations verbales et les habiletés intellectuelles de premier niveau:
l’apprentissage d’informations verbales correspond à l’apprentissage de
faits (savoir, par exemple, que la vache est un mammifère) tandis le
développement d’habiletés intellectuelles de premier niveau réfère en fait
au développement de la capacité à discriminer et à acquérir des concepts
52
concrets. À titre d’exemple, discriminer la ligne droite de la ligne courbe
et maîtriser le concept de nombre pour ensuite identifier correctement un
triangle quelconque constituent des habiletés de premier niveau;
(2) les habiletés intellectuelles de niveau supérieur et les stratégies cognitives:
nous regroupons dans cette catégorie la capacité à appliquer des règles
complexes et, au plan des stratégies cognitives, l’habileté à induire de
telles règles;
(3) les objectifs d’ordre affectif: cette catégorie d’objectifs regroupe ceux qui
concernent la modification d’attitudes (par exemple, développer le goût de
la lecture).
Quant à la démarche pédagogique privilégiée, le modèle de stratégie pédagogique proposé par Pratte (1990) a guidé l’analyse des informations recueillies.
Deux phases sont prises en compte: la préparation (contexte informatique et
contexte pédagogique) de l’activité et son déroulement (mise en situation,
situation d’apprentissage et situations d’évaluation et de réinvestissement).
Les résultats
Un portrait quantitatif
L’enquête a permis de répertorier, dans les écoles primaires du Québec, 109
activités exploitant les SGBD tandis qu’aucune ne mettait à profit les banques
de données. Ce nombre représente un taux qui peut être qualifié de moyen si l’on
considère le nombre de questionnaires envoyé, soit 350, mais il est tout de même
faible si l’on considère le nombre d’établissements visés par notre enquête, soit
1954.
Dans 35% des cas, ces projets abordent différents thèmes en sciences de la
nature alors que, dans 30% et 28% des cas, ce sont respectivement les sciences
humaines et la langue maternelle qui sont privilégiées. Ces activités sont plus
souvent réalisées au deuxième cycle du primaire (72% des cas).
Les objectifs poursuivis
Lorsque la visée de l’enseignant est liée à une meilleure utilisation des moyens
d’enseignement (voir la section centrale du tableau 15), dans 70% des cas,
l’attention est portée sur l’utilisation de ces applications comme “outil
d’apprentissage.” Dans 44% des cas, les projets privilégient l’apprentissage
d’informations verbales ou le développement d’habiletés intellectuelles de
premier niveau (habiletés à discriminer, à identifier certains objets en fonction
de certaines caractéristiques). À titre d’exemples, les SGBD sont utilisés pour
compiler des informations sur les animaux, les régions touristiques ou encore les
53
plantes du Québec. Bien que ce soit dans une proportion moindre, certains
projets (23%) visent le développement d’habiletés intellectuelles de niveau
supérieur. Parmi celles qui sont le plus souvent mentionnées, on retrouve les
habiletés liées à la résolution de problèmes, les habiletés à établir des liens, à
émettre des hypothèses, etc. Des objectifs d’ordre affectif sont visés dans 4% des
projets; ils concernent le plus souvent l’autonomie de l’élève, le travail d’équipe
et les relations interpersonnelles.
TABLEAU 1
Degré d’atteinte des objectifs et autres apprentissages faits
en fonction des catégories d’apprentissage considérées
Degré d’atteinte des objectifs
Sans info.
sur le
degré
d’atteinte
Non
atteints
10%
1%
9%
10%
2%
8%
cognitif
(1er niv.)
43%
35%
8%
ouia
cognitif
(niv. sup.)
23%
18%
5%
ouib
4%
4%
5%
2%
5%
5%
Objectifs
atteints
Objectifs
Démarche
Apprentissages
non prévus
Moyens
Objet
d’apprentissage
Outil
d’app.
affectif
Outil de travail
Autres
100%
a
b
c
ouic
3%
100%
Une faible proportion des informations fournies témoigne d’apprentissages non prévus
De l’ensemble des informations fournies au sujet de cette catégorie d’apprentissage,
45% d’entre elles témoignent d’apprentissages non prévus
Une forte majorité des informations fournies en regard de cette catégorie d’objectifs,
soit 92%, indique des apprentissages non prévus.
54
Le degré d’atteinte des objectifs
Comme en témoigne le tableau 1, lorsque des informations sont disponibles,6
elles indiquent un haut degré d’atteinte des objectifs. Autre fait intéressant mis
en évidence dans le tableau 1 (dernière colonne) est que des apprentissages non
prévus par les enseignants ayant réalisé ces activités ont aussi été observés. C’est
le cas des apprentissages cognitifs de niveau supérieur et des apprentissages
d’ordre affectif.
Au plan affectif, la proportion d’apprentissages non prévus est importante. Les
observations faites témoignent d’une plus grande motivation, d’un plus grand
intérêt, d’une ardeur au travail extraordinaire et d’un grand enthousiasme des
élèves. Il va de soi que de tels résultats peuvent être attribués au fait que les
élèves savent qu’ils participent à une expérience (effet Hawthorne) ou encore à
la nouveauté de l’outil informatique mis à leur disposition. Nous pensons
toutefois que l’utilisation d’outils performants de traitement de l’information est
aussi susceptible de provoquer de tels effets au plan affectif.
Les démarches pédagogiques privilégiées
Les résultats de l’enquête mettent en évidence la diversité des mises en situation
utilisées (lecture d’un texte, “tempête d’idées,” invitation d’une personneressource, sortie). La situation d’apprentissage comprend, d’une part, des activités
d’exploration des concepts et du logiciel et d’autre part, des activités visant la
recherche d’information, l’organisation, le traitement et l’analyse des données et
enfin la présentation et la diffusion des résultats. On y précise autant les actions
qui sont posées par les élèves lors de leur travail avec le logiciel que les
interventions de la personne responsable de l’activité dans le but de préparer ou
de conclure le travail de l’élève. Les activités d’objectivation et d’évaluation
sont, quant à elles, peu souvent mentionnées. En dernier lieu, quelques activités
de réinvestissement sont décrites.
Les difficultés rencontrées
Parmi les difficultés rencontrées, certaines sont liées à la dimension matérielle:
nombre restreint d’appareils, complexité des logiciels, utilisation de logiciels en
voie de validation, accessibilité réduite à une documentation imprimée, à jour,
dans laquelle les élèves peuvent effectuer leur recherche d’information. D’autres
sont en relation avec les apprentissages mêmes que les élèves doivent réaliser au
primaire.
En résumé, cette enquête montre que des activités utilisant les SGBD sont
actuellement réalisées à l’école primaire. Malgré les difficultés rencontrées, elles
permettent pour le moins aux élèves d’établir un premier contact avec les
nouvelles technologies de l’information. Les objectifs poursuivis dans de telles
55
activités témoignent toutefois d’un “premier pas” que constituent ces activités,
car on se limite assez souvent aux objectifs cognitifs de premier niveau alors que
de l’avis de plusieurs auteurs, comme nous l’avons vu précédemment, le travail
devrait plutôt s’effectuer par rapport à des objectifs cognitifs de niveau supérieur.
On constate par ailleurs, l’absence d’activités exploitant des banques de données.
Enfin, la majorité des activités répertoriées place l’élève en situation de
conception de la base de données. Étant donné l’ampleur du travail qu’occasionne la constitution d’une base, les élèves effectuent souvent leurs recherches à
l’aide de bases de données contenant une quantité très limitée d’informations. En
terminant, il importe de souligner les limites d’une telle enquête. Nous avons
choisi de procéder à une collecte de données par le biais de questions ouvertes
afin de ne pas filtrer des informations non anticipées. Si cet instrument a rempli
adéquatement son rôle, il a cependant amené certaines difficultés dans l’analyse
des données à cause du caractère parfois sommaire des réponses fournies. Par
ailleurs, la planification de telles activités de même que la description qui en est
faite sont grandement liées à la capacité des répondants, essentiellement des
enseignants, à formuler des objectifs d’apprentissage et à en faire l’évaluation.
Compte tenu, par exemple, des difficultés inhérentes à l’évaluation d’objectifs
cognitifs de niveau supérieur, il faut considérer les résultats de la présente
recherche comme des indices de la situation vécue présentement dans le milieu
scolaire québécois. Malgré l’évolution probable de la situation décrite, les
résultats de l’enquête peuvent être utiles tant aux chercheurs qu’aux praticiens.
LES OUTILS DE GESTION DE DONNÉES: LIMITES ET PROSPECTIVE
Limites actuelles des outils de gestion des données
Les limites que présentent actuellement les outils de gestion des données sont
reliées principalement au type d’informations contenues dans les bases de
données et aux moyens qui permettent à l’usager d’accéder à cette information.
On remarque tout d’abord que les bases de données construites ou utilisées en
milieu scolaire contiennent surtout des informations factuelles. Or, comme le
notent Parsaye, Chignell, Khoshafian et Wong (1989), les usagers de bases de
données ne recherchent généralement pas une information spécifique sur un sujet
donné, mais veulent plutôt approfondir ou mettre à jour leurs connaissances. Par
conséquent, ils recherchent des connaissances, c’est-à-dire un ensemble organisé
de faits et d’idées (Bell cité dans Parsaye et al., 1989).
Plutôt que de donner accès à de telles connaissances, les bases de données
présentent généralement un ensemble de faits qui ne comportent pas nécessairement de liens évidents entre eux. Malgré la cohérence de la banque de faits
contenue dans une base de données, il n’est pas toujours facile pour l’élève de
synthétiser et d’interpréter les informations recueillies afin d’obtenir une
56
connaissance bien articulée du sujet à l’étude. La base de données fournit donc
à l’élève le matériel de base nécessaire au traitement de l’information, mais offre
peu d’aide au niveau du processus de traitement de cette information.
De plus, les bases de données traditionnelles présentent généralement les
informations d’une façon standardisée qui ne s’avère pas toujours adaptée aux
différents profils des élèves en termes d’acquis cognitifs, de maîtrise de la langue
et de profil d’apprentissage. Elles permettent à l’usager de rechercher une
information spécifique sur un thème donné, mais ne lui offrent pas la possibilité
de contrôler le degré de difficulté ou la nature des informations recherchées, ni
d’obtenir des informations adaptées à son profil d’apprentissage. Ainsi, l’usager
pour qui l’information apparaît trop complexe aura généralement peu de recours
lui permettant d’obtenir une information mieux adaptée à ses besoins. De même
celui qui privilégie une approche inductive face à un problème donné n’aura pas
nécessairement besoin du même type d’information que l’élève privilégiant une
approche déductive.
L’accès aux informations contenues dans une base de données peut également
poser certains problèmes. Bien que les SGBD offrent des possibilités multiples
au niveau de la recherche de l’information, ils imposent à l’usager un mode de
consultation structuré duquel il ne peut déroger. Lorsque l’élève désire obtenir
une information, il devra connaître les descripteurs qui le lui permettront. Or,
dans bien des cas, l’élève qui a besoin d’information sur un sujet donné ne
connaîtra pas les mots-clés associés à ce sujet et ne pourra donc accéder à
l’information requise.
Malgré ces limites, les bases de données et les SGBD actuels présentent un
intérêt pédagogique certain et constituent des outils intéressants pour l’élève
engagé dans une démarche de résolution de problèmes ou d’exploration
scientifique. Il apparaît également que les limites décrites antérieurement ne sont
pas inhérentes à la nature même des bases de données, mais décrivent plutôt un
stade de leur évolution.
Prospective
Les écrits font état de diverses expériences de recherche-développement où l’on
décrit une nouvelle génération de bases de données et de SGBD qui présentent
des possibilités nouvelles. Ces produits s’inspirent des développements récents
dans le domaine de l’intelligence artificielle et des hypermédias et proposent des
approches innovatrices au niveau de l’organisation des données, du mode d’accès
à ces données et du contenu de la base de données.
Parsaye et al. (1989) formulent un ensemble de suggestions et de recommandations visant à augmenter l’efficacité et la pertinence des bases de données
actuelles. Afin de diminuer les difficultés que l’usager peut rencontrer en
interrogeant une base de données, ces auteurs suggèrent entre autres de combiner
le mode de recherche à partir de descripteurs habituellement utilisé dans les
57
SGBD aux possibilités de navigation offertes par les hypermédias. Ainsi, l’usager
peut avoir accès au besoin à ces informations supplémentaires en sélectionnant,
à l’aide de “boutons” à l’écran, l’information qu’il juge incomplète. Selon
Parsaye et al. (1989), la navigation par hypertexte ou hypergraphique offre un
mode d’accès à l’information moins structuré mais plus naturel qui s’avère mieux
adaptée à un usager qui connaît peu le domaine et qui désire l’explorer librement.
Par contre, le caractère associatif et non-linéaire de la navigation par
hypertexte peut entraîner certaines difficultés. Dans de tels systèmes, l’absence
de moyens sophistiqués de recherche de l’information oblige l’usager à naviguer
de façon intuitive à l’intérieur du système pour tenter de trouver un cheminement
qui l’amènera à l’information voulue. Comme le note Barden (1989), il est
possible que l’usager se “perde” dans l’ensemble d’informations et de cheminements disponibles. Dans un tel cas, un SGBD qui offre ces deux modes de
recherche de l’information conviendrait donc mieux à un plus grand nombre
d’usagers.
D’autres développements contribuent à améliorer l’interface nécessaire à la
recherche d’informations à l’intérieur d’une base de données. Plusieurs SGBD
offrent maintenant la possibilité de questionner la base de données de façon
simple et naturelle. Par exemple, certains SGBD disponibles sur le marché
permettent un questionnement à partir d’exemples (“query-by-example”). Ces
produits permettent de retrouver tous les enregistrements qui correspondent à un
ensemble de caractéristiques particulières décrites à l’aide d’un tableau.
Ces méthodes de questionnement sont généralement simples et adaptées à
l’élève. Cependant, elles n’offrent pas toujours une grande souplesse et l’usager
doit se conformer aux règles syntaxiques qui les régissent. D’autres produits
offrent des langages de questionnement proches du langage naturel qui
permettent de réaliser des recherches complexes. De tels langages simplifient la
recherche de l’information pour l’usager qui n’a pas à maîtriser un ensemble de
conventions complexes.
Malgré leur plus grande souplesse, ces langages demeurent toutefois formels
et axés uniquement sur une forme textuelle de questionnement, ce qui limite
leurs possibilités (Goldman, Goldman, Kanellakis et Zdonik, 1990). Certains
auteurs (Bryce et Hull, 1990; Goldman et al., 1990) proposent des SGBD qui
offrent un mode de questionnement à partir d’éléments graphiques. L’usager peut
alors stocker l’information ou effectuer des recherches au moyen de schémas
représentant la structure des données contenues dans la banque. Ces schémas
mettent en évidence les liens unissant les données de la base, en illustrant la
nature des principaux champs, les attributs associés à chacun de ces champs et
les descripteurs possibles. L’usager peut effectuer une recherche à l’intérieur de
la banque en sélectionnant les divers éléments du schéma qui correspondent aux
champs et aux descripteurs appropriés et en liant ces éléments à l’aide de divers
symboles (→, >, <) décrivant les relations entre ces divers éléments.
58
L’inclusion de systèmes-experts à l’intérieur d’une base de données offre
également des possibilités intéressantes. Pour Parsaye et al. (1989), l’association
d’une base de données et d’un système-expert présente plusieurs avantages.
L’ajout d’un système-expert rendra possible l’interprétation de demandes d’informations plus complexes et permettra au système, à partir des informations
obtenues en questionnant l’usager, de suggérer des données potentiellement
intéressantes lorsqu’une recherche de l’usager s’avère infructueuse. Si, par
exemple, l’usager effectue une recherche sur les baleines, et n’obtient pas les
informations désirées, le système-expert pourrait dépister une erreur commise
dans l’orthographe du descripteur demandé, suggérer l’emploi de descripteurs
apparentés (“rorqual,” “béluga”) ou encore proposer à l’élève l’emploi de descripteurs plus généraux (“cétacés,” “mammifères marins”).
Les développements décrits ci-dessus contribueront sans doute à accroître la
flexibilité des bases de données. Cette flexibilité dans le stockage et la recherche
de l’information est également accrue par l’adoption des techniques associées à
la programmation objet (Manola, 1990; Parsaye et al., 1989; Zdonik et Maier,
1990). Ces progrès pourraient faciliter l’utilisation des bases de données et
permettront au système d’assister davantage l’usager dans sa recherche d’informations.
Enfin, malgré la diversité des modes de représentation utilisées, les bases de
données, comme leur nom l’indique, se limitent généralement au traitement de
données et non de connaissances articulées. D’autres produits, tels les systèmes
à bases de connaissances, offrent également la possibilité de gérer des
informations. Ces systèmes contiennent un ensemble de faits, de relations et de
règles qui constitue une expertise dans un domaine donné (Walters et Nielson,
1988). Ces systèmes offrent généralement à l’usager des possibilités de
questionnement qui mettent en relief certains des éléments de connaissances de
la base. Bien que ces produits se distinguent des bases de données par la nature
des informations et par le mode d’accès à ces informations, ils peuvent également contribuer à développer chez l’élève des habiletés liées au traitement de
l’information.
CONCLUSION
L’enquête menée au Québec, le corpus des recherches analysées de même que
les éléments de prospective présentés précédemment montrent l’apport des outils
de gestion des données à l’apprentissage à l’école primaire, car l’enquête
démontre que les objectifs d’apprentissage poursuivis par les responsables des
projets sont généralement atteints. De plus, la recension des écrits révèle des
possibilités intéressantes de ces outils au niveau du développement d’habiletés
intellectuelles de niveau supérieur. L’évolution des outils de gestion des données
pourrait faciliter l’atteinte d’objectifs orientés vers ce type d’habiletés. La
59
recension des écrits et l’enquête réalisée nous amènent à croire que l’utilisation
d’outils de gestion de données deviendra plus fréquente en milieu scolaire et que
les activités réalisées seront davantage axées vers le développement d’habiletés.
C’est un début certes, mais un début néanmoins prometteur. Le faible nombre de
recherches répertoriées montre que des efforts doivent être faits de ce côté.
D’une part, le développement de produits adaptés à la clientèle du primaire doit
se poursuivre, et, d’autre part, des recherches fondamentales doivent être menées
afin de mieux cerner l’impact de l’utilisation de tels outils sur le processus
d’apprentissage de l’enfant.
NOTES
1
Les projets INNOVATION sont des projets que le Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec subventionne
afin de favoriser la mise en place progressive d’applications pédagogiques de l’ordinateur en
milieu scolaire.
2
Cette recherche a été menée en collaboration avec le Centre de recherche sur les applications
pédagogiques de l’ordinateur (APO Québec).
3
Le total est ici supérieur à 100 puisque dans certains cas le chercheur a recours à plus d’une
méthode.
4
Ce cadre d’analyse utilisé par Pratte (1990) est inspiré de Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec
(1984) et de Basque, Bouliane, Huneault et Perron (1988).
5
Le tableau 1 met en évidence le fait que certains responsables visaient davantage, par le projet
décrit, une modification de leur démarche pédagogique, ou encore d’autres objectifs liés à un
programme de perfectionnement, par exemple.
6
Dans plusieurs cas, aucune information sur les étapes de réalisation du projet n’a été communiquée par les répondants. Ce fait peut s’expliquer de deux façons. D’une part, plusieurs activités
étaient en cours ou venaient à peine de se terminer (la collecte de données a été faite pendant les
mois d’août, septembre et octobre) et, d’autre part, la planification et la description que font les
enseignantes et les enseignants des activités qu’ils mettent sur pied n’est pas toujours assez
exhaustive.
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la même université.
Du concept à la chose: la notion de particule
dans les propos d’étudiants
Salah Benyamna
école normale supérieure de takaddoum, rabat (maroc)
Jacques Désautels
Marie Larochelle
université laval, québec
Cet article est une synthèse des résultats obtenus lors d’une étude que nous avons réalisée
auprès de 12 étudiants de la fin du collégial, et qui visait à élucider leurs usages et
représentations du concept de particule. Nous verrons comment le point de vue développé
dans le domaine de la psychosociologie des représentations (Moscovici, 1961, 1984)
quant aux modes d’appropriation par lesquels le savoir scientifique peut être rendu
digeste fournit un éclairage intéressant sur la tendance marquée que nous avons pu
observer, une fois de plus, dans les discours des étudiants, et que l’on peut résumer
comme suit: l’imputation aux phénomènes et concepts scientifiques d’un statut similaire
à celui des objets du réel usuel.
Our study considers twelve graduating high school students’ practical and theoretical
understandings of the concept of particles. The psychology of representations (Moscovici,
1961, 1984) suggests how scientific knowledge can be rendered digestible, and helps to
explain the marked tendency in student discourse to give to scientific phenomena and
concepts the same status accorded to ordinary material objects.
Lors d’une recherche antérieure réalisée par l’un de nous (Benyamna, 1981)
auprès d’étudiants du collégial, nous avons été particulièrement étonnés par la
présence marquée, voire abusive, dans leurs discours de la notion de particule
pour expliquer des phénomènes aussi variés que la propagation de la chaleur, du
son et du courant électrique. En fait, tout semblait se passer comme si les
étudiants dotaient cette notion d’une omnipotence en plus de lui imputer une
ontologie tout aussi inédite!
Certes, il nous faut observer que les étudiants font preuve d’une imagination
qui n’est pas inintéressante. Toutefois, si l’on pense aux buts que poursuit
l’éducation à la science, la substantialisation qui traverse leurs propos est
quelque peu troublante, d’autant plus qu’elle ne s’applique pas qu’à leur seule
interprétation des contenus enseignés mais aussi à ceux qu’ils inventent. S’agit-il
d’une interprétation répandue dans la population étudiante des sciences ou d’un
accident de parcours? Si oui, s’agit-il d’un problème d’apprentissage ou d’un
62
18:1 (1993)
DU CONCEPT À LA CHOSE
63
problème de méconnaissance des prémisses épistémologiques en jeu dans le
savoir scientifique? Voilà quelques-unes des questions qui ont été à la base de
la présente étude1 réalisée auprès de 12 étudiants de sciences de la fin du
collégial, et qui visait à élucider leurs usages et représentations du concept de
particule. Après avoir indiqué quelques éléments théoriques et méthodologiques
qui ont présidé à l’élaboration de cette étude, nous présentons une synthèse des
résultats obtenus.
QUELQUES ÉLÉMENTS THÉORIQUES DE L’ÉTUDE
De manière générale, notre étude sur les usages et représentations du concept de
particule auprès d’étudiants de science se situe dans la foulée du programme de
recherche portant sur les conceptions dites spontanées. On se rappelle que ce
programme,2 amorcé au début des années soixante-dix, a permis aux didacticiens
des sciences de re-découvrir, à leur façon, l’une des propositions fondamentales
de la théorie piagétienne, à savoir que les enfants n’attendent pas les premières
classes de science pour se faire une idée au sujet des phénomènes dits naturels.
Dès leur jeune âge, ils se construisent ainsi des explications à propos des
phénomènes de leur quotidien, qu’il s’agisse de la chute d’un objet, de la
succion d’un liquide à l’aide d’une paille ou encore de la fragilité des fenêtres
du voisin!
Toutefois, la découverte qui a davantage pris de court les didacticiens, si l’on
peut dire, est celle de la pérennité de ces explications au terme d’une scolarisation plus ou moins longue. Les recherches désormais classiques de Tiberghien
(1976), Viennot (1979) et Driver (1983), pour ne nommer que celles-là, sont
éloquentes. On y observe que les explications des étudiants sont truffées de mots
qui témoignent d’une certaine familiarité avec le vocabulaire scientifique
(molécules, énergie cinétique, etc.), mais, pour l’essentiel, la forme se conserve
et les “nouveaux mots” se voient dotés d’une matérialité peu compatible avec le
caractère relationnel des concepts scientifiques. Il y a donc là matière à interrogations pour les chercheurs et les enseignants, puisque des années de scolarisation ne semblent pas avoir permis aux étudiants de s’approprier un savoir
différent de celui qu’ils détenaient déjà sur le sujet. Qu’est-ce à dire? Comment
interpréter cette apparente persistance des conceptions spontanées malgré un
enseignement formel qui, règle générale, en contredit l’à-propos? Est-ce un
problème d’enseignement, un problème d’apprentissage ou encore un problème
d’accessibilité des contenus scientifiques? Voilà quelques-unes des questions
suscitées par le constat précité et qui ont conduit à re-problématiser le statut
cognitif des conceptions spontanées des étudiants (Hills, 1989; Larochelle et
Désautels, 1991). Examinons brièvement la petite histoire de cette re-problématisation.
64
BENYAMNA, DÉSAUTELS ET LAROCHELLE
À propos des conceptions spontanées
Dans les premiers mouvements du programme de recherche sur les conceptions
spontanées, celles-ci ont fait l’objet d’investigations axées essentiellement sur
l’estimation de leur degré d’adéquation aux contenus reconnus dans le corpus
scientifique auquel elles sont comparées. C’est donc une perspective normative
qui guidait l’étude de ces conceptions et on ne se souciait guère d’élucider les
conditions de leurs origines et de leur maintien. D’entrée de jeu, les dés étaient
donc pipés, si l’on peut dire; car, en confinant la portée de ces études au seul
examen de l’écart entre les conceptions des étudiants et celles dites scientifiques,
on ne pouvait aboutir qu’à traiter par la négative les conceptions dites spontanées (c’est-à-dire ce qu’elles ne sont pas), et, de ce fait, qu’à les qualifier, la
plupart du temps, d’erronées ou de préconceptions. En somme, ces conceptions
n’avaient de statut cognitif qu’en regard de leur conformité au savoir officiel.
Comme dans tout champ de connaissance, cette perspective ne ralliait toutefois pas l’ensemble des chercheurs et théoriciens, et, peu à peu, d’autres problématiques en ont renversé la prépondérance et ont contribué à redorer le blason
cognitif des conceptions spontanées, en en réhabilitant la valeur, l’intérêt et la
pertinence. Ainsi, les Pope (1982) et Gilbert et Watts (1983) mettront en exergue
l’effort de théorisation qui sous-tend ces conceptions de même que la mise à
l’épreuve empirique incessante dont leur pertinence fait l’objet, ce qui, sous
plusieurs aspects, n’est pas sans évoquer certains processus du travail “normal”
des scientifiques (repérage de similitudes et de différences, établissement de
relations en vue de construire un modèle explicatif détaché de plus en plus du
“phénomène d’origine,” etc.). Dans la même veine, Tiberghien (1989) fera
ressortir l’à-propos contextuel de ces conceptions, compte tenu des finalités
poursuivies, qui ne sont pas, rappelons-le, les mêmes que celles qui intéressent
les scientifiques. Bref, plusieurs autres travaux pourraient être cités à l’appui de
cette considération nouvelle des conceptions des étudiants qui ne seront plus
conçues comme des failles ou des “trous à combler” mais bien comme la
manifestation d’un savoir avec lequel il faut composer. En d’autres termes, si
l’on adopte l’interprétation radicale de von Glasersfeld (1989), il s’agit d’instruments d’appréhension du monde, d’“itinéraires conceptuels” dont le maintien va
de pair avec leur viabilité, c’est-à-dire avec la marge de manoeuvre qu’ils
représentent pour leur auteur dans l’organisation de ses expériences quotidiennes.
C’est donc un virage épistémologique qui s’accomplit dans le champ de la
didactique des sciences et qui conduira au remaniement du postulat suivant
lequel l’accès au savoir scientifique implique l’élimination des autres savoirs.
Toutefois, la promotion des conceptions scientifiques demeurera le leitmotiv de
ces nouvelles problématisations qui porteront cependant non seulement sur ce
que l’étudiant sait mais aussi sur comment il le sait.
Coupant les ponts avec la tradition empiriste, plusieurs chercheurs3 se pencheront sur la problématique du maintien et du changement des conceptions dites
65
spontanées afin d’en proposer une modélisation qui en épouserait mieux le
dynamisme. Parmi les modèles proposés, le plus retentissant dans le domaine est
sans doute celui développé par Posner, Strike, Hewson et Gertzog (1982).
S’inspirant à la fois des thèses de Lakatos, Kuhn et Toulmin en histoire et en
philosophie des sciences, ce modèle postule que le changement conceptuel est
une décision rationnelle (Strike et Posner, 1983). Cette décision procéderait de
l’insatisfaction qu’a la personne à l’égard de son interprétation habituelle d’un
phénomène, couplée à la reconnaissance de l’intelligibilité, la plausibilité et la
fécondité d’une nouvelle interprétation. À ces conditions, se conjugueraient
également ce que les auteurs identifient comme les composantes de l’“écologie
conceptuelle” d’une personne, et qui renvoient aux analogies, métaphores et
engagements épistémologiques et métaphysiques qui concourent au maintien
d’une représentation.
Ce modèle, intéressant à plusieurs égards, notamment par la considération, du
moins théorique, de la complexité d’un changement conceptuel, est toutefois peu
loquace sur les modalités opératoires des composantes de l’écologie conceptuelle. Or, comme le développent de façon convaincante Piaget et Garcia (1983),
l’écologie conceptuelle détermine en grande partie les conditions du changement
conceptuel, notamment en ce qui a trait à la reconnaissance d’une anomalie.4
Dans le même sens, les travaux en psychosociologie tendent à montrer que le
maintien des représentations renvoie à des critères de viabilité et de crédibilité
qui ont bien peu à voir avec les critères officiels de validité et de compréhension
théoriques utilisés dans les domaines de savoir finis de sens (Berger et Luckmann, 1986), tel le domaine scientifique. Par ailleurs, toujours dans la perspective de ces travaux, on observe que, malgré l’apparent fossé épistémologique qui
séparerait le savoir commun du savoir scientifique, ce dernier n’en serait pas
moins “recyclé” et rendu digeste selon une logique tout aussi respectable que
celle qui a présidé à son élaboration, bien que différente (Grize, 1989). Peu
connus en didactique des sciences, ces travaux ont néanmoins retenu notre
attention, notamment parce qu’ils suggèrent des pistes d’interprétation intéressantes quant aux modes d’appropriation du savoir scientifique.
QUELQUES ÉLÉMENTS MÉTHODOLOGIQUES
Le concept de représentation recouvre des usages et des définitions variées,
selon le champ de connaissance en cause et l’option théorique à laquelle il se
subordonne. Pour les besoins de cet article, nous nous contenterons de situer
notre usage de ce concept dans le prolongement des travaux qui portent sur la
problématique des représentations sociales (Moscovici, 1984) et considèrent le
discours produit par une personne au sujet d’un thème donné comme une
représentation discursive (Grize, 1984) des connaissances qu’elle a construites
sur le sujet. Par ailleurs, nos travaux se distinguent de cette dernière optique
66
dans le sens où nous nous intéressons aux processus de construction de ces
représentations de même qu’à leurs éléments de contenu plutôt qu’aux opérations langagières de leur mise en forme. En effet, nous inscrivant dans le
domaine de la didactique des sciences, nous nous intéressons aux savoirs,
notions et croyances dont disposent les étudiants pour appréhender le savoir
scientifique parce que nous pensons que toute représentation a des effets de
connaissance et constitue l’un des systèmes de référence à partir duquel les
informations prennent sens (Jodelet, 1984). Dans le même esprit, nous nous
intéressons aux processus de cette fabrication de sens, car nous pensons que le
contenu d’une représentation leur est, en partie du moins, redevable: on peut
ainsi penser que l’idée répandue d’enzyme-glouton n’est pas étrangère à un
processus d’animisation (Jacobi, 1987).
Soulignons toutefois que cette distinction entre les processus et les produits
est essentiellement analytique, la représentation étant simultanément dans le
travail mental et dans les produits finis vers lesquels tend ce travail (Moscovici,
1984). Or, si les travaux en épistémologie des sciences nous permettent un
repérage relativement aisé du cadre épistémique auquel une représentation en
tant que produit peut être associée (du réalisme naïf au constructivisme radical,
sans oublier l’empirisme logique), ce sont plutôt ceux issus de la psychosociologie des représentations qui nous semblent les plus prometteurs quant à la
compréhension des processus qui lui sont sous-jacents. Ainsi, dans un ouvrage
s’intéressant notamment au “recyclage de la science par le sens commun,”
Moscovici (1984) met en évidence les changements que subit une théorie
scientifique lors de son “entrée en culture” (non savante), par le biais de trois
processus transformatifs qui constituent autant d’opérations de remodelage et de
métamorphose d’une expérience ou d’une idée préalables.
Le premier de ces processus, dit de personnification, consiste à associer une
théorie ou un phénomène scientifique à une personne qui en devient le symbole:
“la psychanalyse à Freud, la relativité à Einstein, le conditionnement à Pavlov,
etc.” (Moscovici, 1984, p. 553). Un second processus, soit le processus de
figuration qui, selon Moscovici, montre bien les attaches de toute représentation
avec l’imagination, se caractérise par la substitution d’images aux concepts qui,
de ce fait, verront, par exemple, leur statut de “points dans un système de
propositions définies par des équations ou des raisonnements opératoires,”
transformé en un statut de quasi-métaphores, de diagrammes ou d’images sensorielles (Moscovici, 1984, p. 554). Enfin, l’ontisation, troisième processus accompagnant le passage du contenu de la science au sens commun, court-circuiterait,
si l’on peut dire, le “monde relationnel” du savoir scientifique et le transposerait
d’emblée dans celui des matérialités quotidiennes, lui conférant, selon l’expression de Moscovici, “une épaisseur de réalité.” Idées, mots et relations voient
ainsi leurs chaînes logiques raccourcies, et deviennent “choses, qualités et
forces.”
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Il y a certes là matière à réflexion pour qui s’intéresse aux effets de connaissance des programmes d’éducation à la science et, plus particulièrement, au
point de vue “interne,” si l’on peut dire, des processus et modalités par lesquels
les étudiants donnent relief et sens au savoir enseigné qui, le plus souvent, se
présente comme un savoir achevé à un point tel qu’on peut légitimement se
demander de quoi il est question en fait (Stengers, 1986). Mais avant de présenter une synthèse des données que nous avons recueillies à ce propos, voyons
comment les analogies et les métaphores peuvent également nous informer sur
le sujet qui nous préoccupe.
Analogies et métaphores
La considération dans notre étude de ces dimensions qui, dans le modèle du
changement conceptuel développé par Posner et al., ont une place de choix, tient
à plusieurs raisons interreliées. En effet, qu’il s’agisse du savoir commun ou du
savoir scientifique, les analogies et les métaphores participent à tout processus
de pensée, entre autres, selon Moscovici (1961, p. 65), lorsqu’il y a simultanément manque d’informations et exigence de significations. Toutefois, selon le
mouvement sémantique sur lequel elles reposent (Solomon, 1986), elles comporteraient des effets cognitifs variés. Par exemple, dire que le nez de Sophie est
comme une cerise repose sur un processus métaphorique bien différent de celui
qui vise à construire des liens entre deux domaines distincts du savoir, comme
l’illustre la mise en rapport des concepts d’atome et de système solaire. Dans le
premier cas, il y a une comparaison directe qui peut avoir un effet de clarification; dans le second, qui caractériserait le travail scientifique, le mouvement
sémantique est plus large et serait davantage dialectique, car, plus qu’un autre
mot, c’est un mécanisme qu’il suggère et, en cela, il peut permettre un ordre de
compréhension nouveau (Muscari, 1988).
Par ailleurs, comme l’indiquent plusieurs travaux en didactique des sciences
(Clément, 1977, 1978; Closset, 1983), les analogies et les métaphores seraient
aussi monnaie courante dans l’enseignement des sciences, notamment lorsqu’il
est question de phénomènes particulièrement contre-intuitifs, tels les phénomènes
atomiques. En l’occurrence, il nous a paru intéressant d’ajouter à notre étude des
modalités d’appropriation du savoir scientifique par les étudiants, l’examen des
métaphores et des analogies susceptibles d’animer leurs raisonnements à propos
de phénomènes physiques. S’agit-il de métaphores et d’analogies qui comportent
un certain potentiel dialectique? Favorisent-elles la révision incessante de leurs
tenants et aboutissants? Ou contribuent-elles, comme dirait Bachelard (1977), à
fixer (ou figer) le concept dans l’image? Quelles informations nous fournissentelles quant aux modes d’appropriation du savoir scientifique? Voilà quelquesunes des interrogations qu’il nous importait d’élucider et qui nous ont conduits
à nous doter d’un cadre analytique fondé à la fois sur le repérage des processus
transformatifs développés plus haut et sur celui des analogies et métaphores
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susceptibles d’en témoigner. Pour ce dernier aspect, la typologie d’analogies
développée par Clément (1978) nous a semblé particulièrement prometteuse.
S’appuyant sur les idées de Nagel, Clément (1977) distingue les analogies
provoquées et les analogies spontanées: les premières renvoient aux situations où
l’on présente à un sujet deux objets en lui demandant s’ils sont semblables. Les
secondes, comme leur désignation l’indique, renvoient aux situations où c’est le
sujet lui-même qui trouve l’analogue au phénomène sous étude.
En ce qui a trait aux métaphores, nous nous sommes inspirés de plusieurs
sources (Bouchard, 1984; Einstein et Infeld, 1938; Joshua, 1983; Kuhn, 1983;
Normand, 1976; Pepper, 1966), étant donné l’absence d’une typologie dans le
domaine de la didactique des sciences. Pour les besoins de notre étude, nous
avons ainsi retenu les métaphores du billard et du fluide, la première caractérisant les sciences physiques newtoniennes et prénewtoniennes, la seconde ayant
une longue carrière dans la description de divers phénomènes de physique, sous
les vocables notamment de “chaleur-fluide” et “fluide électrique.” Voyons
maintenant les termes de l’étude concrète que nous avons réalisée.
Le contexte de cueillette des matériaux
Comme il nous importait d’examiner si la notion de particule était bien l’une des
notions favorites des étudiants de science pour expliquer des phénomènes
relativement simples de la physique, auquel cas il nous faudrait aussi en examiner les usages, l’entrevue semi-directive nous a paru constituer un instrument de
choix. En effet, tout en imposant un thème de discussion, cette technique permet
une latitude intéressante à l’interrogé pour en traiter sous une forme autre que
stéréotypée, tout en permettant à l’analyste de suivre l’organisation du discours,
l’élaboration de l’explication, bref, le dynamisme d’une représentation analytique
(Migne, 1976). Nous avons ainsi opté pour la réalisation d’entrevues individuelles fondées sur le canevas suivant: présentation d’une situation-problème au sujet
sous la forme d’une fiche qui en comporte la description, un schéma et deux
questions servant d’amorce à la discussion. Ces situations-problèmes devaient
répondre aux critères suivants: d’une part, elles devaient consister en phénomènes ou expériences réalisées (ou pouvant l’être) à l’aide d’un matériel simple
et familier. D’autre part, elles devaient, en principe, faire partie simultanément
du répertoire quotidien d’expériences des sujets, et des différents programmes
d’enseignement qu’ils avaient pu suivre. Enfin, elles devaient porter sur des
phénomènes qui, bien que n’imposant pas à priori l’usage du concept de particule, s’inscrivaient dans des domaines de la physique où se retrouvent, même
dans les phases de développement les plus avancées, des explications reposant
sur la théorie particulaire de la matière. Nous avons ainsi retenu des situationsproblèmes portant sur des phénomènes thermiques, électriques et optiques. Plus
concrètement, les situations-problèmes ont pris la forme qui suit:
69
70
Douze étudiants de science de l’ordre collégial ont ainsi été interrogés sur une
base volontaire, au cours d’entrevues d’une durée de 50 minutes. Trois interrogations principales ont guidé le découpage et l’analyse des matériaux recueillis.
Ainsi, pour élucider la première interrogation qui porte sur l’existence éventuelle
d’une tendance générale chez les étudiants à expliquer les phénomènes physiques
en termes de particules et de mouvements de particules, nous avons procédé à
un inventaire exhaustif des mentions de ces notions, de même que des notions
qui leur sont liées (électron, photon, atome, etc.). En ce qui a trait aux deux
autres interrogations, l’une portant sur les usages de la notion de particule et
l’autre sur les dynamiques cognitives sous-tendant ces usages, nous avons fait
appel à une grille d’analyse spécifique. Les éléments de celle-ci renvoient aux
processus transformatifs de personnification, de figuration et d’ontisation,
développés par Moscovici (1984); à la typologie d’analogies élaborée par
Clément (1978); et, enfin, aux métaphores du billard et du fluide.
QUELQUES RÉSULTATS
Dans un premier mouvement d’analyse, nous avons pu nous rendre compte que
ces étudiants, tout comme ceux et celles que l’un de nous avait interrogés
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quelque six années plus tôt (Benyamna, 1981), ont en très grande majorité fait
référence de façon prononcée à la notion de particule pour commenter les
phénomènes proposés (onze des douze étudiants). Cette observation tend à
appuyer l’idée qu’il s’agit d’une notion, sinon prégnante, à tout le moins
courante dans leurs explications. De plus, on remarque d’entrée de jeu que deux
caractéristiques essentielles sont généralement attribuées à ce que l’on nomme
une particule, soit la dimension (elle serait plus ou moins petite) et la forme (elle
serait sphérique). Par exemple, pour l’étudiant E-2, la particule est “. . . une
sphère comme une balle de golf”; pour E-3, “c’est comme de petites billes”; et
pour E-4, “c’est des petits points.” Par ailleurs, ces caractéristiques sont également assignées aux notions d’électron, d’atome, de molécule, de photon, qui font
partie des théories de chimie et de physique qu’ils ont étudiées. C’est ainsi que
pour l’étudiant E-11, “un électron, c’est une particule ayant la forme d’un
point”; pour E-3, “les molécules dans la barre [tige de métal], c’est comme des
billes dans une boîte”; pour E-7, “l’atome de la paraffine serait plus rond, alors
que celui du fer serait plus difforme”; et pour E-12, “un photon, c’est une
particule lumineuse. Ça serait plus petit que l’électron. C’est une particule très
très élémentaire.” En somme, il semble bien qu’appelés à définir ce qu’ils
entendent par particule ou encore par électron ou photon, les étudiants font
spontanément référence à l’univers matériel du réel usuel.
Si cette contextualisation de la notion de particule, en tant qu’objet concret et
spatialisé, est porteuse d’informations quant au statut épistémologique des
représentations des étudiants, l’usage qu’ils en font pour décrire le siège (la tige
métallique, le fil, la plaque de verre) des phénomènes, de même que les
explications de son déroulement le sont également. Cette notion est en effet
utilisée pour décrire la structure du verre, “les particules de verre sont plus
rapprochés les unes des autres que dans l’air” (E-12), ou encore celle du métal,
“un métal est constitué de particules” (E-7). D’autre part, c’est aussi cette
représentation qui est utilisée pour expliquer les processus en cause: les étudiants
parlent ainsi de déplacements, de collisions, de chocs entre des particules, et ce,
pour les trois types de phénomènes.
En l’occurrence, il semble que ce soit sous un mode réaliste que ces étudiants
élaborent leurs conceptualisations des phénomènes microscopiques qui ne
peuvent être directement observés, les expliquant ainsi par l’intermédiaire d’une
représentation concrète et macroscopique. À cette fin, ils font usage d’analogies
qui, selon Posner et al. (1982), sont partie prenante de l’écologie conceptuelle
d’une personne à partir de laquelle elle construit et rend signifiantes des
explications. Nous avons ainsi pu repérer des analogies appartenant à cinq des
six catégories définies par Clément (1978), bien qu’il ait été parfois difficile de
trancher quant à leur appartenance respective.
Quelques étudiants, particulièrement imaginatifs, ont inventé ce qui, à leurs
yeux, constitue une situation analogue à celle qu’on leur demandait d’expliquer
(analogie inventée). Ainsi, pour faire saisir le caractère essentiellement dyna-
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mique de la matière, un étudiant propose l’explication suivante: Les particules
composent l’infiniment grand. C’est comme si on a une pyramide avec beaucoup
de petites matières. Comme cette pyramide n’est pas stable, il y a tout le temps
une espèce de dynamique. Lorsqu’on se trouve à différents niveaux de la
pyramide, il y a les grosses et les petites particules, ce qui fait que ça bouge tout
le temps (E-1).
Enfin, on peut repérer dans les discours de nombreuses instances où les
étudiants substituent au phénomène à expliquer un phénomène appartenant à un
autre domaine de la science (analogie physique). Par exemple, un étudiant
compare la relation charge-électron à la relation électron-atome: “Un électron
auquel on enlève la charge devient un ion. . . . Parce que, quand tu as un atome,
si tu lui enlèves un électron, ça devient un atome chargé” (E-6). Un second
explique la propagation de la chaleur en relation avec les phénomènes d’électricité: “C’est la dépolarisation qui va permettre le déplacement des électrons puis
une augmentation de la température” (E-1).
De manière générale, les discours foisonnent ainsi d’analogies inspirées des
images concrètes sur lesquelles les étudiants prennent appui pour s’expliquer les
phénomènes. Les particules se poussent, s’entrechoquent, s’évitent, se faufilent,
au gré de la fantaisie de leur imagination. Ce constat appelle quelques
remarques. Notons d’abord que ce n’est pas le fait d’utiliser des analogies dans
l’explication qui pose problème puisque les processus intellectuels en cause
seraient à la source de toute pensée (Lakoff et Johnson, 1985). C’est plutôt que,
d’une part, les étudiants fabriquent ces analogies sans les précautions d’usage,
si l’on se réfère à l’absence dans leurs discours d’expressions du type “on peut
penser que,” “il semble que,” ou de la spécification des caractéristiques pertinentes de l’analogie, et de celles qui le sont moins, ou, encore, du concept de
modèle. D’autre part, il nous semble que le statut épistémologique des analogies
pose également problème, non seulement à cause des associations constantes à
des images concrètes, mais aussi parce qu’à travers celles-ci les étudiants
semblent substituer la description du phénomène à son explication. À ce sujet,
si on fait exception de certaines analogies qui décrivent la circulation des
électrons dans un fil, aucune de celles qui ont été proposées par les étudiants ne
pourrait suggérer une procédure opérationnelle pour caractériser le phénomène,
ou encore l’élaboration d’une stratégie expérimentale. Il est remarquable que
onze des douze étudiants interrogés n’aient à peu près jamais fait appel aux
connaissances formelles qui leur ont été enseignées, sinon par l’utilisation de
mots (photon, énergie cinétique, etc.) appartenant au vocabulaire spécialisé.
En somme, il semble que pour donner sens au savoir scientifique en ces
domaines particuliers, les étudiants puisent à même un ensemble d’analogies et
d’images inspirées des métaphores mécanicistes des boules de billard et du
fluide. Ces opérations d’assimilation, dans lesquelles ils font ainsi usage de
figures et de schémas sensibles qui représentent des objets (point, boule, sphère)
et des actions (pousser, éviter, se faufiler) familiers, peuvent être comparés aux
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processus proposés par Moscovici (1984) pour comprendre le passage de la
science au sens commun. En fait, nous avons pu mettre en évidence deux des
trois processus proposés par cet auteur, soit la figuration et l’ontisation.
La figuration, rappelons-le, consiste à substituer une image au concept. Or,
c’est bien là, croyons-nous, ce qui se passe lorsqu’on remplace les concepts
d’électron et de photon par exemple, par des images concrètes, sensibles, comme
celles de bille, de boule, de sphère. Ce faisant, on donne sens aux savoirs
enseignés par la transposition de l’explication courante à des domaines de réalité
pour lesquels elle est inappropriée.
Le processus de figuration s’accompagne la plupart du temps de celui
d’ontisation, puisque, dans le premier, il y a mise entre parenthèses du caractère
essentiellement relationnel des concepts scientifiques au profit d’une imputation
de réalité. En associant les électrons, les photons et les molécules à des images
concrètes, les étudiants confèrent à ceux-ci une certaine réalité, une place dans
l’ontologie du sens commun.
De manière générale, il semble donc que les sujets ont tendance à réifier les
concepts scientifiques, leur imputant ainsi “. . . une facticité et une matérialité
analogues, sinon plus grandes, qu’aux objets et aux êtres directement perçus”
(Moscovici, 1984, p. 562). Autrement dit, les particules (photons, électrons, etc.)
seraient de véritables choses et non plus des concepts inventés, et il suffirait
donc de les décrire pour les comprendre.
DISCUSSION
Une première piste d’interprétation de ces données conduit à des conclusions
quelque peu troublantes. Rappelons d’abord brièvement quelques-unes des
caractéristiques du statut épistémologique de la notion de particule dans le cadre
de la physique contemporaine, tel qu’il a été cerné par Bachelard (1977), sous
la forme de six propositions:
1˚ Le corpuscule n’est pas un petit corps; 2˚ le corpuscule n’a pas de dimensions absolues assignables; 3˚ corrélativement, si le corpuscule n’a pas de dimensions assignables,
il n’a pas de forme assignable; 4˚ puisqu’on ne peut attribuer une forme déterminée au
corpuscule, on ne peut pas davantage lui attribuer une place très précise; 5˚ . . . la
microphysique pose, comme un véritable principe, la perte d’individualité d’un corpuscule; 6˚ . . . la physique contemporaine admet que le corpuscule puisse s’annihiler. (p.
106–115)
En ce sens, précise Bachelard, les corpuscules sont des organisations d’objets de
pensée qui: “deviennent ensuite des objets d’expériences techniques, dans une
pure facticité de l’expérience” (p. 112). En bref, la notion de particule résulte
d’une construction intellectuelle et se démarque nettement de l’idée de chose ou
de substance matérielle. Or, dans les discours recueillis, tout semble se passer
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comme si les sujets n’avaient pas pris conscience de cette particularité du savoir
scientifique, si l’on pense à leur recours constant et répété à des analogies et des
métaphores substantialistes.
Par ailleurs, notons tout d’abord au bénéfice des étudiants, qu’ils ont très
certainement compris quelque chose à l’enseignement qu’ils ont suivi, puisqu’ils
ont tous été jugés aptes à poursuivre des études universitaires dans des facultés
exigeant de bons résultats en science (médecine, biologie, physique, chimie,
etc.). On peut dès lors supposer qu’ils sont capables de faire un usage approprié
des notions dans la solution des exercices proposés dans les examens. Sur un
autre plan, on peut également affirmer qu’ils ont compris puisque les représentations qu’ils ont élaborées à propos des phénomènes abordés, et qui plus est, du
contexte pédagogique dans lequel ils évoluaient, se sont avérées viables. Ainsi,
les mêmes données interprétées de ce nouveau point de vue ne donnent pas lieu
à des conclusions aussi troublantes, et l’on peut à la rigueur se demander si la
première interprétation n’aboutit pas à un faux problème. En quoi le fait que ces
sujets fournissent une interprétation réaliste et naïve des phénomènes pose-t-il un
problème sur le plan didactique?
Cette interrogation peut être examinée sous plusieurs angles. Du point de vue
épistémologique, qui est constitutif de l’objet même dont se réclame l’éducation
à la science, les sujets interrogés manifestent bien peu de vigilance, et leurs
représentations sont quelque peu anachroniques. Par ailleurs, si l’on admet que
la réflexion épistémologique accroît l’acuité de toute pensée critique et que le
développement de celle-ci fait partie des buts de l’éducation, on peut douter que
ces sujets aient développé les compétences intellectuelles nécessaires à son
exercice. En effet, il est difficile d’imaginer que ces derniers, pour lesquels il
semble que l’explication dans les sciences se subsume dans une description
littérale du monde sensible et qui, dans leurs discours, ne font jamais référence
au concept de modèle, puissent prendre conscience du caractère construit et
relatif des connaissances scientifiques. Ne risquent-ils pas alors, faute de pouvoir
mettre à distance ces connaissances, d’être des scientifiques peu audacieux, ou
même d’adopter des attitudes caractéristiques du scientisme?
L’interprétation épistémologique des données peut également être éclairante
en ce qui touche à l’enseignement des sciences. Tout semble en effet se passer
comme si les sujets avaient décodé le discours pédagogique en lui assignant une
signification épistémologique inspirée d’une forme de réalisme-empirisme
(Désautels et Larochelle, 1989), selon lequel la science trouverait ses objets tout
faits dans une nature habitée par un ordre immanent.
Mais peut-il en être autrement? Les résultats récents de la recherche en
didactique des sciences sont instructifs à ce propos. En effet, au cours des dix
dernières années, les chercheurs se sont intéressés de près aux dimensions
épistémologiques en jeu dans l’éducation à la science, et Duschl (1985) notamment en conclut que, pendant les vingt-cinq dernières années, l’enseignement des
sciences et la philosophie des sciences se sont mutuellement ignorés. En fait, à
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peu près tous les aspects de cet enseignement ont été analysés afin de cerner la
ou les représentations de la science qui l’inspiraient: les représentations des
enseignants (Collins, 1989; Ogunniyi, 1982), les représentations dans les programmes (Désautels, Anadon et Larochelle, 1988; Gordon, 1984), les représentations dans les manuels (Conseil des Sciences du Canada, 1984; Selley, 1989), les
représentations véhiculées tant en classe qu’en laboratoire (Geddis, 1988;
Lessard, 1989). Or, comme le souligne Hodson (1988), ce vaste ensemble
d’études tend à montrer que l’enseignement des sciences est inspiré par une
représentation empiriste, réaliste et dogmatique de la production des connaissances scientifiques. On y enseigne donc, la plupart du temps de manière
implicite, que l’observation permet de découvrir objectivement (de façon neutre)
des faits, ou encore que l’expérimentation permet de mettre au jour les lois de
la nature, et ce, indépendamment de tout contexte théorique. Bref, la science y
serait présentée comme une entreprise de divulgation du réel qui, au surplus,
jouirait d’une immunité épistémologique à toute épreuve.
C’est dans ce contexte que les étudiants sont éduqués à la science et l’asepsie
épistémologique qui le caractérise contribue de plus d’une façon à expliquer le
développement de leurs représentations. Si l’on fait exception du discours
préliminaire sur la présumée méthode scientifique, les étudiants ne sont pas
informés du fait qu’ils sont invités à participer à un nouveau jeu de la connaissance fondé sur des postulats et des règles différents de ceux qui caractérisent le
jeu de la connaissance commune. On ne peut donc pas leur reprocher d’interpréter le discours pédagogique et de se le rendre digeste dans les termes des
connaissances qu’ils ont déjà élaborées. D’autre part, ce discours pédagogique,
en n’étant pas lui-même assuré de ses propres fondements épistémologiques,
participe au renforcement des croyances réalistes caractéristiques du sens
commun.
En l’occurrence, initier les étudiants à la singularité et aux enjeux de la
production du savoir scientifique n’est certes pas vain. De plus, n’est-ce pas là
l’une des conditions essentielles pour participer de manière délibérée à la
re-production de ce savoir?
NOTES
1
Cette étude a fait l’objet de la thèse de doctorat de Benyamna (1987).
2
La bibliographie élaborée par Pfundt et Duit (1991) témoigne bien de la fécondité de ce programme.
3
Voir notamment l’ouvrage dirigé par West et Pines (1985).
4
Les succès mitigés des stratégies visant à induire un conflit cognitif sont fort instructifs à ce
propos. Voir Larochelle et Désautels, 1991.
RÉFÉRENCES
Bachelard, G. (1977, 1951). L’activité rationaliste de la physique contemporaine. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France.
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Benyamna, S. (1981). Étude comparative des manifestations d’obstacles épistémologiques chez des
enseignants du premier cycle du secondaire et des élèves des terminales scientifiques. Thèse de
maîtrise non publiée, Université Laval, Québec.
Benyamna, S. (1987). La prégnance du modèle particulaire dans les représentations d’étudiants en
science à l’égard de phénomènes naturels. Thèse de doctorat non publiée, Université Laval,
Québec.
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Klincksieck.
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Clément, J.J. (1977). The role of analogy in scientific thinking: Examples from a problem-solving
interview. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Clément, J.J. (1978). Catalogue of spontaneous analogies generated by students solving physicsproblems. Massachusetts: University of Massachusetts, Department of Physics and Astronomy.
Closset, J.-P. (1983). Le raisonnement séquentiel en électrocinétique. Thèse de doctorat non publiée,
Paris: Université de Paris 7.
Collins, A. (1989). Assessing biology teachers: Understanding the nature of science and its influence
on the practice of teaching. In D.E. Herget (Ed.), The history and philosophy of science in
science teaching. Proceedings of the First International Conference on History and Philosophy
of Science in Science Teaching (Vol. 1, pp. 61–71). Tallahassee: Florida State University.
Conseil des Sciences du Canada (1984). À l’école des sciences: la jeunesse canadienne face à son
avenir. Ottawa: Conseil des Sciences du Canada.
Désautels, J., Anadon, M. et Larochelle, M. (1988). Le culte de la science. Les programmes
d’enseignement des sciences en question. Québec: Université Laval, Laboratoire de recherches
sociologiques.
Désautels, J. et Larochelle, M. (1989). Qu’est-ce que le savoir scientifique? Points de vue d’adolescents et d’adolescentes. Québec: Presses de l’Université Laval.
Driver, R. (1983). The pupil as scientist? London, UK: Open University Press.
Duschl, R.A. (1985). Science education and philosophy of science: Twenty-five years of mutually
exclusive development. School Science and Mathematics, 85(7), 541–555.
Einstein, A. et Infeld, L. (1938). L’évolution des idées en physique. Des premiers concepts aux
théories de la relativité et des quanta. Paris: Éditions Flammarion.
Geddis, A.N. (1988). Using concepts from epistemology and sociology in teacher supervision.
Science Education, 72(1), 1–18.
Gilbert, J.K. et Watts, M. (1983). Concepts, misconceptions and alternative conception: Changing
perspectives in science education. Studies in Science Education, 10, 61–98.
Glasersfeld, E. von (1989). Préface. In J. Désautels et M. Larochelle (dir.), Qu’est-ce que le savoir
scientifique? Points de vue d’adolescents et d’adolescentes (p. 7 – 9). Québec: Presses de
l’Université Laval.
Gordon, D. (1984). The image of science, technological conciousness, and the hidden curriculum.
Curriculum Inquiry, 14(4), 367–399.
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359–372.
Grize, J.B. (1989). Logique naturelle et représentations sociales. In D. Jodelet (dir.), Les représentations sociales (p. 152–168). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
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Hills, G.L.C. (1989). Students’ “untutored” beliefs about natural phenomena: Primitive science or
commensense? Science Education, 73(2), 155–186.
Hodson, D. (1988). Toward a philosophically more valid science curriculum. Science Education,
72(1), 19–40.
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scientifique. Québec: Université du Québec à Montréal.
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propositions pour l’introduction de la notion de potentiel. Thèse de doctorat non publiée,
Université de Marseille.
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Lakoff, G. et Johnson, N. (1985). Les métaphores dans la vie quotidienne. Paris: Éditions Minuit.
Larochelle, M. et Désautels, J. (1991). “Of course, it’s just obvious!” Adolescents’ ideas of scientific
knowledge. International Journal of Science Education, 13(4), 373–389.
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Québec.
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Review Essay / Essai critique
Studying Effective Schools and Districts:
The Problem with Universals and Uniformity
James Ryan
ontario institute for studies in education
Although effective schools have attracted the attention of educators and social
scientists for some time now (Holmes, 1989), the effective schools movement —
as it has come to be known — has had a relatively brief history. The movement
itself took shape, in part, as a response to the somewhat surprising and unexpected findings of the Coleman report of the sixties (Coleman, J.S., et al., 1966).
Unable to accept the verdict that schools made little difference in altering societal
inequalities, and unwilling to abandon the ideology of the school as a beacon of
opportunity for all, a select group of academics set about illustrating once and
for all that schools really did make a difference. Not surprisingly, seminal studies
both in the United States (Brookover, Beady, Flood, Schweitzer, & Wisenbaker,
1979) and in Britain (Rutter, Maughan, Mortimore, & Ouston, 1979) did succeed
in demonstrating what they sought to confirm. Focusing on the school as the unit
of analysis and using standardized test scores as a measure of effectiveness,
researchers showed that schools displaying certain characteristics were generally
more successful in producing higher levels of student achievement than schools
lacking those same qualities. Buoyed by these findings, scholars of a similar
mindset have in the intervening years produced a wealth of studies (Holmes,
1989; Purkey & Smith, 1983), all of which more or less identify a fairly consistent lot of school practices, which, they claim, are responsible for generating
these high achievement levels.
All has not been well with the movement, however. Although its researchers
produced a remarkably clear vision of what needed to be done, it floundered
when practitioners and others attempted to introduce desired practices into
schools. As Holmes (1989, p. 3) tells us, many of these attempts were “doomed
to failure.” In the years since, interest in the effective schools movement has
declined. Changes in social, economic, and political environments, and no doubt
the shortcomings of the movement itself, have prompted both practitioners and
academics to shift priorities to other areas.1 Even so, remnants of the effective
schools movement continue to press on.
Coleman and LaRoque’s Struggling To Be ‘Good Enough’: Adminstrative
Practices and School District Ethos (1990) represents the latest offering of this
genre. In this volume, however, the authors chart new terrain. Instead of focusing
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their efforts on schools, they explore school districts. Taking their cue from the
logic of the effective schools movement, despite the fact that they also draw
from studies not normally included in the mainstream of this class, such as
Lightfoot (1983) and Goodlad (1984), they go on to identify six district-wide
themes of desirable practice. While it is too soon yet to tell if, when, and how
districts will respond to the these findings, one need not go too far out on a limb
to predict that efforts to parachute the practices into so-called lower performing
school districts — if they ever come about — will meet the same fate as those
targeted for schools over the past few years.
Why has this apparently sensible and straightforward strategy for improving
schools not worked? Part of the answer lies with its preoccupation with
universals and uniformity. Like many other branches of social science,
particularly administrative theory and research, the effective schools approach
revolves around a belief in universal life patterns and value consensus. The
former presumes the existence (and possibility of uncovering) a set of general
laws or principles that transcend individual contexts and govern the actions of
men and women; the latter centres on values. Effective schools advocates assume
there are norms and values upon which everyone can agree, and it is the function
of schools to promote uniform practices ensuring the fulfilment of those values.
These basic assumptions, however, presume a unique view of the world, a view
I argue is inconsistent with the realities of today’s society and schools. In what
follows, I demonstrate how these elements surface in Coleman and LaRoque’s
offering, and how the accompanying world view is at odds with life both in
school and out.
UNIVERSALS
Universals have a long history. Although experimentation with the general (as
opposed to the specific) began to take shape in early Greece (Goody & Watt,
1968), developments in eighteenth-century Europe perhaps provide the best
context for understanding the standard educational administration theory on
which effective schools research is based. It was at this time that the so-called
Enlightenment project was hatched. This project was conceived, in part, to deal
with the overwhelming sense of fragmentation, ephemerality, and chaotic change
brought on by rapid industrialization and so-called modernization. Intellectuals
sought to develop an objective science capable of generating knowledge that
could be used to tame this maelstrom of change and to clear the way for the
pursuit of human emancipation and the enrichment of daily life (Harvey, 1989;
Horkheimer & Adorno, 1988). “Improving the race” then required that order be
imposed on the contingent and uncertain through a process entailing what Grant
(1969) calls “the mastery of chance.” The predictions associated with a mastery
of chance could only be achieved, however, if scientists conceived of life as a
universal series of interchangeable parts having consistent and causal relation-
REVIEW ESSAY
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81
ships with each other. Once these parts and their relationships were identified,
it only remained for those concerned to control the life form at hand by inserting
the appropriate part into a position they now knew would generate the desired
outcome. This world view gained prominence over the years, eventually
infiltrating the human sciences, and, in particular, the administrative science
associated with the effective schools movement (Ryan, 1988).
Struggling To Be ‘Good Enough’ displays all the key ingredients of this
scheme. Indeed, the formula Coleman and LaRoque use is simple. First, they
identify high-, medium-, and low-performing districts, using standardized test
scores as a measure.2 Second, they establish relationships between various district
practices and achievement. Like most other effective schools researchers, the
authors hope to find that certain practices are widespread in high-achieving
districts, less frequent in medium-achieving districts, and virtually absent in
lower-achieving districts. Coleman and LaRoque also take measures to ensure the
results of their investigation can be generalized. For intance, they use a battery
of inferential statistics, and reliability numbers with their qualitative data to
ensure their districts are representative not only of British Columbia but also
across Canada and the United States. The final step is out of the researchers’
hands: practitioners across Canada and the United States (and perhaps elsewhere)
interested in increasing student achievement are expected to substitute what they
now know are effective practices for what they now know are not so effective
practices. But, as mentioned above, this is where the process breaks down.
The ephemeral character of schools, and for that matter society, has to date
resisted social scientists’ and others’ attempts to reduce it to a set of causal
principles or laws. If the thousands of studies conducted in the area of educational administration specifically to identify such regularities show anything, it
is that there are no universals underlying how men and women interact. Social
scientists’ inability to specify consistent relationships suggests we are dealing
with a reality far more complex than this theoretical perspective implies. Indeed,
this world view cannot easily capture the intentional and often unpredictable
actions of men and women, nor can it accommodate the distinctive histories and
unique gestalts of the wide range of cultural contexts in which this interaction
takes place.
If we look closely enough at Coleman and LaRoque’s data, we can see that
they too resist orderly portrayals. At least one high-achieving district lacks the
characteristics others have; the medium-achieving district displays many practices
of these high-achieving districts; and the lowest-achieving district demonstrates
more so-called effective practices than several high-achieving districts. What can
we make of this? Coleman and Laroque have little to say about it. In one
instance, though, they attempt to rationalize the coexistence of both the desired
practice of generating professional commitment and low achievement scores in
a district by stating that “all the principals in Collegiate were recent arrivals . . .
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so performance might [now] be improving” (p. 111). Others might well conclude
that something going on here cannot be captured by the sort of general causal
relationships forming the basis for this or similar studies. And although Coleman
and LaRoque believe a mechanistic “clockworks view” of school life should be
abandoned, the perspective they adopt allows them little room to escape it.
Statements like “ethos is a manipulatable variable . . . [and] has predictive
utility” (p. 22) will do little to convince readers of their efforts to distance
themselves from this mechanical model.
UNIFORMITY
Like many other effective schools advocates, Coleman and LaRoque are also
captivated by the concept of value consensus. On one level they suggest that
their indicators of effective practice (achievement and cost levels) enjoy more or
less unanimous support. They maintain, for example, that “the measures of
school district quality used as dependent variables are those which have
unquestionable public support” (p. 10). On another level, they are preoccupied
with uniform notions of value both as a means to attain the above outcomes and
as ends in themselves. They refer to the medium through which these ends (and
means) are to be realized as “ethos,” conceived simply as “shared understandings, norms and values” (p. 190). In an ideal situation all school personnel
would express these shared values in their approaches to tasks associated with
instruction, practices of accountability, change, commitment, and member and
community relationships. In one sense Coleman and LaRoque can be considered,
like most effective schools researchers, technocrats. They use the methods of
social science to derive a set of values they believe instrumental to ensuring
desired outcomes. For example, on the basis of relationships they uncover, they
maintain that “ethos is . . . the key to district improvement” (p. 23). On the other
hand, however, they step outside the authority of science to state that “district
ethos may serve as an important end in itself” (p. 22), tautologies notwithstanding, of course. In the final analysis, Coleman and LaRoque insist that a uniform
set of values is important not only for the generation of yet other supposedly
shared values, but also for its own sake.
This strategy is all too familiar. Although Coleman and LaRoque take pains
to distinguish their conception of ethos from what is commonly referred to as
organizational culture (“what we do” rather than “what we are,” p. 190), the
affinities with the corporate culture movement (Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Peters
& Waterman, 1982) are unmistakable. And like Peters and Waterman (1982) and
company, their concept of culture (read ethos) is shaped by their project to
enable managers to control what goes on in the school district. (Lest anyone
doubt these intentions, refer to the above reference to ethos as a manipulatable
variable.) One wonders, for example, as Bates (1987) does, what culture might
look like from the perspective of those who are managed. Needless to say, this
REVIEW ESSAY
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83
view of culture as shared values is, as Bates (1987) contends, emasculated,
incapable of capturing the realities of schools and society, and in particular, the
complexities of cultural politics pervading schools. It overlooks schools’ internal
dynamics, which vary due to negotiations between teachers, students, administrators, and parents over what can be deeply held and very different sets of values.
Such negotiations do not take place in isolation within schools. Rather they are
constrained by relations in the wider society. Indeed, the cultural baggage various
groups bring to school consistently engenders conflicts over ideologies, commitments, and practices. In the end, what takes place in schools is the outcome of
power struggles between and among these stakeholders and their positions. Any
strategy to improve schools that ignores this reality is destined to fail.
There also remains the question not only of the morality, but also of the utility
of imposing a uniform set of values on what are becoming increasingly diverse
school populations. Like many other corporate culture (and effective schools)
advocates, Coleman and LaRoque imply that all groups either share or aspire to
share a common set of values. This simply is not consistent with the diversity
of life in Western society. Not only do a wide variety of very different
individuals and groups have difficulty agreeing on school goals (Holmes, 1989,
1991), but just as many may well object to the ways such goals are attained.
Furthermore, the uniform (and universal) nature of Coleman and LaRoque’s
preferred practices may actually harm certain groups of people. In the case of
Native North Americans, for example, a group attending in substantial numbers
one of the school districts under study, standard schooling practices like those the
authors recommend (e.g., standardized testing) may actually inhibit their success
in school and in life (Cummins, 1988; Ryan, 1989, 1992). Schooling based on
majority cultural beliefs and practices which differ fundamentally from those of
Native culture(s) (e.g., communication etiquette, interactive style, preferred
learning practices, hierarchical relations) ignores and devalues these students’
cultural experiences, disconnects them from their local culture, and engenders in
them ambivalence toward their heritage and themselves as Native people. Recent
evidence suggests, in contrast to the effective schools findings, that accommodation of diversity enhances student efforts, particularly in schools where the
home culture of the majority of students differs markedly from the majority
(Eurowestern) culture. Ramsay, Sneddon, Grenfell, and Ford (1983), Cummins
(1986), Vogt, Jordon, and Tharp (1987), Corson (1992a, 1992b), and May (1992)
provide a wide array of evidence for the value of emphasizing local culture.
Evidence within Coleman and LaRoque’s study itself may also point to the
inappropriateness of applying common values where the local culture differs
from the majority culture. Indeed, the district accommodating a large Native
population does not conform to the authors’ hypothesis that their preferred
practices engender high levels of student achievement. Although this district
displays more recommended practices than some high-achieving districts, student
achievement levels here remain lower than in any other district studied.
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THE PARTICULAR AND THE DIVERSE
Despite the problems with studies of this kind, Coleman and LaRoque’s book
offers those interested in schools and school organizations many valuable
insights. Aside from the stated and implied universals, it presents readers with
useful descriptions of local and particular situations, accounts providing a wealth
of information on how individual administrators or districts deal with a wide
range of issues and problems. Readers can appraise this first-hand detail, sift
through it, and decide what practices and strategies may be useful to them in
their particular situations. These anecdotes furnish practitioners with an
alternative to the potentially destructive practice of attempting to implement
holus-bolus the whole range of desired practices mentioned above. This book
also contains information that can be used to accommodate diverse populations.
At least two chapters describe specific instances of how districts (and schools)
make themselves responsive to the communities they serve.
Effective schools research need not be dismissed outright. Despite serious
shortcomings, it has something to offer practitioners and others interested in
education. Consumers of this research should not take its general statements at
face value, but rather selectively and judiciously apply findings to local situations
in appropriate ways.
NOTES
1
The notion of restructuring, for example, has recently received much attention.
2
Coleman and LaRoque use both achievement and expenditures as “dependent variables.” While
they find a negative association between the two, they recognize that it is not “causal.”
REFERENCES
Bates, R. (1987). Corporate culture, schooling and educational administration. Educational
Administration Quarterly, 23 (4), 79–115.
Brookover, W., Beady, C., Flood, P., Schweitzer, J., & Wisenbaker, J. (1979). School social systems
and student achievement. New York: Bergin.
Coleman, J.S., Campbell, E.Q., Hobson, C.J., McPartland, J., Mood, A.M., Weiffield, F.D., & York,
R.L. (1966). Equality of educational opportunity. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
Coleman, P., & LaRoque, L. (1990). Struggling to be ‘good enough’: Adminstrative practices and
school district ethos. London: The Falmer Press.
Corson, D. (1992a). Bilingual education policy and social justice. Journal of Educational Policy 7
(1), 45–69.
Corson, D. (1992b, March). Critical policy making: Implementing school-site governance in multiethnic schools. Paper presented at the Restructuring Education: Choices and Challenges Conference at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto.
Cummins, J. (1986). Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention. Harvard
Educational Review, 56 (1), 18–36.
REVIEW ESSAY
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85
Cummins, J. (1988). Empowering Indian students: What teachers and parents can do. In J. Reyher
(Ed.), Teaching the Indian child: A bilingual multicultural approach (pp. 301–316). Billings,
Montana: Eastern Montana College.
Deal, T., & Kennedy, A. (1982). Corporate cultures: The rites and rituals of corporate life. Reading,
MA: Addison-Wesley.
Goodlad, J.I. (1984). A place called school: Prospects for the future. New York: McGraw Hill.
Goody, J., & Watt, I. (1968). The consequences of literacy. In J. Goody (Ed.), Literacy in traditional
societies (pp. 27–68). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grant, G. (1969). Technology and empire: Perspectives on North America. Toronto: House of Anansi.
Harvey, D. (1989). The condition of postmodernity. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
Holmes, M. (1989). School effectiveness: From research to implementation to improvement. In M.
Holmes, K. Leithwood, & D. Musella, (Eds.), Educational policy for effective schools (pp. 3–30).
Toronto: OISE Press.
Holmes, M. (1991). The future of the public school in Canada. In D. Allison & J. Paquette (Eds.),
Reform and relevance in schooling: dropouts, destreaming and the common curriculum (pp.
102–109). Toronto: OISE Press.
Horkheimer, M., & Adorno, T.W. (1988). Dialectic of enlightenment (J. Cummins, Trans). New
York: Continuum.
Lightfoot, S. (1983). The good highschool. New York: Basic Books.
May, S. (1992). Establishing multicultural education at the school level: The need for structural
change (or, Moving beyond a monocultural account of educational administration). Journal of
Educational Administration and Foundations, 7 (1), 11–29.
Peters, T.J., & Waterman, R.H. (1982). In search of excellence. New York: Harper and Row.
Purkey, S.C., & Smith, M.S. (1983). Effective schools: A review. Elementary School Journal, 83,
427–452.
Ramsay, P., Sneddon, D., Grenfell, J., & Ford, I. (1983). Successful and Unsuccessful Schools: A
Study in Southern Auckland. Australia and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 19 (2), 272–302.
Rutter, M., Maughan, B., Mortimore, P., & Ouston, J. (1979). Fifteen thousand hours. London: Open
Books.
Ryan, J. (1988). Conservative science in educational administration: Knowledge, power and truth.
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Ryan, J. (1989). Disciplining the Innut: Normalization, characterization and schooling. Curriculum
Inquiry, 19, 379–403.
Ryan, J. (1992, March). Restructuring Native education: Respect, trust and governance. Paper
presented at the Restructuring Education: Choices and Challenges Conference at the Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto.
Vogt, L., Jordan, C., & Tharp, R. (1987). Explaining school failure, producing school success: Two
cases. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 19, 276–286.
Book Reviews / Recensions
Apprendre à vivre ensemble: Immigration, société et éducation
par Jocelyn Berthelot
Montréal: Éditions St-Martin, 1991. 150 pages.
RECENSION PAR JANINE HOHL, UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL
Le Québec, comme toutes les sociétés industrialisées, est confronté au
phénomène migratoire et l’éducation joue et jouera de plus en plus un rôle
déterminant dans les processus d’adaptation des immigrants. C’est pourquoi la
Centrale de l’enseignement du Québec (CEQ) a décidé d’apporter sa contribution
à ce débat fondamental en publiant cet ouvrage de Jocelyn Berthelot. Et quelle
contribution! L’auteur réussit en effet le tour de force de dresser en 150 pages
un remarquable “état de la question,” dans une langue simple et directe.
Clé d’une compréhension des débats du moment, un regard historique sur les
immigrations successives, leurs caractéristiques, leur évolution permet d’établir
le caractère pluriethnique de longue date du Québec. À partir de ce constat,
Berthelot aborde de front la question des rapports entre la société québécoise et
l’immigration, et plus directement celle des diverses stratégies d’insertion
possibles des immigrants. Comment articuler reconnaissance des différences
culturelles et participation à un ensemble de normes ou de valeurs universelles
qui transcendent les pratiques culturelles particulières, sans tomber dans les
pièges soit de l’ethnocentrisme, soit encore du relativisme ou du multiculturalisme qui mettent toutes les cultures sur un pied d’égalité?
La solution, pour Berthelot, doit emprunter cette voie étroite, difficile mais
praticable qui consiste à “définir la culture commune sans imposer, dans tous ses
détails, les pratiques du groupe dominant” (p. 64). C’est d’abord la reconnaissance que le Québec est une nation. Cela ne signifie nullement que l’appartenance à la nation québécoise soit réservée aux seuls “Québécois pure laine.” Nul
besoin d’être né au Québec pour vouloir y vivre: “C’est le sens de la nation
comme contrat” (p. 65). S’inspirant de Todorov (1989), l’auteur souligne que
l’attachement à une nation, à une culture, à une langue, loin d’être le signe d’une
étroitesse d’esprit est le premier pas vers l’universel. C’est ensuite la reconnaissance d’une langue commune, au sens où le français appartient non seulement
à la majorité, mais bien au “peuple tout entier, comme élément de son patrimoine
collectif” (p. 66). À cette condition, il pourra y avoir épanouissement et
utilisation des langues d’origine, mais aussi enrichissement et renforcement de
la culture française. Enfin, la reconnaissance que le Québec est une société
démocratique, pluraliste et tolérante, incluant cette reconnaissance que
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“l’existence d’une société démocratique exige l’imposition de contraintes et
d’obligations” (p. 71). Les immigrants n’ont, par définition, pas contribué à
définir les valeurs dominantes de la société d’accueil. Il est donc normal que,
dans un premier temps, ils doivent s’y conformer, sachant que rapidement ils
acquerront le droit d’être des citoyens à part entière et donc de pouvoir agir sur
le destin collectif de la société. C’est là l’essence de la démocratie (p. 71), qui
se bâtira à travers les tensions légitimes et nécessaires qui se nouent entre culture
dominante et cultures particulières. De leurs interactions découle un pluralisme
signe de vitalité démocratique (idem).
Voilà trop brièvement résumé le positionnement politique, réaliste et subtil que
Berthelot soumet à ses lecteurs pour “apprendre à vivre ensemble,” puisque c’est
bien de cela qu’il s’agit. Positionnement intelligent et encourageant quand on
peut supposer qu’il est endossé par une CEQ qui parvient ainsi à échapper à des
prises de position sans nuances sur cette question controversée.
Il s’ensuit du même coup une responsabilité considérable pour la CEQ de
formation politique des enseignants, et à travers eux des Québécois, à laquelle
contribue activement Berthelot dans la deuxième partie de son ouvrage.
L’école en effet se doit de reconnaître aujourd’hui son caractère pluriethnique.
L’indispensable ouverture à la diversité requiert cependant un apprentissage, celui
de développer chez les individus “une aptitude croissante à saisir et à comprendre
les différences” (p. 94). L’école devra donc à la fois faire place aux cultures
particulières des élèves, respectant ainsi diversité et liberté, tout en transmettant
“un cadre de vie commun à l’ensemble des citoyennes et des citoyens” (idem).
Travailler donc à la fois sur ce qui distingue et sur ce qui unit, telle est la clé
d’une approche interculturelle qui entraîne nécessairement une modification des
attitudes chez les enseignants, des contenus des programmes de formation, des
outils pédagogiques. Il y a urgence à agir à l’échelle du Québec puisque la
province est la seule, parmi les provinces canadiennes qui comptent une forte
proportion d’élèves immigrants, à ne pas avoir établi de politique d’éducation
interculturelle (p. 153).
En conclusion, l’auteur insiste: le Québec moderne n’a d’autre choix que de
parier sur l’ouverture. Tout en assurant la francisation des nouveaux venus, il
faudra aussi savoir tirer profit de toute la richesse que recèle la diversité
ethnoculturelle. “Il ne faut pas craindre d’affirmer les normes et les valeurs
fondamentales qui régissent la vie de la collectivité québécoise, mais il faut aussi
rappeler que la tolérance et la démocratie en font partie” (p. 156). L’école a un
rôle déterminant à jouer dans ce processus qui engage l’avenir de notre société.
Tel est le message fort de l’ouvrage de Berthelot qui a l’immense mérite de
replacer les termes du débat dans une perspective à la fois sociétale et scolaire,
tant il est vrai que l’école est un instrument privilégié de notre apprentissage
toujours à faire et à refaire “à vivre ensemble.”
Pour ses qualités de clarté et de clairvoyance, cet ouvrage non seulement
mérite d’être lu par tous les enseignants et formateurs du Québec, mais doit être
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diffusé largement au point de devenir une référence incontournable dans un des
débats majeurs qui taraude le Québec.
La direction des mémoires et des thèses
par Aimée Leduc
Brossard: Éditions Behaviora, 1990. 95 pages.
RECENSION PAR ERIC MCLEAN, UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À CHICOUTIMI
Au troisième trimestre de 1990, les Éditions Behaviora publiaient un important
ouvrage d’Aimée Leduc sur la direction des mémoires et des thèses.
En choisissant la phrase liminaire “La supervision de la recherche est
probablement la forme d’enseignement la plus complexe et la plus subtile,”
l’auteure indique l’importance qu’elle accorde à cette facette peu explorée, voire
négligée de la pédagogie universitaire.
Le volume s’adresse aux professeurs qui, un jour, se sont vu, ou se verront,
confier des étudiants gradués, candidats à la maîtrise ou au doctorat.
Au cours des 20 dernières années, l’auteure a dirigé 30 thèses de doctorat et
32 thèses de maîtrise d’étudiants qu’elle a conduits à la collation des grades. Elle
dirige présentement une quinzaine de candidats à la maîtrise et au doctorat.
L’expérience de Leduc dans la supervision et l’encadrement d’étudiants universitaires de deuxième et de troisième cycles est incontestable. Il faut cependant lui
rendre hommage de s’attaquer à l’explication d’un problème aussi complexe, sur
lequel très peu de pédagogues ont osé se pencher.
Dans ce volume, l’auteure identifie et discute des problèmes des étudiants
gradués en situant la supervision de la recherche dans le contexte de leurs
problèmes; elle suggère aux directeurs de recherche des moyens ainsi qu’un
modèle de supervision pouvant améliorer l’efficacité de leur démarche.
Le premier chapitre fait état des résultats alarmants des principales études
traitant du taux de non-achèvement et de la durée des études universitaires de
deuxième et de troisième cycles, aux États-Unis et en Grande-Bretagne. Ces
résultats indiquent, au niveau doctoral, des taux de non-achèvement respectifs
variant entre 38,1% et 62% dans le premier cas, et de l’ordre de 40% dans le
deuxième cas. Finalement, dans toutes les études consultées, le taux de nonachèvement est plus élevé, et la durée des études plus longue pour les étudiants
à temps partiel qu’à temps plein.
Le deuxième chapitre traite des problèmes personnels des étudiants qui sont
associés au non-achèvement et à la trop longue durée des études avancées.
L’auteure discute avec beaucoup d’à-propos du rôle de conseiller que doit
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souvent assumer le directeur de recherche dans une perspective d’assistance dans
la résolution des problèmes rencontrés par les étudiants, tels: la solitude, les
difficultés d’adaptation, les problèmes maritaux et les charges familiales, le
travail, les accidents, la maladie et les finances.
Dans le troisième chapitre, l’auteure, en s’appuyant sur de nombreuses études
empiriques, traite des problèmes inhérents à la recherche elle-même: la définition
du problème de recherche, la rédaction, les difficultés méthodologiques, l’isolement intellectuel, la planification et la gérance du projet de recherche et les
groupes de recherche. Elle met adroitement en relief le besoin de planifier la
démarche de supervision et le rôle essentiel d’encadrement que doit jouer, dans
ce contexte, tout directeur de recherche pour que les étudiants puissent compléter
avec succès leurs programmes d’études avancées dans un délai raisonnable.
Le quatrième chapitre traite de la supervision de la recherche. L’auteure entre
ici dans le vif du sujet. Elle effectue une excellente analyse et présente de façon
claire les résultats des quelques études empiriques, de nature descriptive, sur les
réserves des d’étudiants par rapport à la qualité de la supervision qu’ils ont
reçue, sur les rôles d’encadrement du directeur de recherche, les styles de
supervision, la supervision inadéquate ou négligente et les réactions des étudiants
face aux lacunes de la supervision. Selon l’auteure, il n’existe qu’un ensemble
d’études expérimentales qui évalue l’efficacité des éléments de formation à la
recherche. Les résultats de cet ensemble d’études sont présentés de façon
détaillée au chapitre 5. De plus, d’après la recension des écrits effectuée, on ne
retrouve qu’un auteur ayant développé un système pour analyser les conversations entre le directeur de recherche et l’étudiant, de même qu’un programme
d’entraînement des superviseurs. Le contenu de ce chapitre démontre clairement
que le directeur efficace structure ses rencontres avec ses étudiants gradués.
Finalement, il met en évidence le besoin de recherche de nature expérimentale
concernant la supervision des étudiants gradués.
Le dernier chapitre constitue l’essence même du volume. Il présente, premièrement, des indices associés aux habiletés relationnelles et d’enseignement des
superviseurs pouvant servir de guide pour structurer la supervision individuelle
et un exemple de supervision individuelle structurée. Deuxièmement, il présente,
de façon détaillée, trois exemples de supervision de groupe: les ateliers de
l’Université Griffith, le système béhavioral de supervision de l’Université de
Western Michigan et les séminaires de l’Université Laval.
Les ateliers de l’Université de Griffith en Australie visent le développement
progressif d’habiletés de recherche et leur intégration chez des étudiants de
deuxième cycle. En résumé, la stratégie comporte un premier cours, offert aux
étudiants, sur les problèmes et les méthodes de recherche, un atelier sur la
définition du problème de recherche et un atelier sur la rédaction du projet de
recherche.
Le système béhavioral de l’Université de Western Michigan s’appuie sur
l’ensemble des recherches expérimentales. Ce système béhavioral de supervision
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possède cinq composantes: la spécification des tâches de recherche et des critères
de performance, les rencontres avec le superviseur, les échéances, la rétroaction
et les récompenses.
Les séminaires de l’Université Laval sont issus de l’idée originale de l’auteure
de ce volume. Comme plusieurs, un jour, elle s’est vu confier, sans aide, la
direction de thèses d’étudiants de deuxième et de troisième cycles. Pour remédier
à cet état de chose, l’auteure, avec l’aide de collègues et d’étudiants, a conçu et
élaboré au fil des années des séminaires de méthodologie de la recherche qui ont
comme objectifs de développer des habiletés de recherche chez les étudiants et
de répondre à leur besoin d’échanger avec des professeurs et des pairs qui se
trouvent confrontés aux mêmes problèmes.
L’auteure fait d’abord état d’un certain nombre de postulats qui président à
l’organisation des séminaires. Elle procède ensuite à l’explication détaillée des
composantes du processus de supervision qu’elle a développé: les étudiants, les
procédures,et le contenu des séminaires.
Les étudiants qui participent à ces séminaires ont une formation préalable et
travaillent tous avec le même cadre théorique: le béhaviorisme paradigmatique.
Les séminaires ont lieu cinq fois par trimestre et durent une journée entière. Les
étudiants peuvent y présenter verbalement un problème. Les textes écrits sont
commentés par deux lecteurs privilégiés qui ont préalablement reçu copie du
document. Au cours de ces séminaires, progressivement, les étudiants travaillent
leur problématique, élaborent leur méthodologie, recueillent leurs données, pour
finalement analyser et interpréter leurs résultats. Chacune des étapes du séminaire
vise l’apprentissage d’habiletés de recherche spécifiques. La problématique vise
le développement des habiletés essentielles relatives à la question de recherche,
au cadre théorique et à la recension des écrits. À la fin de cette étape, l’étudiant
présente son premier séminaire formel sur l’état d’avancement de ses travaux. Ce
séminaire est l’une des exigences du programme et fait l’objet d’une évaluation
par les membres du comité de thèse. L’étudiant est ensuite amené à formuler ses
(son) hypothèse(s) de recherche. Outre sa directrice de thèse, l’étudiant peut
s’adjoindre deux conseillers, dont un est un expert en méthodologie de la
recherche.
L’étape de la méthodologie vise l’acquisition d’un nouvel ensemble d’habiletés: la formulation des hypothèses statistiques, l’application des techniques
d’échantillonnage, l’identification des forces et des faiblesses des plans de
recherche, la connaissance des qualités métrologiques des instruments de mesure,
la connaissance et l’interprétation des techniques statistiques, etc. Lorsque
l’étudiant a rédigé une première version de son chapitre sur la méthodologie de
sa recherche, qu’il a présenté son deuxième séminaire formel, qu’il a effectué
une préexpérimentation, il est autorisé à procéder à la cueillette de ses données.
Suivent ensuite les étapes de la description et de l’interprétation des résultats et,
finalement, de la rédaction de la version finale en fonction de la prélecture. Les
commentaires des étudiants témoignent d’un niveau élevé de satisfaction face à
ce type de supervision.
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Les conclusions apportées par l’auteure sont très pertinentes. Elle présente, en
premier lieu, un résumé synthèse des cinq chapitres du volume. En deuxième
lieu, elle présente des suggestions d’ordre général et suggère un certain nombre
d’étapes à réaliser dans un processus de supervision efficace. Le volume se
termine par la présentation de deux appendices fort intéressants: le premier
présente un modèle de fiches pour décrire des études expérimentale et le
deuxième, la description d’une étude expérimentale. Finalement, les références
bibliographiques sont exhaustives et appropriées.
Ce livre d’Aimée Leduc impressionne par sa rigueur, sa cohérence et la
pertinence de son contenu. L’ouvrage rappelle que la direction de recherche est
une démarche pédagogique comportant, pour le superviseur, des objectifs
d’enseignement et, pour l’étudiant, des objectifs d’apprentissage. Sur le plan
professionnel, au niveau des études avancées, l’ouvrage peut être considéré, à
juste titre, comme un outil didactique essentiel.
Open Learning and Open Management: Leadership and Integrity in Distance
Education
By Ross H. Paul
London: Kogan Page, 1990. 201 pages.
REVIEWED BY LOUISE MORAN, DEAKIN UNIVERSITY
One might groan at the thought of yet another book on educational and
organizational leadership, so copious is the literature. Yet the application of
leadership and organization theories has been very rare in the otherwise
burgeoning field of distance education/open learning. Ross Paul has begun to
redress the gap in this thought-provoking, well-analyzed, and eminently readable
book, which has as much to offer to scholars and administrators of conventional
universities and colleges as it does to distance educators.
Many in more conventional areas of higher education still view “distance
education” and “open learning” with skepticism. This is partly due to a lack of
understanding of the educational philosophies and practices that go under these
headings. Paul succinctly explains the two terms and their consequences for
organizational structure and policies on access, and provides copious examples
of designing and managing various aspects of an open university operation. The
skepticism arises more fundamentally, however, from a deeply rooted, conditioned belief that “real” education occurs primarily face to face, or from a view that,
as guardians of society’s sacred knowledge, universities should protect (and
limit) access to the understanding and power knowledge can give.
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The book is not primarily an attempt to convince outsiders of the marvels of
open universities, but Paul challenges this skepticism, rejecting the assumption
that the quality of an education undertaken at a distance is necessarily lower than
that of one acquired face to face. Indeed, in the course of applying several
organizational theories of higher education (bureaucratic, collegial, political, and
anarchic) to the philosophies, structures, and practices of distance education, Paul
mounts a case for distance education institutions as important leaders in the
fundamental changes now sweeping higher education in general. Two of these
changes — the prevalence in teaching and administration of new information
technologies, and the rapid increase in inter-institutional collaboration — have
particular twists when applied by open universities, but are directly relevant to
the problems, policies, and developmental options of any higher education
institution. With increasing pressure for upgrading and diversification of
qualifications throughout one’s career, the open universities (which cater
primarily to adults at work or at home) have much to teach others about meeting
adults’ learning needs in intellectually satisfying and cost-efficient ways.
The dominant argument in this book is for a value-driven approach to
leadership in any higher education institution, but particularly in one teaching at
a distance. Paul contends that the value-driven leader believes “that creating
something of value is the ultimate expression of one’s individuality, that people
need to find meaning in life through work” (p. 68). Such a leader is dedicated
to energizing all staff to act in ways that support coherently articulated, higher
corporate purposes rather than their own self-interests. The book is largely
devoted to analyzing how this applies in various aspects of distance education
and, in particular, to examining the conflicts and problems that inhibit realization
of the ideal. Paul emphasizes time and again the importance of leaders’ concern
for individual staff, of achieving an effective balance of consultation and
decision-making, and of ensuring that both occur at appropriate levels and areas
of the university. The argument is not new, but its application to designing and
leading a distance education institution is.
Paul makes his case by drawing on his experience in two ways. One is to use
examples from such institutions as Athabasca University and Dawson College,
in which he has played leading roles. The other is to use, critically but not
profoundly, several well-known management theories (those of Weber, Millet,
Baldridge, Cohen and March, Badaracco and Ellsworth). One suspects some of
these were formative influences in Paul’s graduate studies and early administrative career and have become an intrinsic part of his approach as a leader today.
As such, it is fascinating to see the praxis of theory, personal experience, and
further reflection at work in one person.
Although far from a memoir (Paul is in the full flush of his career, currently
President of Laurentian University), the book has a strong element of the
biographical. Ross Paul comes across as a man with a lively, whimsical sense of
humour (which he rightly asserts is a vital quality for university leaders), and a
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love of the theatre and the absurd that gives rise to some hilarious passages. The
book also has an element of institutional biography. Modern forms of distance
education are only about 20 years old. The institutions and their leaders are now
reaching maturity, and Paul’s analyses of how they do and might function, and
of the challenges, conflicts, and possibilities inherent in distance education, reveal
much about their history since the late 1960s. The book is thus not only required
reading for all distance educators, but will also hold interest for historians and
other scholars of higher education in general.
Reform and Relevance in Schooling: Dropouts, De-Streaming and the Common
Curriculum
Edited by Derek J. Allison & Jerry Paquette
Toronto: OISE Press, 1991. iv + 134 pages.
REVIEWED BY LEROI B. DANIELS, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Occasioned by Ontario’s so-called “Radwanski Report” (RR) of 1987, this set of
papers catches, in its own final paragraph, what this set is: a review of an
education system “from articulate, well informed and insightful individuals who
. . . bring a critical eye to bear on current affairs and assumptions.” The point of
the RR was to deal with a perceived school drop-out problem and its recommendation was, in general, to make schools more relevant. Apart from its focus on
drop-outs and relevance, the set is held together by incisive criticism — a product
of the strong conceptual backgrounds and broad knowledge of the authors. Just
a few samples: Barrow argues that schools are about education, not therapy;
Sanders accuses the RR of the reverse of the naturalistic fallacy — the moralistic
fallacy; Coulter suggests that maybe workplaces can be viewed as part of
education; the Churchills slice apart the statistics used by the RR to address
ethnicity questions; Ayim wryly suggests that one conclusion from the RR could
be “that undergoing a sex change would be more profitable for a woman than
getting an education” — and does proficient surgery on the RR’s use of a medical
analogy for teaching; McKay skewers standardized testing; McPeck continues his
valuable attack on “thinking skills” talk; Holmes warns us of the perils of “low
doctrine” schools; and the editors suggest in the final paragraph that there should
be more books like this one. I agree. Although it starts from a Canadian
educational policy issue, its authors deal with universal questions about education.

RCÉ Vol. 18, No. 1

Transcription

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