Pourquoi entrer a l'Universite? L'Exemple d'une universite de lettres et sciences humaines

The large number of secondary school graduates entering higher education is transforming the nature of universities, particularly in literature and the humanities, by changing the relative numbers of students enrolled in different academic years. At the same time this influx is accompanied by a significant failure rate in the first academic year, calling into question the efficacy of the university system. A national issue with local repercussions, the struggle against failure in the first year is leading to much heart-searching among the universities, whose staff are trying hard to understand why certain students abandon their studies. The enquiry described in this article reveals the co-existence of two student populations: those who enter university as an active choice and those who do so by default. In the case of the first group, entry to university represents an investment for the future which must be carefully managed. In the second case it is a matter of going into higher education as a faute de mieux solution in an economic context in which work is scarce.     

Personality profiles and dogmatism in undergraduate teacher education students

A sample of 435 junior education majors in a large Southwestern university were given the 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire and the Opinion Scale. Correlations were computed between these two scales, and a profile of personality factors was developed which defined the nature of authoritarianism or dogmatism. A step-wise multiple regression analysis revealed that an accurate prediction formula for dogmatism could not be developed from the personality factor scores. Implications for teacher education programs include research to determine if treatment programs can be developed to change a student's degree of dogmatism, and the importance of screening procedures which include an assessment of open-mindedness.     

Theme D: interaction between engineering education and industrial development

Within a conference devoted to the interaction between engineering education and society, it was only natural to give a place to the contribution of engineering education to industrial development. This rich and undoubtedly delicate topic has been dealt with from three viewpoints:

— the contribution of educational establishments to the actualization of engineers' technological knowledge.

— the participation of industry in the precise definition of curricula.

— the contribution of engineering education to the industrial growth of developing countries.     

Predicting intraindividual changes in teacher burnout: The role of perceived school environment and motivational factors

Based on self-determination theory, this study proposes and tests a motivational model of intraindividual changes in teacher burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment). Participants were 806 French-Canadian teachers in public elementary and high schools. Results show that changes in teachers’ perceptions of classroom overload and students’ disruptive behavior are negatively related to changes in autonomous motivation, which in turn negatively predict changes in emotional exhaustion. Results also indicate that changes in teachers’ perceptions of students’ disruptive behaviors and school principal’s leadership behaviors are related to changes in self-efficacy, which in turn negatively predict changes in three burnout components.     

On the compression of search trees

Let X=_x1,_x2,…,_xn$X=x_1\text{,}{x}_2\text{,}\dots \text{,}{x}_n$ be a sequence of non-decreasing integer values. Storing a compressed representation of X that supports access and search is a problem that occurs in many domains. The most common solution to this problem uses a linear list and encodes the differences between consecutive values with encodings that favor small numbers. This solution includes additional information (i.e. samples) to support efficient searching on the encoded values. We introduce a completely different alternative that achieves compression by encoding the differences in a search tree. Our proposal has many applications, such as the representation of posting lists, geographic data, sparse bitmaps, and compressed suffix arrays, to name just a few. The structure is practical and we provide an experimental evaluation to show that it is competitive with the existing techniques.     

Influence de la question dans une epreuve relative a la notion d'independance

Resume Ce travail est une contribution à l'étude des acquisitions spontanées des élèves en ce qui concerne la notion d'indépendance en probabilités. Une de nos hypothèses générales est que, dans le champ des phénomènes aléatoires, de légères modifications de la présentation d'un problème sont susceptibles d'avoir une influence nette sur les conduites des élèves. Cette hypothèse semble fondée: en effet, les performances à l'épreuve ici retenue-bien que toujours favorables-sont très sensibles à la forme de la question posée dans l'énoncé. Nous essayons d'interpréter ce résultat en analysant les modifications de la tâche impliquées par le changement de forme de la question et en examinant les arguments exprimés par les éléves.

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Influence of the question in a task on the concept of independence

This work is a contribution to the study of spontaneous assimilation by students concerning the concept of independence in probability. One of our general hypotheses is: in the field of random phenomena, slight modifications of the presentation of a problem are likely to have a distinct influence on students behaviour. This hypothesis seems justified: indeed, performances of the task designated here, although always relatively successful, are very sensitive to the form of the question given in the problem. We try to interpret this result by analysing the modifications of the task implied by the change of form in the question, and by examining the arguments expressed by the students.

     

RETHINKING THE FINANCING OF POST‐COMPULSORY EDUCATION

Throughout the world, the financing of education is in a state of crisis, a condition made even more acute by the simultaneous appearance of a doctrinal crisis with regard to the ends and the utility of education. For European higher education, the situation calls for the diversification of funding mechanisms. The public authorities which up until now have born most of the burden of higher education financing must transfer a goodly portion of the burden to users, i.e., students and parents, and to the private sector. Various methods for financial diversification are explored as well as different formulae for user‐financing.     

Diagram processing procedures

The purpose of this study was to determine and describe the procedures used by students in French secondary schools (normal age ranging from eleven to fifteen years). In order to relate measures represented in graphic form to measures given in numerical form, these students were found to implement procedures suited to multiplicative problem solving involving isomorphism of measures. But other more specific procedures — both qualitative and quantitative — were also employed, most likely due to the graphic nature of the task. Moreover, a high degree of variability in procedure selection was observed. This variability is a reflection of the fact that in addition to operational devices specific to problem solving, these children also have at their disposal decision-making rules that partially depend on task content.