Motivation and Education: The Self-Determination Perspective

Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985, 1991), when applied to the realm of education, is concerned primarily with promoting in students an interest in learning, a valuing of education, and a confidence in their own capacities and attributes. These outcomes are manifestations of being intrinsically motivated and internalizing values and regulatory processes. Research suggests that these processes result in high-quality learning and conceptual understanding, as well as enhanced personal growth and adjustment. In this article we also describe social-contextual factors that nurture intrinsic motivation and promote internalization, leading to the desired educational outcomes.     

The impact of goal orientation, self-reflection and personal characteristics on the acquisition of oral presentation skills

Although many educators help others to develop oral presentation skills, little research is available to direct the instructional design activities of these educators. In the present article an explorative study on university freshman is described, in which goal-setting, self-reflection, and several characteristics of the subjects during oral presentations were analysed. The research results emphasize the critical impact of motivational constructs, such as self-efficacy and goal orientation, next to the topic of the oral presentation on the acquisition of oral presentation skills.     

Towards new documentation systems for mathematics teachers?

We study in this article mathematics teachers’ documentation work: looking for resources, selecting/designing mathematical tasks, planning their succession, managing available artifacts, etc. We consider that this documentation work is at the core of teachers’ professional activity and professional development. We introduce a distinction between available resources and documents developed by teachers through a documentational genesis process, in a perspective inspired by the instrumental approach. Throughout their documentation work, teachers develop documentation systems, and the digitizing of resources entails evolutions of these systems. The approach we propose aims at seizing these evolutions, and more generally at studying teachers’ professional change.

Science,technology and innovation studies at a crossroad: SPRU as case study

The setting up of the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU) at Sussex University 50 years ago represented a “transformative change” in the research on science policy and the understanding of the nature and origin of technological change and innovation studies. It influenced policymakers across the world in both the mature Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries and the developing world. It made the topic of science, technology and innovation (STI) familiar to business studies scholars. Today though, the analysis of STI appears to be somewhat in crisis. On the one hand, there is growing evidence that the growth and welfare gains of new technologies and innovation are no longer forthcoming in an automatic “trickle-down” fashion. The knowledge and technology diffusion “machine” appears broken. On the other hand, there are growing environmental concerns about the negative externalities of unsustainable fossil-fuel-based growth as industrialization spreads across the globe. STI policy appears somehow stuck in an industrial efficiency and consumerism mode that is unable to address in a satisfactory way the impact of such negative externalities. Can the broader historical approach as popularized within the so-called Science and Technology Studies (STS) tradition provide additional, complementary insights? Yes, if STI and STS scholars are prepared to leave their respective conceptual comfort zones and address in complementary fashion some of the major societal policy challenges confronting science, technology and innovation policy today.     

Attachment style and loneliness in adolescence

Possible associations between parent-child interactions and adolescent well-being have been explored from a number of theoretical perspectives. In the present study, attachment theory was used as a general theoretical framework to study these associations with attention being concentrated on one particular aspect of adolescent well-being, i.e., loneliness and attitudes towards being alone. Measures of adolescent attachment style (based on ratings of both normal family scenes and stressful separation situations) and a multidimensional measure of loneliness were administered to two samples of Belgian (Dutch-speaking) adolescents aged 15 to 18 (n=200 and n=357, respectively). Subjects were classified into four attachment groups: Secure, Dependent, Anxious-Ambivalent and Avoidant. Results indicated that Securely attached adolescents experienced lower levels of parent-related loneliness and this effect extended to loneliness in the relationships with peers. Aversion to being alone was experienced more strongly among Dependently attached adolescents. Finally, adolescents who evidenced Avoidant or Anxious-Ambivalent attachment felt more positive about being on their own. Implications of these findings for attachment theory are discussed and problems associated with the four-category model of attachment as used in the present study are outlined.     

Indigenous languages and intercultural bilingual education in Bolivia

Cofounder of the Centre for Research into and Promotion of the Peasantry (CIPCA). Author of, among other works, Los mil rostros del quechuaand Lengua y sociedad boliviana,and editor of Raíces de América: el mundo Aymara and Para comprender las culturas rurales en Bolivia.     

La parabole du gaucher et de la casserole à bec verseur: ètude des processus d'apprentissage dans un environnement de calculatrices symboliques

This paper concerns the problems of conceptualization of the function limit in technological environments (principally graphic calculators today, symbolic calculators tomorrow) that are gradually being adopting in precalculus teaching. In France, such teaching takes place in the scientific stream during the last year of high school (18-year-old pupils). This paper shows out how the instrumentation process and the conceptualization process are dependent on each other and stresses especially:

Collective design of an e-textbook: teachers’ collective documentation

In this study, we investigated design processes in teacher collectives, which have been made possible by new “digital” opportunities: platforms, discussion lists, etc. The object of our study is the French Sésamath teacher association and its design of a grade 10 e-textbook, more precisely the design of the “functions” chapter. We analysed it with two theoretical lenses: the documentational approach and cultural-historical activity theory. We studied the activity system of a community of teachers designing an e-textbook. At macro-level, we observed a change of objects of the activities: from designing a “toolkit” for mathematics teachers; to interactive exercises; and finally to a more “classical e-textbook”. At micro-level, we analysed the development of collective documents by the community, combining resources and schemes.     

The impact of verbal capacity on theory of mind in deaf and hard of hearing children

Even when they have good language skills, many children with hearing loss lag several years behind hearing children in the ability to grasp beliefs of others. The researchers sought to determine whether this lag results from difficulty with the verbal demands of tasks or from conceptual delays. The researchers related children's performance on a nonverbal theory of mind task to their scores on verbal aptitude tests. Twelve French children (average age about 10 years) with severe to profound hearing loss and 12 French hearing children (average about 7 years) were evaluated. The children with hearing loss showed persistent difficulty with theory of mind tasks, even a nonverbal task, presenting results similar to those of hearing 6-year-olds. Also, the children with hearing loss showed a correlation between language level (lexical and morphosyntactic) and understanding of false beliefs. No such correlation was found in the hearing children.