Diapositive 1

1
Institute of Education - University of Stirling -
Scotland - U.K. Seminar - 5 May 2005
Understanding professional competences
development The case of French teachers in
compulsory education and within an educational
priority area
Michel GRANGEAT Laboratoire des Sciences de
lÉducation  Université P. Mendès-France - I.U.F.M
. - Grenoble michel.grangeat_at_upmf-grenoble.fr
2
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Understanding professional competences
development
1- Professional competences development, two
frameworks ? Professional pedagogies (didactique
professionnelle) model ? Work process knowledge
model ? Two complementary frameworks 2- How
teachers consider their own professional
development ? Why a teacher is an expert one? ?
How teachers consider their own professional
development? ? How beginners vs experimented
teachers learn through work? ? Context effect on
professional development ? Role of informal
learning in teaching development 3- Conception
of continuing professional development programmes
and future studies
3
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Professional competences development two
frameworks
1- The common framework of ergonomic psychology
and professional pedagogies (didactique
professionnelle in French) ? It has been
recently outlined by several French researchers ?
Pastré Samurçay Rabardel Mayen
Rogalski. ? Some of whom are connected through
common European approaches ? Samurçay
Vidal-Gomel, 2002 Rogalski, 2002, 2004. This
framework aims to characterise professional
knowledge in order to design more effective
continuing professional development
programmes. 2- The work process knowledge model
which aims to analyse the relationship between
work experience, learning and knowledge. ?Boreham,
2004 This framework aims to characterise
professional knowledge in order to design more
formative work organisation towards collective
competences development.
4
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Understanding professional competences
development

• Preliminary precisions
• Professionals develop themselves by acting
  through work
• competences enhance when agents, in the face of
  a new problem, challenge their own approach to
  the task in order to carry it out more
  efficiently.
• Agent is seen as
• ? the one who carries out the professional
  activity
• ? a generic term including workers, employees,
  trainers, teachers, etc.
• Competences are seen as
• ? the way in which agents make meaning at work
  and achieve the task.
• Competences depend on
• ? the agents personality and the task
  organisation
• (e.g. individualism vs collectivism).
• ? Here competences are not simple skills or
  some kind of standards which could be applied by
  or on the agents.

5
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Professional pedagogies conceptualisation
enhancing

• Aims of the professional pedagogies approach are
  threefold
• ? keeping count of the whole of the components of
  professional competences (contextualisation
  representation of the agents actions)
• ? analysing the efficient factors of professional
  competences development
• ? designing CPD programmes and work contexts in
  order to improve this development.
• ? Rogalsky, 2004
• Methodology of the professional pedagogies
  approach is
• ? based on a work analysis as an essential stage
  of the process.
• ? focused on the characterisation of
  professional knowledge.
• ? oriented towards identifying professional
  knowledge in order to embed it within future CPD
  programmes.
• ? Pastré, 1999  

6
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Professional pedagogies the work analysis
The work analysis concerns two parts of the work
process. 1- characterising the relationship
between the work context and the agents
activities ? identifying the work prescription
(i.e. what one has to do within what kind of
situation) and the actual activity (i.e. what one
does eventually ). Some components of the work
context constrict the agents activity. The
actual activity always overlaps the prescribed
task. ? Leplat, 1997 2- distinguishing the
productive activity (i.e. what is done) and the
constructive one (i.e. what the agent thinks
about what is done). ? identifying the agents
goals, their history and experience which also
determine a part of the work process. The whole
activity is not entirely observable since most of
it is cognitive. The constructive activity always
overlaps the productive one. ? Samurçay
Rabardel, 2004 That work analysis has to connect
three poles of the work process ? the context
? the task ? the agent
7
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Professional pedagogies agents
conceptualisation process
The work analysis includes the agent
conceptualisation process through the Piagetian
concept of schema scheme. Within the PP
framework, the schema is defined as ? an
element which undertakes the transition from
action to its representation. ? an identifiable
unit of an agents activity which corresponds to
a specific goal and a clearly defined time
limit. ? an organisation of the activity which is
fixed for a given set of situations though light
changes could be made according to parameters of
the situation. The schema consists of four
elements ? operational invariants functional
invariant which enable the identification of
relevant information according to a fixed
target. ? goals which cover the planning stage of
the activity. ? action rules which consist in
agreeing on the action, collecting information
for it and monitoring it. ? reference knowledge
which enable one situation to be matched to
another, taking into account similarities and
singularities, in order to define a strategy for
action. ? Vergnaud, 1996
8
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Part analysis of a primary school teachers
activity
9
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Professional pedagogies operative models
In order to distinct the PP model from the
Piagets one, some researchers prefer to use the
term pragmatic concept than to use the term
scheme. Nevertheless, neither the schema nor
the pragmatic concept can explain the whole
agents competences development. ? With the time,
the training and the encounter of many different
situations, schemata develop into groups that
enrich the possibilities for action. ? These
groups make up networks of meanings that set out
the actions. ? These networks are as solid and
structured as the work situation is complex and
the agent is expert. The core of the
competences seems to be these networks, named
operative models (modèles opératifs) ? the
set of components of the situation that the agent
takes into account in order to be efficient. ? it
is organised on some essential dimensions which
gather the different schemata. ? important
differences exist between novices and experts
operative model and even between agents with the
same stage of competences. ? Pastré, 2005
10
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Part analysis of a mathematical teachers activity
Whole class involvement
Dimensions
Enlistment of students in the task
triggering the students activities
punctuating the succession of tasks
orientating students tasks
Goals
asking a student to write down what he just said
asking a student to copy what it is wrote on the
book
asking a student to do something on the
blackboard
Action rules
a strong direction of students activity is more
efficient than autonomous work which might create
a disturbance in the class
Reference knowledge
? Robert Rogalski, 2005
11
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Professional pedagogies conceptualisation
enhancing
Professional pedagogies and ergonomic
psychology models tend to focus on the agents
cognitive activities within the workplace. The
professional activity is seen as an articulation
of two processes the productive and the
constructive activity.
? Rogalski, 2004
The constructive activity is very interesting it
brings out the challenge, the development and the
organisation of the schemata and of the operative
model. The way agents represent cognitively
their own activities and the situation in which
they act seems the most important factor to
characterize professional development.
12
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
The work process knowledge model connectivity
enhancing
The previous model proves very useful but  at
first sight  it might have the same weakness as
Piagets model ? process knowledge appears as
an individual matter, although it is clear that
it is a socialized process. Most of the agents
act in complex situations which require sharing
information and understanding colleagues own
conceptions about work.   ? within companies
where more flexible systems or different work
units linked into networks have been introduced.
? within professions which provide a public
service, since they seek to improve continuity or
quality of care. ? within educational
institution. Agents need to understand both how
challenging their own activity is, and how it is
enmeshed within the whole work process.
Understanding this kind of meanings development
is the topic of the work process knowledge
model.
? Boreham, Samurçay, Fischer, 2002
13
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
The work process knowledge model
Work process knowledge is defined as ? an active
knowledge in the way that possessing it enhances
performance in a given activity. ? a link between
both practical knowledge picked up from
unmediated experience with theoretical knowledge
relevant to the current process of
problem-solving. ? a shared cognitive model, both
individual and collective, which is the only way
of dealing with complex situations. Work process
knowledge develop by ? professional
problem-solving situations within a collaborative
approach. ? synthesizing experiential and
theoretical knowledge in order to allow agents to
make sufficient sense of the situation to enable
them to act efficiently. ? interactions between
different kind of agents in order to create the
professional culture which supports each
individual work process knowledge.
? Boreham, 2004

• Boreham, 2002
• Samurçay Vidal-Gomel, 2002
• Rogalski, 2002
• Mariani, 2002

14
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Two complementary models

• The specificities of work process knowledge
• a cognitive model that aggregate both individual
  and collective knowledge in order to achieve a
  complex problem in a flexible and dynamic
  professional situation.
• a concept that stresses the embeddedness of
  work-related knowledge in the work process itself
  and the crucial role of professional exchanges
  about day-to-day work problem-solving.
• a model that takes into account of the whole
  work context the interaction between one agent
  and the situation and overall the interactions
  between this agent, colleagues and partners
  acting within the professional situation.
• For the two previous frameworks professional
  knowledge is seen as
• a whole overlapping the boundaries between both
  tacit/codified knowledge and knowing how/that
  since this kind of split appear inappropriate to
  understand agents professional development at
  work.
• a process understanding how knowledge that
  guide work is created through the process of work
  itself.
• a curriculum change support using the findings
  of the first analysis in order to design more
  relevant vocational curricula, training
  programmes, or professional knowledge assessment
  devices.

15
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How teachers think about their own professional
development

• The study concerns the way in which teachers
  learn about teaching.
• Teachers act in a dynamic context.
• - They cannot determine and anticipate all the
  effects of their activities.
• - The work process students learning
  continues beyond teaching and, perhaps, without
  teaching.
• Rogalski, 2003
• ? The study is concerned with schools located
  within socially-deprived areas, which represent
  particularly difficult and complex professional
  situations.
• The data come from
• 60 interviews with teachers who work either in
  primary or in comprehensive schools (6-11 and
  11-15 years old) within an educational priority
  area. Among them
• 21 are beginners (they are under 30 and have
  been working for less than 2 years in the
  school) 20 are experienced (over 35).
• 14 are ordinary (they limit their implication
  within educational process to ordinary and
  compulsory meetings ) 21 are responsible (they
  take part in a lot of meetings with others
  teachers and school partners).
• 24 act into a ZUS (deeply socially-deprived
  sector) and 36 into a REP (lightly
  socially-deprived sector).

16
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
What teacher is an expert one?
Before conducting a work analysis it is necessary
to select experts and beginners in order to be
able to compare their conceptualisation and work
knowledge. In this study, this categorization
depends on two variables ? teachers distant
towards the work situation (calculated by the use
of personal pronouns) ? teachers work
environment extent (calculated by the numbers of
occurrences and co-occurrences of specific
notions such learner, colleague, partner,
contents, device, etc.) All these calculi are
provided by a specific software (Tropes).
The analysis provided a score for each interview
which allows a categorization within four
modalities ranged from a restricted to a
connected one. The findings corroborate previous
results competences develop with age but, beyond
45 years of age, many teachers operate on
restricted competences. ? Grangeat
Chakroun, 2005
17
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Findings effects of involvement in professional
interactions

• Age is a variable which offers poor possibilities
  in order to enhance teaching.
• Teachers involvement in interactions targeting
  professional issues seems a more functional
  variable.
• Three ways of embodying in a professional network
  are compared
• implication limited to compulsory meetings
  (Ordinary).
• participation at few meetings with others
  teachers or partners (Participant).
• many meetings with others teachers and partners
  (Responsible).

This variable seems to be crucial in improving
teachers professional development. If teachers
want and can assume responsibilities within a
professional network so their competences seem
more deep and extended.
18
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How teachers think their own professional
development
A second content analysis of each interview
transcription ? identifying each part of the
interview in which each teacher explains how his
or her professional competences grow. ? within
each part only action rules are selected (e.g. I
look for an experimented colleague and I ask her
a question about my trouble). Then these action
rules are categorized within 6 main factors of
development
These teachers seems to rely essentially on
themselves to improve teaching ? they think and
assess their own methodologies after the class
(88) and few of them think about this assessment
during the course itself (25). ? teaching
improvement occurs through doing the class
especially by adapting teaching during the
course by progressive trials (42) or designing
a learning project or a course (35).
19
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How beginners vs experienced teachers learn at
work
The focus of the teachers reflection Beginners
are centred on their own action (How to teach and
what the learners really learn?) whereas
experienced ones count on colleagues also to
enhance teaching (How we could teach and what our
learners have to learn?).
The involvement within professional community
Beginners dont seem to benefit from meetings
with more aged colleagues whereas they learn
about teaching during informal exchanges.
20
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How ordinary vs responsible teachers learn
through work
Ordinary teachers are not irresponsible ones
but they dont develop exterior links.
There is most likely a potential choice for each
teacher between the two attitudes (ordinary vs
responsible teacher). Nevertheless, all teaching
situations dont offer the same opportunity to
get involved in a professional network. School
organisation offering many connections with
social and cultural context seems very efficient
in order to improve teaching.
21
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How ZUS vs REP teachers learn at work
Two contrasting teaching situations ZUS
sector with heavy social difficulties for nearly
all students families. REP these difficulties
are less heavy and above all they dont concern
all families.
A very difficult teaching situation acts on
teaching development ? ZUS teachers act in an
uncertain context so they assess their courses in
a strong way in order to adapt them according the
students behaviour and learning. ? ZUS teachers
act in a complex context so they count on
partners to make school activities more
meaningful for students.. According to ZUS
teachers, a school cellular organisation
increases professional difficulties.
22
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How restricted vs connected teachers learn at work
23
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
How restricted vs connected teachers learn at work
Competences development modalities make a real
difference Teachers acting in a restricted way
? seem bogged down in the class-room situation
so they cant profit from interactions with other
professional, with learners or with families. ?
are not totally isolated in the educational
institution but their professional context extent
seems very limited. Teachers acting in a
connected way ? have hindsight in their work
situation so they can learn about teaching from
exchanges and collaborations. MON02 (beginner,
responsible, ZUS, modality 2)  At the moment,
we are making a small movie with an exterior
association. Last year, I followed a training
program about school and movies which give me a
boost to run this project. Its difficult to
adjust to school matters in which one are not
very comfortable and generally one fail. So, this
movie project wasn't that easy for me. In such a
case, at first, one try to find assistance with
exterior school partners. Afterwards, Ill find
my own way and manage by myself. When you are on
your own, you just have a go with the children
Mon 02 Là, on est en train de créer un petit
film en partenariat avec une association. Lannée
dernière javais fait une formation sur école et
cinéma qui ma donné envie de faire ce projet.
Mais les matières où on nest pas très à laise
au départ, on a du mal à se lancer et en général
on échoue totalement. Donc, le projet cinéma pour
moi ce nétait pas évident. Dans ces cas-là, pour
démarrer, on essaye de se faire aider par des
partenaires. Après, pour les années futures,
jaurai des idées pour continuer seule. Quand on
ne peut pas se faire aider, on se lance et on
voit ce que cela donne face aux enfants
24
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Findings

• Approaches which French teachers use in order to
  improve teaching are
• ? day-to-day individual reflection about
  teaching after each class
• ? informal talks with colleagues during free
  time
• ? steering a common project with colleagues or
  exterior partners
• Hence formal programs do not seem very effective
  according to teachers interviews.
• Obviously, the sample of this study is too small
  to able us to ensure the findings in a
  significant way but it allows some important
  outlines
• ? extent of work context seems enlarge with
  experience and professional development.
• ? connections between school and its environment
  strengthen professional development
• ? collaboration seems crucial if the majority of
  the students belong to deprived social class.
• A continuing professional development program
  could be designed in the shape of activity
  analysis workshops.
• ? teachers and their various exterior partners,
  beginners and experienced professionals, can meet
  in order to set up a repertoire of know-how and
  theoretical references which support their
  individual learning.
• ? Pastré, 1999 Rogalski, 2003 Stevenson, 2000

25
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Coming back towards the first questions of this
paper

• In order to characterize teaching
• Professional pedagogies model offers a strong
  research methodology within a qualitative
  approach.
• ? Here, the study used mainly the concept of
  action rule which enables to provide corpus
  analysis, findings and some recommendations about
  professional development factors.
• ? This methodology might be used to provide
  schemata and operative models in order to
  understand differences between different
  development modalities.
• ?Grangeat, 2004, 2006
• Work process knowledge model proves its
  effectiveness towards two goals
• ? understanding the embodiment of teacher work
  within a network of human interactions.
• ? providing the conceptual framework for a
  further curriculum.
• Furthermore, without this model, it became easy
• ? to see teacher work as an individual activity
  and to regard codified knowledge as superior to
  practical one.
• ? to forget that a close collaboration between
  workplace, trainers and researchers, enable them
  to align theoretical study with practical
  experience.
• Here, the study used the degree of teacher
  implication in a professional network as a main
  variable to analyse and understand competences
  development.
• So these two frameworks which proved their worth
  within industrial contexts seem very relevant and
  promising in order to understand teacher work.

26
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Coming back towards the first questions of this
paper
Finally, it seems important ? to build or to
reinforce a connected curriculum and a
collaborative work with colleagues and partners
in order to develop efficiency of teachers
conceptualisation about teaching. ? such an
organisation could complete formal development
programs althought they do not appear as crucial
for all the teachers. ? Boreham, 2004 Mc Nally,
2006 Rogalski, 2003 Young, 1998 This study
enables us to design future research projects
about two main questions ? How do the
competences develop during the first years of
professional experience, for teachers or other
agents within professions based on human
interactions (e.g. training, health care)? ? Do
specific teaching methodologies or specific work
organisation exist which allow beginner agents to
be efficient more rapidly? These two questions
seem crucial, socially speaking.
27
Michel Grangeat LSE-UPMF-IUFM Grenoble
Reference
Boreham, N. (2004). Orienting the work-based
curriculum towards work process knowledge a
rationale and a German case study. Studies in
Continuing Education, Vol. 26, No. 2,
209-227. Boreham, N., Samurçay, R. Fischer, M.
(Eds) (2002). Work process knowledge. London,
Routledge. Grangeat, M. Chakroun, B. (2005).
How teachers implement collective activities on
ad-hoc basis or through anticipation? Symposium
Professional didactic and teaching activity.
Conference proceedings of International
conference What a difference a pedagogy makes?
- University of Stirling, Scotland, vol 2,
720-727. Grangeat, M. Munoz, G. (2006). Le
travail collectif des enseignants  activités de
coopération et de partenariat denseignants de
léducation prioritaire. Formation Emploi, 95.
Leplat, J. (1997). Regards sur l'activité en
situation de travail. Contribution à la
psychologie ergonomique. Paris  PUF. McNally,
J. (2006). Confidence and Loose Opportunism in
the Science Classroom Towards a pedagogy of
investigative science for beginning teachers.
International Journal of Science Education, 28,
4, 423-438. Pastré, P. (2005). La conception de
situations didactiques à la lumière de la théorie
de la conceptualisation dans laction. In P.
Rabardel P. Pastré (Eds.), Modèles du sujet
pour la conception. Dialectiques activités
développement (pp. 73-108). Toulouse 
Octarès Robert, A., Rogalski, J. (2005). A
cross-analysis of the mathematics teachers
activity. An example in a French 10th-grade
class. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 59,
269-298 Samurçay, R. Rabardel, P. (2004).
Modèles pour lanalyse de lactivité et des
compétences, propositions. In R. Samurçay, P.
Pastré (Eds.), Recherches en didactique
professionnelle (pp. 163-180). Toulouse  Octarès.