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Analysis of teachers' communication with Natural Logic: Guiding thought operations with a practice of discourse
Date de parution
2014-6
Résumé
Teachers' discourse remains one of the most important practice of formal education. Through their discourse, teachers attempt to provide their pupils with information, definition, explanations, rules and instructions, etc. The challenge of learning and instruction is most often addressed by researchers as either a difficulty from the learner or as pedagogical settings or methods that can be improved. In this paper, a different approache is proposed, focusing on the communication process between teachers and pupils. According to this approach, when we are considering only learner's characteristics or teachers' pedagogical activity to explain learning difficulties, the failure of communication is attributed to one side of the communication process only, dismissing any misunderstanding between interlocutors (Perret-Clermont, 2001). Learning obstacles are often explained solely by the learners' conceptions in cogntivie literature (for instance: Carey, 1985; Vosniadou, 2007), which neglects the importance of the communicative process itself. Research focusing on learner's conceptions or skills seems to analyze learner's response or performance without relating it to an analysis of the question asked by teachers, which is open to potential misunderstanding. In particular, the process of mutual understanding necessary to the learner's interpretation of the required answer or performance is rarely considered the explanation for poor performance, however there are evidence in laboratory research about how influential an adult interviewer can be to a child's cognitive performance (Grossen, 1988; Perret-Clermont & Nicolet, 1988; Schubauer-Leoni et al., 1992; Breux & Perret-Clermont, in press). The aim of this contribution is therefore to analyse the process of communication between teachers and their pupils to illustrate how influential the teacher's discourse can be to the pupils' discursive and cognitive activity.
Jean-Blaise Grize's Natural Logic (Grize, 1996) allows to analyse discourse as it is intertwined with cognitive operations about meaning, and in the construction of meaning, called thought operation. We make the hypothesis that the thought operations at work in the teachers' discourse are guiding the pupils' cognitive and discursive activity. In order to investigate this hypothesis, 40 samples of teachers trainee's discourse and conversations in classrooms context have been recorded and analyzed with Natural Logic. The analysis show how young teachers use the discourse in attempt to guide the pupils' cognitive activities (thought operations) in addition to make them perform physical tasks (such as writting or opening a book) and discursive tasks (such as giving a reply). However, several examples of mismatch between the communicated guidance operated in the teacher's discourse and the pupils communicated cognitive activity can be described from the data, and will be discussed. For instance, a language teacher aiming at the production of a certain type of utterance in english is addressed by pupils with reply mimicking the cognitive operation of the teacher on the topic of conversation, instead of mimicking the discursive activity as intended by the teacher. The conclusion of this research is an open discussion with the participant about how usefull such analysis of communication in classroom context can be for teachers and teacher education.
References
Carey, S., (1985). Conceptual Change in Childhood. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Breux, S., and Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (in press). Etre élève et exprimer une pensée propre : un paradoxe ? Enseignement du français: les apports de la recherche en linguistique, XX, p. xx.
Grize, J.-B., (1996). Logique naturelle & communications. Paris: PUF.
Grossen, M., (1988). L'intersubjectivité en situation de test. Cousset: Editions Delval.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., and Nicolet, M., (1988). Interagir et connaître. Enjeux et régulations sociales dans le développement cognitif. Fribourg: DelVal, Cousset.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (2001) Psychologie sociale de la construction de l'espace de pensée. In: Ducret, J. (Ed.), Actes du colloque. Constructivisme: usages et perspectives en éducation, Département de l'Instruction Publique: Service de la recherche en éducation, Genève.
Schubauer-Leoni, M.-L., Perret-Clermont, A.N., and Grossen, M. (1992) The construction of adult child intersubjectivity in psychological research and in school. In: Cranach, M.V., Doise, W., and Mugny, G. (Ed.), Social Representations and the social Bases of Knowledge, Bern & Lewiston: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
Vosniadou, S. (2007). Conceptual Change and Education. Human Development, 50, 47-54.
Jean-Blaise Grize's Natural Logic (Grize, 1996) allows to analyse discourse as it is intertwined with cognitive operations about meaning, and in the construction of meaning, called thought operation. We make the hypothesis that the thought operations at work in the teachers' discourse are guiding the pupils' cognitive and discursive activity. In order to investigate this hypothesis, 40 samples of teachers trainee's discourse and conversations in classrooms context have been recorded and analyzed with Natural Logic. The analysis show how young teachers use the discourse in attempt to guide the pupils' cognitive activities (thought operations) in addition to make them perform physical tasks (such as writting or opening a book) and discursive tasks (such as giving a reply). However, several examples of mismatch between the communicated guidance operated in the teacher's discourse and the pupils communicated cognitive activity can be described from the data, and will be discussed. For instance, a language teacher aiming at the production of a certain type of utterance in english is addressed by pupils with reply mimicking the cognitive operation of the teacher on the topic of conversation, instead of mimicking the discursive activity as intended by the teacher. The conclusion of this research is an open discussion with the participant about how usefull such analysis of communication in classroom context can be for teachers and teacher education.
References
Carey, S., (1985). Conceptual Change in Childhood. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Breux, S., and Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (in press). Etre élève et exprimer une pensée propre : un paradoxe ? Enseignement du français: les apports de la recherche en linguistique, XX, p. xx.
Grize, J.-B., (1996). Logique naturelle & communications. Paris: PUF.
Grossen, M., (1988). L'intersubjectivité en situation de test. Cousset: Editions Delval.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., and Nicolet, M., (1988). Interagir et connaître. Enjeux et régulations sociales dans le développement cognitif. Fribourg: DelVal, Cousset.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (2001) Psychologie sociale de la construction de l'espace de pensée. In: Ducret, J. (Ed.), Actes du colloque. Constructivisme: usages et perspectives en éducation, Département de l'Instruction Publique: Service de la recherche en éducation, Genève.
Schubauer-Leoni, M.-L., Perret-Clermont, A.N., and Grossen, M. (1992) The construction of adult child intersubjectivity in psychological research and in school. In: Cranach, M.V., Doise, W., and Mugny, G. (Ed.), Social Representations and the social Bases of Knowledge, Bern & Lewiston: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers.
Vosniadou, S. (2007). Conceptual Change and Education. Human Development, 50, 47-54.
Notes
, Annual Meeting of the Société Suisse de la Recherche en Éducation SSRE-SGBF, Luzern, Switzerland
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