French Pupils Research Articles

Socio-economic gradients in pupils’ self-efficacy: evidence, evolution and main drivers during the primary school years in France

Socio-emotional skills, vital for navigating life’s challenges, significantly influence educational success and well-being. Thus, socio-economic disparities in these skills may contribute to broader inequalities in achievement. Despite their importance, research in certain contexts, like France, remains limited. Self-efficacy, a cornerstone of socio-emotional well-being, develops early and it is influenced by familial and contextual factors. The primary school years are central for self-efficacy development. During this period, socio-economic gaps in self-efficacy may emerge, influenced by family environments and experiences at school. Using data from the 2011 Panel of Pupils we find that French pupils have similar academic self-efficacy whatever their socio-economic background at the start of primary school. However, at the end of primary school, children coming from more disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds exhibit lower academic self-efficacy as compared to more advantaged peers, and this socio-economic gap is particularly strong among girls. The findings of this work underscore the need for educational policies to focus on socio-emotional skills development alongside cognitive skills from an early age to reduce socio-economic inequalities.

A Reflection on Teaching Practices in Middle Schools in Disadvantaged Areas - With a Focus on the Level of the Cohort Compared to That of the Single Class

This article addresses the question of the adaptation in a teacher's pedagogical practices of sixth-grade pupils in priority education zones. This research approach, within the framework of a research intervention program, sought to verify the correlation between pupils’ cognitive, language skills, and their ability to benefit from different philosophical teaching practices. Two types of measures are deployed in relation to sixth-grade pupils. Two standardized tests (language: linguistic/comprehension - EVAC and ECL-2 tests - measure of global fluid intelligence - Raven's matrix test) evaluate the scores. This assessment is cross-referenced with the measurement of the pupils’ academic skills in language and mathematics assigned by teachers. Our results are based on a full sample of 124 pupils in seven classes, sometimes reduced to 90 pupils by removing pupils from linguistic minorities. The results indicate, by comparing two samples, significant differences in the levels of the pupils in priority education zones compared to standard scores: a minimum gap of 20 percentiles is noted for each subtest, which implies a form of delay in the academic performance of the pupils in priority education zones. Compared to the general average of French sixth-grade pupils, a lack of lexical skills is particularly apparent, indicating a form of abandonment. A differentiation is apparent between the different classes tested. Therefore, the scale of the class or schooling context must therefore be distinguished and studied separately. We discuss the desirability of identifying more precise pupil profiles, to enable teachers to move beyond an overly global view of the class.

The Role of an Empowering Motivational Climate on Pupils’ Concentration and Distraction in Physical Education

Purpose: The present study investigated the relationship between an empowering motivational climate and pupils’ concentration and distraction in physical education, mediated by basic psychological needs satisfaction and by positive and negative affect. Method: The participants were 425 French pupils (Mage = 15.36, SDage = 0.82) from 21 high schools, who filled in a questionnaire regarding the study variables. This cross-sectional study used multilevel structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized relationships. Results: Good fit indices were found in the data from the theoretical model. An empowering motivational climate was found to be related to concentration. Competence need satisfaction was related to concentration and distraction. This association was mediated by positive and negative affect, which in turn was related to concentration and distraction. Conclusion: Teachers can improve pupils’ concentration and positive affect and reduce distraction and negative affect by supporting an empowering motivational climate and fostering competence need satisfaction.

ONE ARABESQUE IN THE SMALL WORLD OF OD WEBMAPS

Abstract. Arabesque is an application for the exploration and geovisualisation of origin-destination flows (or spatial networks), developed within the framework of the Univ. Gustave Eiffel (ex. IFSTTAR)-funded research project geographic flow visualisation (gflowiz) geoflowiz, in collaboration with the CNRS. It allows both the exploration and the filtering of OD data and their representation, with a strong emphasis on geographic information layering and features' semiology. The key-objective is to propose an easy way to produce a modern cartography (a geovisualisation) of thematic flows (e.g. bilateral flow volume), at several geographic scales, even from your own datasets. The objective of this article is to position Arabesque in the range of geoweb applications for producing flow maps, by comparing its functionalities with those of similar web applications – Magrit, Kepler.gl, flowmap.blue – pointing out their respective advantages and limitations. The analysis of its functionalities is compared on the same flow dataset – MOBSCO, i.e. a dataset describing the school mobility of French pupils and students on a given year – for a practical and empirical “validation” of its contributions. We demonstrate that the configurations and appearances of these tools’ visual output depend largely on the culture of their developers, and on the use and audiences for which they have been developed.

The Master

The Master Kathryn Weld (bio) Gurdjieff Reconsidered: The Life, The Teachings, The Legacy Roger Lipsey Shambhala Publications www.shambhala.com/gurdjieff-reconsidered.html 284 Pages; Print, $24.95 Roger Lipsey, insightful biographer of figures such as the metaphysician and historian of Indian art, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy; economist and diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld; and Cistercian monk and author Thomas Merton, invites us to reconsider the life and legacy of Greek-Armenian George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. For many, the title may surprise. Reconsider? Who now has considered Gurdjieff, even once? Now referred to as "the Work," the way of Gurdjieff, based on inner study rather than on faith, has fallen out of the public eye. Born (circa 1870) in Armenia, the young Gurdjieff spent some twenty years traveling—from Greece to Egypt, to the Caucasus and Tibet—with a small band of companions in search of esoteric knowledge. Much of what we know about these years derives from Gurdjieff's semi-fictional autobiography, Meetings with Remarkable Men (1963), on which Peter Brook based his eponymous film (1979). By 1912, Gurdjieff was teaching in Moscow and St Petersburg. In 1917, forced to flee the revolution, he made his way with followers to Essentuki, Georgia. In 1919, he and his pupils fled again, across the Caucasus and eventually to France, where Gurdjieff resided, first at the Prieuré at Fontainebleau, and later in a small apartment in Paris, until his death in 1949. Gurdjieff's pupils found, in the master's work and in his presence, personal hope and meaning despite brutal conditions—revolution, depression, holocaust, and world war. At the same time, as shared by Gurdjieff with his French pupils during the war, Gurdjieff's great aim is ultimately a work for one's neighbor: "I swear to myself that this will never be for my personal profit, but to help others. I wish to be, to help others. This is to be understood as a vow." In her forward, Cynthia Bourgeault writes, For those unfamiliar with this teaching, I might describe it as an early run-up on what we would now call "mindfulness training," combined with an even more intricate metaphysics. … But the Work also has extraordinary heart, carried largely in the aforementioned sacred [End Page 21] dances (or "Movements," as they are more widely known), which provide not only a powerful integrative counterbalance to the intellectual content but also a de facto liturgical expression of searing emotional intensity. As Lipsey points out, the word "reconsidered," "promises either the refinement of an existing reputation or a radical break from received opinion." With the same friendly, almost intimate tone he used so successfully in his work on Hammarskjöld and Merton, Lipsey is a helpful guide with a sensitive touch. A senior member of the Gurdjieff Foundation of New York, he is very able to provide insight. His extensive use of primary sources, both published accounts and unpublished manuscripts held in public libraries and private archives, vividly evokes both the man and his community of pupils. Lipsey avoids expounding the teaching, trusting that as a lived practice, the teaching will appear in each reported exchange. There are a few exceptions—for example, an extensive discussion of the key concept "being." To those impatient with the extensive terminology introduced by Gurdjieff in his early teaching period in Russia, the "theory" decade, Lipsey offers this comparison: For the anonymous fourteenth century author of The Cloud of Unknowing, a perfectly stunning guide to progressive exploration of the inner life, the diligent and fortunate seeker comes upon zones of experience that can only be described metaphorically. Slowly, a portrait emerges that is deeply nuanced and humane. In the chapter on the Prieuré, an abundance of vignettes about the life of the community places the teaching in context. It is a rich tapestry, with colorful personae: Katherine Mansfield, A. R. Orage, T. Tchekhovitch, the De Salzmann's, and all the children who lived at the châteaux, to name only a few, and Gurdjieff himself, frequently playing the role of provocateur. Lipsey finds kinship with Pythagoras and imagines Gurdjieff as spiritual heir of Diogenes the Cynic. Here is Katherine Mansfield, from...

French Pupils' Lexical and Grammatical Spelling from Sixth to Ninth Grade: A Longitudinal Study.

This paper presents the results of a longitudinal spelling study conducted among 496 school children, from sixth grade (the first year of middle school in France) to ninth grade (the fourth and final year of middle school in France). Its first objective is to examine the evolution of both lexical and grammatical spelling skills in a deep orthography and to present new findings on the advanced mastery of spelling skills. Its second aim is to provide insight into pupils' orthographic knowledge and remaining difficulties at the end of French compulsory schooling. Pupils were assessed using the same text dictation when they were sixth graders and when they were ninth graders. The data show that both lexical and grammatical performance increased from the sixth to ninth grade and that these interact with each other. The qualitative analysis of errors allows points of resistance in the acquisition of French orthography to be highlighted.

Conceptions about Electrical Circuits of English and French Pupils from Nova Scotia in Canada

The present research was intended to identify the conceptual of 84 students from the region of Clare in French-language public schools and 54 from the Argyle region in French immersion public schools in Canada on the operation of simple electrical circuits. To this end, they completed a pencil-and-paper questionnaire of sixty minutes duration. The analyses of the data show clearly the preponderance of erroneous conceptions about the current and voltage concepts like those identified in the international review of the literature. Thus, despite the cultural and language differences, their conceptual understandings related to the simple electrical circuit are similar.

The effect of morphosyntactic training on multilingual fifth graders’ spelling in French

ABSTRACTMany studies show that it is challenging to encode morphosyntactic information while writing. Spelling plurals is especially demanding in French as these are inaudible. Even by the end of primary school, monolingual French pupils still have difficulties marking plurals of some grammatical categories. We investigate (1) how multilingual pupils learning French as a second written language deal with silent plural markers and (2) the effects of a morphosyntactic training explicitly focussing on grammatical categories and their markers, as well as visualizing the plural agreement. 228 fifth graders were quasi-randomly assigned to an intervention (n = 137) and a control group (n = 91) based on the results of a spelling pre-test. The results of the pre-test show that multilingual learners have similar spelling patterns as French monolinguals. They pluralize nouns more accurately than verbs and perform lowest on adjectives. After the pre-test, both groups were trained over six sessions of 20 minutes. The control group participated in French listening comprehension activities. The post-test shows that the intervention group significantly improved in spelling plurals compared to the control group. A greater focus on morphosyntactic structures is highly effective especially in second language contexts where children might lack broad lexical knowledge.

Longitudinal predictors of reading comprehension in French at first grade: Unpacking the oral comprehension component of the simple view

According to the simple view of reading (SVR), reading comprehension relies on “decoding” (pseudoword, word reading) and “oral comprehension” skills. Testing 556 French pupils, we aimed at unpacking these two components and tracking their longitudinal development in first grade. We have found that: (1) lower level language skills (vocabulary, syntax) and discourse skills (oral text comprehension) emerged as two dimensions of “oral comprehension”; (2) lower level language skills longitudinally predicted reading comprehension outcomes, above code-related skills; (3) decoding precursors (letter knowledge, naming speed and phonemic awareness) predicted reading comprehension directly, and indirectly, through decoding skills (pseudoword, word reading, text reading fluency); (4) Oral comprehension skills did not favour the development of decoding. Our results support the independency of the SVR components. However, we suggest that a more fine-grained conceptualisation of oral comprehension skills would help to better understand the individual and pedagogical factors influencing the early development of reading comprehension.

Perception of the cursive handwriting movement in writers and pre-writers

The objective of this study was to confirm the existence of knowledge relating to the cursive writing movement for French pupils in 3rd year of kindergarten, 2nd grade and 5th grade of elementary school. 141 pupils were asked to watch a visual presentation of cursive handwriting to determine whether they were able to detect violations of two rules of handwriting: continuity and sequentiality of the cursive handwriting movement. Our results showed progressive development of the understanding of characteristics of the cursive handwriting movement, with different developmental trajectories of knowledge for the different rules. The ability to detect continuity of the cursive writing movement developed earlier than the ability to detect sequentiality. Correct decisions were not always accompanied by correct justifications, which developed more slowly than detection of rule violations.

The Right to Difference: French Universalism and the Jews by Maurice Samuels

Reviews 195 and geography schoolbook, Le tour de la France par deux enfants, G. Bruno (the pseudonym of Augustine Tuillerie) instills a sense of French identity in generations of French pupils by means of a tale of travel and adventure throughout France. In it, two orphaned boys set out from their village in Lorraine, recently annexed by the victorious Prussians, to rejoin France and to keep their French citizenship. Through numerous encounters, the work imparts lessons of patriotism, practicality and morality. Finally, Arthur Rimbaud’s poetic voice in Une saison en enfer is interpreted as the mapping of an individual psyche as it resists the values of an oppressive school system and the colonizing influence of the new capitalist economy. Fittingly, Rimbaud fled Western society for a life in Abyssinia. In conclusion, Lindaman notes that the expressions of psychic geography studied in this work are specific to the first twothirds of the Third Republic and represent authoritarian attitudes no longer accepted by today’s public.Yet some views of the two geographers, Reclus and Vidal, are relevant even in today’s cynical age. The principles of organic ties endure as a feature of identity, not as a static ideal but in the fluidity of constant movement, amid the influx of immigrants and the growing sense of European identity. The implications of this study will resonate with scholars of the nineteenth century and with others interested in theories of identity. Southeast Missouri State University Alice J. Strange Samuels, Maurice. The Right to Difference: French Universalism and the Jews. Chicago: UP of Chicago, 2016. ISBN 978-0-226-39705-4. Pp. 241. In this textual and cultural analysis of seven key moments in France’s postrevolutionary history, Samuels shows that the concept of French universalism has undergone numerous semantic shifts, which he sees as the direct consequence of France’s characterization of its Jewish population: “Jewish difference has always been essential to the elaboration of French universalism, whether as its dialectal opposite or as proof of universalism’s reach” (5). Although the current definition of French universalism implies that citizens“must be shorn of all particularities”(3) to embody the universal values of equality and liberty, Revolutionary thinkers held, despite common contemporary belief, less restrictive views. Lacretelle, l’Abbé Grégoire, or even Robespierre had called for the economic assimilation of the Jews (by excluding them from certain professions), but never did they require cultural assimilation, nor the relegation of religion to the private sphere. For these Revolutionaries, assimilation would be the result, rather than the condition, of Jewish inclusion, thus defining the nation “by ideology rather than blood or ancestry” (37). Frenchness was universal in that it became attainable by all those who chose it. Universalism’s first major semantic shift occurred under the First Empire. Napoleon, fearing that French Jews might identify primarily with a (then non-existent) Jewish nation, created a Jewish consistory as he had done for Protestants and Catholics, putting religious authority in the hands of the State, and relegating religion to the private sphere. In the mid-nineteenth century however, Jews became a more visible minority in France, especially in the theater. Jewish actress Rachel, for instance, became one of the brightest stars of the Comédie-Française. Her performances of Racine and Corneille’s heroines raised the question as to the compatibility of French culture and Jewishness. While some critics viewed Rachel’s success as a corruption of Frenchness, many more saw her success as proof of universalism’s success, but a universalism that allowed (once again) for particularisms.Yet, in his chapter on Algeria, Samuels notes that despite the pluralistic model of universalism that permitted Rachel’s rise to fame, erasure of difference would become the condition for the naturalization of Algerian Jews and the reason for denying Muslims citizenship (it was believed that Muslims would never assimilate into French culture). This differential treatment of Jews and Muslims reinforced the idea that Frenchness was a (universal) choice. Samuels also reveals that Zola’s apparent philosemitism hid strong assimilationist views, while the supposed stereotyping of Jews in Renoir’s La grande illusion served on the contrary to undermine the differences that did not, in...

Why do boys and girls make different educational choices? The influence of expected earnings and test scores

Girls frequently choose educational pathways that lead to lower-paid jobs and less prestigious careers, despite performing as well as boys at school. Using a cohort of French pupils, we estimate a model of educational choices in which the anticipated cost of choosing a pathway depends on the skills in each subject and is allowed to differ between boys and girls. We show that choices in high school and in higher education are partly driven by expected earnings for boys but less for girls. Boys choose more often courses with a component in Sciences and competitive pathways. In high school, gender differences are higher for pupils at the same level in Mathematics and Humanities and are largely due to differences in marginal impact of test scores, which are lower for girls. In higher education, while partly driven by test scores, choices seem to largely depend on other gender differences (tastes, norms).

Modern foreign language teachers – don’t leave those kids alone! Linguistic-cultural “give and take” in an ad-hoc tutoring scheme

This paper addresses the theme of social inclusion through language learning. The focus is on an ad-hoc tutoring scheme set up between newly arrived British migrant pupils and French monolingual pupils in a small secondary school in the south-west of France. Though the original objective of this tutoring scheme was to improve the English skills of the younger pupils, feedback reports indicated that it also had a positive impact on the relationship between the British migrant pupils and their French peers. Teachers believed that those involved participated more fully in class, and appeared more self-assured and generally happy thanks to the interpersonal relationships this scheme helped to forge. This study demonstrates the necessity of analysing the socio-cultural context migrants may find themselves in, in order to identify potential challenges. The ad-hoc tutoring scheme described here is an example of how language learning can support the integration and inclusion of “new generation” migrants into everyday school life.

Why Do Boys and Girls Make Different Educational Choices? The Influence of Expected Earnings and Test Scores

More often, girls choose educational pathways leading to low-paid jobs and less prestigious careers, despite having equal access to education and performing as well as boys at school. We estimate a model of educational choices, in which the anticipated cost of choosing a given stream depends on the skills in each subject and is allowed to differ between boys and girls. Using a cohort of French pupils, we show first that choices at grades 10 and 12 are driven by expected future earnings and second, that boys and girls value differently their test scores when choosing study paths. Differences appear less on major choices, but rather in the degree of selectivity. Generally, girls place less value than boys on their test scores in subjects that are relevant for the chosen field of study. In particular, girls under-estimate their skills in Sciences when choosing the most prestigious and competitive pathways.

The thanatic strain. Kojève and Rosenzweig as two readers of Hegel

In my essay, I focus on Alexandre Kojève’s lectures on Phenomenology of Spirit as a peculiar thanatic interpretation of Hegel. Kojève’s apology of death is so powerful that it can only suggest a new form of a religious cult, a new philosophical theology which, because of its semi-secular appearance, we should rather call a cryptotheology. I want to demonstrate that, indeed, we deal here with a cryptotheological divinisation of Thanatos where the so-called ‘frontier experience of death’ replaces the Judeo-Christian revelation. Kojève claims that this tendency already begins in Hegel in whom revelation, albeit a central notion of phenomenology, is given a characteristic, thanatico-immanentist twist. In the first part, I concentrate on Hegel and his interpretation given by Kojève; then, I present a brief overview of the thanatic strain in Kojève’s French pupils; and finally, in the second part, I return to Hegel, but his time read through the lenses of Franz Rosenzweig who dared to oppose the thanatic tendency of twentieth century philosophy. The Star of Redemption inaugurates this opposition – a distinctly modern Jewish ‘vitalistic strain’ – by returning to the original idiom of revelation and offering us a neues Denken, a ‘new thinking.’ But this new vitalism, grown out of the polemic with the ‘thanatic strain,’ does not constitute a simple repetition of the nineteenth century Lebensphilosophie; equally critical of the Kojèvian ‘overestimation of death’ and of the old forms of vitalistic thinking, it paves the way to a highly innovative late-modern philosophy of finite life which – as I will argue here – is something we very badly need today.

Teaching Scientific Measurement and Uncertainty in Elementary School

The concept of measurement is fundamental in science. In order to be meaningful, the value of a measurement must be given with a certain level of uncertainty. In this paper we try to identify and develop the reasoning of young French pupils about measurement variability. In France, official instructions for elementary school thus argue for having students do activities of measurement, followed by treatments and analysis of the data. The notion of measurement ‘uncertainty’ appears in fourth and fifth grades. A similar approach is proposed in the USA. We present a teaching sequence divided into two parts: the first part in grade 4, the second one in grade 5, the following year, with the same students. The main sources of data were field notes, videotapes, as well as the intermediate written traces produced, individual written tests given each year and clinical interview. We showed that the pupils were capable of entertaining all three possible causes of uncertainty (the quantity being measured, the measuring instrument, and the measurer). Concerning data organization and handling, we found that after teaching, most of them were able to construct a frequency table and a bar chart from a list of N measures of the same quantity. When interpreting this type of chart, some of them were able to argue in terms of a confidence interval. We have also shown that the proposed instructional units allowed pupils to become aware of the need to repeat measurements.

Gendering physical education: The role of the French State in the aftermath of the First World War

The Great War contributed greatly to challenge the gender order in France, a context that resulted in both a crisis of masculinity and a certain freedom of women. As a reaction, men and women were redefined in the aftermath of the First World War according to traditional gender expectations. This return to tradition was especially reflected in the new official discourse on physical education. Between 1919 and 1927, the so-called “French Method of Physical Education” was written by the Military School of Joinville-Le-Pont and immediately imposed on the State school system for all French pupils. Consisting of three large volumes, the “French Method” offers an excellent tool to explore how the French State redefined the gender relations and presented ideal models of masculinity and femininity. The issue is of particular interest because the “French Method” became compulsory for almost half a century in France and was largely disseminated throughout the world.

Laïcité in practice: the representations of French teenagers

Focusing on the results of the REDCo (Religion in Education: a Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries) research, this publication sets out how French pupils conceive of laïcité, both generally and in school. It also explores pupils’ perceptions of the 2004 law banning the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols in state schools and their perceptions of the current arrangements for dealing with pupils’ religiously motivated requests (e.g. absence for religious reasons, religious dietary requirements in school canteens). Finally, questions concerning if and how pupils have interiorised the principle of laïcité are considered. Does it still have a militant tone, with a kernel of anticlericalism and often anti‐religious views? To conclude, it is shown that secondary pupils share a ‘laïcité of proximity’ which is neither how the state interprets laïcité, nor how it is used in ideological debates.

De Schriftelijke Taalvaardigheid van Franstalige en Nederlandstalige Leerlingen uit het Nederlandstalig Onderwijs in Brussel

In Brussels, the officially Dutch-French bilingual but predominantly francophone capital of Belgium, a monolingual Dutch-medium and French-medium school system operate in parallel and independently from each other. Lately, an increasing number of francophone parents have sent their children to the Dutch-medium schools in, expecting that this will provide them with the 'immersion experience' felt necessary to become bilingual in French and Dutch. There has been much debate about the effects on the pupils of the complex multilingual environment in the Dutch-medium schools which has thus been created. This article reports on an analysis of Dutch writing proficiency of both French and Dutch-speaking pupils in these Dutch-medium schools. Quantitative measures of linguistic complexity, accuracy and productivity were used to assess the Dutch academic written production of 60 pupils from two age levels. Significant differences between the Dutch and the French pupils were mainly found with respect to accuracy.

Injustice in physical education: gender and the perception of deprivation in grades and teacher support

School as an institution is not powerful enough to fight external mechanisms leading to gender inequalities. Sport, as Physical Education (PE), remains a male domain and appears as a site for the reproduction of hegemonic masculinity. In PE, girls obtain lower grades than boys; teachers support boys more. This paper focuses upon the French pupils’ perceptions of injustice with respect to teacher support and grades relative to gender and social gender role orientation. Data were collected through questionnaires from 1620 pupils in secondary school. Although boys, Androgynous and Masculine pupils, obtained significantly higher grades in PE, they felt more deprivation. Concerning teacher support, girls’ perceptions of injustice were similar to boys’ perceptions, and Undifferentiated pupils perceived the highest deprivation level. Pupil’s perceptions may not be free of gender stereotypes.