Rendre un texte qui donne à penser ?Les paradoxes de l’écriture académique en fin de formation des enseignant.e.s

Abstract

At the term of their university studies, future primary teachers in Geneva (Switzerland) have to write a dissertation or an essay that must give evidence of their capacity to handle a complex educational question in a personal way, but also argued and anchored in data. The analysis of 200 of these texts and of the judgments expressed by trainers about them brings out, through cross-induction of regularities and variations, six potential cognitive bias between authors and directors of postgraduate dissertations : the problem (to succeed or to understand); the question (to isolate or connect); the knowledge (to collect or produce); the duties (to assume or question); the survey (to present or justify); the reading (to delegate or guide). Finally, one may wonder not only whether some ambiguities could be avoidable, but also to what extent misunderstandings and cognitive bias could hide disagreements between trainers and future teachers on the tension between urgency of action and passage by reflection.

Keywords

• teacher training
• writing
• dissertation
• cognitive bias
• problem setting