Documents found
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2751.More information
The quality of the educational environment in the classroom is recognized as paramount in supporting the emergence of writing in preschool children (Guo et al., 2012). The aim of this descriptive qualitative research is to paint a portrait of the quality of the educational environment in its physical and interactive dimensions with regard to books and book reading in full-time preschool classes in disadvantaged areas of Quebec, the educational environment of which is generally of good quality. Six classes were selected from a larger sample of 30 classes, for which the quality of educational environment had been assessed for a larger study. To assess this quality, the ELLCO Pre-K observation tool (Smith et al., 2008) was used, notably to collect qualitative data from: (1) note-taking for the “Books and Book Reading” domain, (2) classroom photographs, and (3) semi-structured interviews conducted with teachers. A conceptual categorical analysis of the qualitative data relating to books and book reading identified strengths, such as the frequency of interactive readings led by teachers, and challenges, such as the quantity of books available in the reading corner.
Keywords: quality of educational environment, qualité de l’environnement éducatif, dimension physique, physical dimension, dimension interactive, interactive dimension, books, livres, lecture, book reading, ELLCO Pre-K, ELLCO Pre-K, emergent literacy, émergence de l’écrit, 4-year preschool education classes, maternelle 4 ans, milieu défavorisé, disadvantaged areas
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2753.More information
The aim of this article is to analyze, as has been done with adults in their professional field, how young people in school perceive their work environment. The main objective is to study the operationalization of the theoretical model “Job Demands-Resources (JD-R)” of Demerouti and al. (2001) in the school context. The secondary objective is to validate a scale adapted to the school context that makes it possible to determine the level of both demands and resources as perceived by the students within the school. In a first study, a scale was adapted, then administered, to 414 middle and high school students. The results of exploratory and then confirmatory factor analyses indicated a two-dimensional structure (demands/resources) with three items each (physical, motivational and cognitive) in accordance with the original version. The psychometric properties of the scale were found to be satisfactory. Using causal path analyses, the second study with 56 students highlighted the relationship between the JD-R model transposed to schools and school burnout. The results collected at three points in time reveal that the demands and resources at T1 predict those at T2, as was assumed. However, only resources at T2 predict burnout at T3. In the end, the process analysis reveals the effects of students' perceived level of resources at T1 on school burnout at T3, but indicates no significant effect of demands. In conclusion, the model was partially validated showing relationships between changes in demands, resources and their effects on burnout.
Keywords: élèves du secondaire, secondary school students, exigences, demands, resources, ressources, school burnout, épuisement scolaire, burnout
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2757.
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2758.More information
The site of Chaloignes (Mozé-sur-Louet, Maine-et-Loire) was excavated in 1999 over surface of 9200 m2. This work led to the first description of a complex habitat of the Final Palaeolithic on the Armorican Massif and clarified our image of Azilian technical choices. The immediate environment was strongly influenced by the Loire River, with 10 km of banks accessible within a range of 5 km. Three small thalwegs converge in this “ basin”, which is closed by a narrow outlet associated with a quartz vein. This natural deposition favoured the preservation of Tardiglacial levels, sometimes under a Middle La Tène habitat (northern part of the site), and sometimes directly under the topsoil (southern part of the site). The habitats are sealed by colluviums in all the valleys. Geomorphological and micromorphological analyses show evidence for a first phase of erosion during a periglacial climatic period, followed by a complex phase of silt deposits with Azilian remains lying on top of them. The deposition of this level at this moment attests to improvement in climatic conditions that we correlate with the Alleröd interstadial. These deposits later show elements indicating a new period of cold conditions (Late Dryas) and sedimentary truncations. The lithic artefacts that can be attributed to the Azilian were found within ten homogeneous loci, two homogeneous zones and two others with a strong Azilian component along with posterior intrusions. There is an additional locus dated to the Final Neolithic. The spatial units cover 25 m2 to 70 m2. There is construction, hearth, rubified zone or wall effect is perceptible. The preservation of organic materials is compromised by the acidity of the sediments of the Armorican Massif. The flint knappers at Chaloignes most often acquired their raw materials from the closest sources. These materials consist essentially of cobbles from the Loire terraces, the closest of which were located less than 2 km away. In variable proportions in the loci, we also identified ten materials with a non-rolled cortex that originate from the sedimentary basins. Ochre was gathered from the Armorican sandstone formations, located around 10 km north of the site, perhaps under the current city of Angers or more to the north on the edge of the Armorican Massif. The objectives of the lithic production sequence were double : to produce small, rectilinear blade blanks to be transformed into projectile weapon elements and short flakes with a consistent thickness to be transformed into scrapers. The debitage is mostly bipolar and realized with hard stone hammer and little striking platform preparation. The principal tools in this Azilian assemblage from Chaloignes are asymmetric monopoints with an arched back (Azilian Points), a few backed bladelets, burins on a truncation or break, thumbnail scrapers and end scrapers on blades. This industry presents a sufficient number of elements to attribute it to either to a late phase of the Azilian, or to the monopoint phase at the end of the Alleröd interstadial (around 10,800 BP, or 11,000 BC). All of the tool types are represented at all of the loci ; a detailed analysis of the proportions of types nonetheless indicates a possible spatial segmentation of activities. A functional analysis showed that in addition to the hunting activities directly demonstrated by the presence of weapon elements, the technical processes identified were mostly associated with skin and bone working. Many of the lithic objects were abandoned in place without having been used. Locus 11 is the only one that yielded three cobbles engraved with fine, parallel lines. These objects were found in a clear stratigraphic position and can thus be associated with certitude to the Azilian occupation. The functioning of the loci was probably discontinuous in time. The “ basin” of Chaloignes, which was sheltered from the wind and contained a spring, must have offered certain advantages to groups exploiting this side of the Loire Valley : the forest cover was perhaps more developed here than on the step with Poaceae described by palynological analyses in the Mayenne department. The economic territory was influenced by the Loire, which composed a vast intersection between several rivers.
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2759.More information
SummaryThe goal of this research is to study the impacts of technological changes on the professional identity of a specific category of workers: technicians. This research is based on a case study of a major high-tech organization working in the telecommunications sector. This group of “technical workers” establishes itself both as a key social actor and also as a professional category weakened by a deep identity malaise.This malaise itself can be attributed to its own specific social history and to the recent technological changes that have had a major impact on the production structures of its “natural” activity space. The study, carried out in a factory in a suburb west of Montreal, started just after the beginning of a complex process of technological and organizational change. The study has a dual goal. The first goal is to understand the dynamics of change brought about by these transformations, which have led to a new distribution of qualification spaces and a redefinition of negotiation powers for the members of the community. A second goal is to analyse the mechanisms which were in place for the remaking of the technician position and which make up the basis for the reconstruction of her social and professional identity. It is the deconstruction of this process which lies at the basis of this research which also set out to question the explanatory impact of the controversial notion of technological determinism as related to the recent transformations which have affected industrial work. The analysis model calls on three notions. The first notion is that the dynamics of the social work space within the enterprise set up a transformation process that leads to a structuring of new disqualification and requalification spaces. The second is that these dynamics are not the result of technological change alone; other factors much be taken into consideration in the redefinition of the technician's identify and function. The third notion establishes a structural relation, of cause and effect, between the transformation process of the qualification spaces, their respective zones of uncertainty, and the technician identity through its technical, professional, and social components.The case study of this work sets up a constructivist and inductive approach, which takes the form of a long-term study, based on direct observation, personal conversations, and use of the organization's documentary sources.The research results bring out two major phenomena. The first is the homogenization of the production space. The research is presented in two parts: first the bringing together of manufacturing operations into a single ad hoc space linked to the function rather than the product but in line with the same methods of task distribution; and thereafter, the definition of identical tasks, with the constraint of operation automation and equipment computerization. The second phenomenon is that of the fragmentation of the technician community. This is based on a transversal fracture of the technical population as a socioprofessional community and on the division of the technician's function. The result of this phenomenon has been the disappearance of the largest of the sub-groups which previously made up the technician collective and which defined professional and collective identities; and the reconstitution of the community around two differentiated components: production technicians, and “specialized” technicians. The first group is by far the largest and includes, from this point in time on, operator technicians who have been greatly disqualified. Our results associate the second group with a redefined identify as a technician, a new collective group characterized by the appropriation of power spaces and technical means of authority, all of this to the detriment of both technical support (engineering) and hierarchical support (management).Each group draws its resources from the same formerly homogenous population for which the enterprise's social space allowed a “long maturation period”—from the 1960's—and an identity affirmation based on professional function and on a technical mastery which were institutionally recognized in the industrial space. This global transformation dynamic also led to the restructuration of the organization's professional and social system.The results show that technological changes did not play an exclusive or overly developed role. The determinism attributed to the changes is, all things considered, relative when these are part of a complex dynamic with which other factors are associated, among which the enterprise's strategy as an actor plays a decisive role. This is not because this role is more or less decisive than the dynamic stemming from technological changes, but rather because the former acts as a catalyst creating the conditions favourable to such an action. The technological changes appear, in the final analysis, as a strategic issue around which the power relations between different actors crystallized, particularly between technicians and leadership. Parallel to the irrefutable impacts of the “technical logic”, other strategic issues contributed to creating the social conditions for the institutional and collective action. The conduct and strategy of the leaders within the business are evident in a decisive manner at the very source of the main social transformations brought into focus by this study.This transformation dynamic cannot be seen as the sole result of some technological determinism, or of an unavoidable logic over which actors have no control. Research shows that technological changes are the focus of an instrumentalization as a contextual platform which leaders use as a basis to legitimize their strategic choices in the field of work organization.
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2760.More information
Developing a Web site for youth aged 6 to 12 years for the Montréal public library system was achieved by taking into consideration the organisation's objectives, the needs of the users and the challenges of the social environment of Montréal. This article summarises the work undertaken to develop the services available on the site. It also describes the selection of a Web publishing method that allows for interactive services by both the youth and the librarians who developed the content.