Our entry point here is an analysis comparing several disciplines and teaching environments, considering them in the context of the learning situations associated with them and, beyond this, their social environment. The connection is obvious for the teaching of foreign languages, but there has been little research into its effective interactional determinations, for example in the case of schooling migrants, which raises the question of the language spoken and written at school, and the conditions for its learning.
We could argue that: on the one hand, teaching situations with certain identified properties are necessary, in the classroom, in order to transmit knowledge with the desired epistemological properties; on the other hand, for schools to be able to transmit knowledge with these epistemological properties, society must have a clear vision of the challenges of this educational requirement. These two systems of constraints are the subject of a joint study of comparative approaches.
Initial work has already highlighted shifts in the didactisation process (in teaching French as a foreign language, as a result of the 'Cultures d’Enseignement, Cultures d’Apprentissage' Project by the ADEF, FIPF and AUF), and even flaws in this process. More...

The work we will develop will start with building a relationship between lengthy disciplinary learning, on the one hand (associated value systems, curricula building: trajectories) and time-limited interactions in the classroom, on the other (establishing differential training contracts: situations). We consider issues concerning the efficiency and equity of the education system to be based upon this relationship.
The work will then focus on the building of relationships to learning subjects (socially controversial issues are one case, the obsolescence of academic disciplines is another). We will consider how knowledge needs are defined in society (sustainable development, language practice or the definition of a common bedrock of knowledge raise new questions in relation to civic culture). The issue of building social relations at school will also be examined (in areas where they are socially determined, or in relation to gender distinctions which play a role in choices linked to success and orientation). We feel that issues concerning a common bedrock of knowledge are part of this work.
The work will be conducted in the context of each body of educational content and, therefore, developed through a perspective of comparing content, institutions and regional areas.
This movement is the result of a clearly multidisciplinary team (CNU sections 05, 07, 16, 19, 26, 70), which brings together researchers from teams 1 and 3 of the previous quadrennium. It requires an epistemological reworking of the foundations and discussion and reorganisation of educational theories, in the context of their relationships with the anthropological sciences. This work has been carried out since the previous programme by the EtOS team. Its theoretical dimensions are growing with the development of the theory of joint action in education and a deepening of the anthropological theory of didactics (ATD). This work is presented and discussed at international conferences. The research develops from the observation and analysis of empirical phenomena, with the study of new phenomena derived from regional effects or the introduction of non-disciplinary learning subjects. It continues with the study of education existing outside of educational institutions, which allows for the testing of knowledge acquired previously.
We are thus seeking to develop a synergy between researchers who refer to an anthropological-type approach, an approach to a social phenomenon they call the school, an instituted form of training in social relations to knowledge, or didactics, the organisation of an entry into culture through study. The group, made up in this way, defines work themes and a joint seminar is held where the results and methodology are brought to the fore. Work teams are formed freely around these themes and are established for a fixed period of collaborative study on a specified subject, either as part of the response to an invitation to tender or in the context of a recognised project.
Thus, trajectories, situations, needs, distinctions and comparisons define the main types of questions we will ask in relation to our study subject - teaching and education. Training and the mutual conversion of educational and social provisions is thus the central issue we plan to tackle in the next four years, developing work which systematically articulates the biographical monitoring of individuals, the historical monitoring of social organisations and, at the same time, a description of how social knowledge needs are met, or fail to be met, in schools. On this last issue, specific to teaching approaches, we will propose ways to intervene, including the production of teaching resources. More...

The ACADIS (Comparative and Anthropological Approaches to Teaching and Education) team is interested in building a relationship between lengthy disciplinary learning, on the one hand and time-limited interactions in the classroom, on the other. The work conducted focuses on relationships to learning subjects (socially controversial issues, obsolescence of academic disciplines, etc.), the definition of knowledge needs in society (sustainable development, language practice, a common bedrock, etc.) and building social relations at school. More...

The distinguishing features and characteristics of schools or training institutions, as opposed to other forms of institution, are related to the nature of these bodies. They only exist for as long as a political institution decides that there is a need to transmit instituted knowledge to a pupil institution. If we adopt an anthropological point of view, according to which issues of knowledge are, fundamentally, issues of power, then institutional places of knowledge transfer, such as educational and training institutions, could be considered places in which issues of access to and sharing of power are managed. By teaching the knowledge they master, teachers share some of their power with their pupils. This may be the power to act upon an environment, understand this environment or build this environment. 
This issue of sharing is crucial in institutions, regardless of the perspective adopted when observing it. All the laboratory teams and research projects contribute to building possible responses, in accordance with certain vantage points. These include: pupil-teacher interaction as organised in the context of the teaching contract, the anthropological theory of didactics, the anthropological model for the deconstruction and reconstruction of the subject of education, the role of artifacts in the process of school learning, comparative approaches to teaching, socio-educational and regionalised approaches, ergonomic approaches, notably through the work of education professionals in schools, evaluation of educational policies and the sociological approach of curricula, the approach by learning organisations and collective intelligence or, indeed, the historical approach through the history of institutions. More...

The teaching, education and training professions make up a group of vocations involved at all levels of the knowledge transmission/acquisition process, the professionalism of which is, nevertheless, far too often poorly defined. For example, the teacher's level of competence in a particular subject area is too often reduced to the mastery of academic knowledge in this field. Several studies aim to further our understanding of what makes up the professional competence of a teacher, trainer and, beyond this, an education professional. Creating favourable conditions for individual and/or collective learning requires great professionalism from these various protagonists and/or participants, manifested through three levels of expertise: mastery of the knowledge to be transmitted, mastery of the ways in which this knowledge is transmitted and mastery of the role of protagonist in this transmission system. The acquisition of these levels of expertise is part of the professionalism which should be built up in institutions for the training of trainers. Many studies carried out by the research group analyse these forms of professionalisation. We can consider the professional training of teachers within teacher training institutes, or the training of trainers in other institutions, such as the training of nurses, or those responsible for vocational training in companies. The analysis takes into account (i) requirements and their development, (ii) the way in which the work of teachers, trainers, managers, etc. is organised and (iii) the study of professional activities, as constructed or reconstructed both by beginners and by those who are already experienced. 
Institutional requirements generate situations of conflict as regards the understanding professionals have of their work. We can analyse these conflicts in professional situations, along with issues concerning the practices and dynamics of identity, identifying the knowledge involved in these professional practices. This will help us to clarify the double meaning of the requirements involved - those derived from the organisation of the work and those pertaining to the actual subject of the work. There is a real interest in analysing the historical development of professional actions and knowledge generated by prescription and the means protagonists give themselves to take ownership of these. 
The study of these issues of professionalism, professionalisation and vocation applies to teachers involved in primary school, secondary education (whether general, technical or vocational) and higher education, as well as trainers involved in training professionals, such as health professionals (nurses, physiotherapists, etc.), social workers, health educators, driving school instructors or, indeed, any form of training where an institution decides to train its personnel. This might involve the support we receive upon entering a profession, vocational training to enable us to develop our skills, or any kind of training we embark upon throughout our lives. This also applies to the managers and supervisory staff who run these educational organisations (inspection bodies, headteachers, senior education consultants, etc.) or these training institutions (hospital managers, training managers, etc.). More...

The building of social knowledge, when institutionalised in schools - whether educational institutions or institutions which organise different forms of vocational training - is characterised by the construction of a social space for interaction between a teacher (trainer), pupils (trainees) and knowledge finalised around a contractual objective: the teacher (trainer) is there to organise the transmission of knowledge to the pupils (trainees), who are there to acquire it. Tension is created between the notion of an institution responsible for preserving the knowledge it masters and the need to transmit this knowledge, to ensure both its sustainability and development. This tension defines the terms of interaction between these protagonists, whose roles are equally defined by the institutions as by their own social individualities. Understanding these tensions is a challenge for all research conducted within the research group teams, according to different approaches and methodologies based on various theoretical frameworks. This diversity reflects the complementarity of the work carried out in order to clarify issues which can only be resolved through a diversification of viewpoints. 
The idea is to question these forms of knowledge transmission as a social phenomenon whereby social relations to knowledge are institutionalised and for which teaching approaches are designed to examine the conditions for entry into cultures through study. From this perspective, some studies aim to build a relationship between lengthy disciplinary learning and time-limited interactions in the classroom. This draws upon the relationship between forging a rapport with educational objects, defining needs in terms of knowledge within social organisations and building social relations at school. The educational dimensions of the process of transmission/acquisition of academic knowledge are thus the essential focus of the study. 
From a socio-historical perspective, educational and/or training organisations should thus been seen a part of a historical background specific to each discipline, which will determine, simultaneously, what to teach and how to teach it. The assumption that the activity of pupils in the classroom is likely to generate learning based on the tasks proposed by the teacher raises the key question of the effectiveness of educational organisations. The form of teacher-pupil relationship is specified by the epistemology of the knowledge at stake, along with the educational conversion of social provisions related to knowledge and the school. We could argue that, in order to transmit knowledge with the desired epistemological properties, the classroom requires teaching situations with certain identified properties. In order for the school to transmit knowledge with the desired epistemological properties, society must possess a clear vision of the issues at stake in relation to this educational requirement. The effectiveness of this process would, therefore, appear to be determined by the distance between what is expected by the institution, how the teacher takes these expectations into account, what he/she teaches, what the pupils understand, what they actually do and what they learn. Each of these spheres defines the distance between content, institutions and local areas. Comparative approaches to teaching allow for several disciplines and educational premises to be analysed, considering them in a situational context and, beyond this, in the context of their social environment. This investigation also fits in with socio-educational and regionalised approaches which allow us to assess the differential effects of the education contract. 
The effect of a particular kind of teaching depends on how the protagonists (first and foremost, teachers and pupils) are positioned in the transactions they conduct, jointly, for the purpose of teaching and learning, thus defining a central dimension of their social identity. An analysis of these processes considers social representations in their widest sense, prior knowledge and the discourse and practices of the protagonists. It is based on a study of three main types of choices educational institutions have to make: the choice of knowledge to be transmitted, the choice of teaching situation in which this transmission takes place, the choice of training courses themselves. For example, the development of uses of information and communication technology brings about new behaviours; participation in projects, whether spontaneous or directed, gives rise, in particular, to groups that evidence educational and/or training projects in an implicit or explicit way. Another example works on the assumption that social norms are constructed through the activities of pupils in educational institutions and that this environment has been forged out of this process of building social norms, especially through socio-cultural, socio-professional or socioeconomic differentiation. In the articulation of educational tasks, it is thus possible to identify factors liable to generate or mitigate this differentiation. More...

The EA ADEF's scientific project aims to increase understanding of teaching and/or training systems, particularly the effects of policy decisions. Their effectiveness is assessed in organisations for the professional training of teachers and/or trainers, through interactions between pupils (trainees), teachers (trainers) and knowledge.
Historically, many studies conducted locally have concentrated on assessment, on the one hand and on the study of education, on the other. This has included the teaching of school subjects (such as maths, science, technology, economic and management sciences, humanities and languages, arts etc.), professional education (vocational training in schools, the health care environment or areas of corporate training) and comparative approaches to teaching. The research to be conducted during the next quadrennium will continue in this vein. More generally, it will question the process of knowledge transmission and acquisition in educational or training institutions, based on the institutionalisation of professionals responsible for its organisation and implementation. The research is structured around three thematic axes:

• the teaching-learning process
• professionalism and professionalisation of teaching, education and training professions and
• educational and training institutions. More...

EA 4671 ADEF
Learning, Teaching, Assessment, Training
is part of Aix Marseille University (AMU) and partnered with the IFé at ENS Lyon.
Principal: Jacques Ginestié

The research conducted at ADEF aims to increase understanding of teaching and/or training systems, particularly the effects of policy decisions. Their effectiveness is assessed in organisations for the professional training of teachers and/or trainers, through interactions between pupils (trainees), teachers (trainers) and knowledge. The research is structured around three thematic axes: (i) the teaching-learning process, (ii) professionalism and professionalisation of teaching, education and training professions and (iii) educational and training institutions. The laboratory is structured into four teams:

• ACADIS
• GESTEPRO
• ERGAPE
• EFE. More...

The Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Training (ADEF) laboratory is a research group (EA 4671) at Aix-Marseille University (AMU), partnered with the French Education Institute (Institut Français de l'Education - IFé) at Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon).
EA 4671 ADEF is linked to the doctoral school (ED 356) for Cognition, Language and Education.
ADEF members come from Aix-Marseille's Graduate School of Teaching and Education, Department of Education Sciences or ENS Lyon.
The research aims to increase understanding of educational and/or training systems. More...

Un meilleur suivi des étudiants dans leur cursus (master 1 et master 2), notamment avec un encadrement plus étroit du choix des sujets de recherche, est une condition d’amélioration de la qualité des projets de recherche. Le développement de parcours de masters dans le cadre de la mention Métiers de l’enseignement, de l’éducation et de la formation de manière complémentaire et mutualisée avec les masters portés par le département de sciences de l’éducation doit permettre d’améliorer la qualité et la spécification des orientations des projets de recherche des étudiants, qu’il s’agisse de leur ancrage dans les travaux de l’équipe, ceux de l’équipe d’accueil ou, plus généralement, ceux développés dans le cadre de la didactique des enseignements scientifiques, technologiques et professionnels. Plus...