EPS Seminar January 28, 2022
The EPS seminar on Friday, January 28, 2022, will be held from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. in room A109 and via video conference. On the agenda:
1 – Presentation by Fabien Groeninger
The body, the cornerstone of holistic education, an object of research, study, teaching, and political debate.
Abstract: Earlier research by Pierre Arnaud and Georges Vigarello highlighted the unequal treatment of intellectual learning, which was perceived as fundamental, and physical learning, which was considered secondary. Ultimately, French schools have shaped an obedient, domesticated, or standardized body through the centuries-old classroom format, where children sit all day long. There is a real historical taboo surrounding the body in school, knowledge of the body, and consideration of children's biological rhythms in learning.
The body, like emotions, is an integral part of the definition of holistic education, theorized as early as 1869 by the educator and anarchist activist Paul Robin and tested at the Cempuis orphanage from 1880 to 1894 with the support of Ferdinand Buisson.
While the concept of integral education was taken up by theorists of progressive education, between the two world wars it was appropriated by Catholic circles. Since Vatican II, this concept has been constantly revisited, to the point where it is sometimes referred to by Catholic education as its "anthropological pivot."
However, comprehensive education as conceived by Paul Robin—open, emancipatory, and democratic—can be a lever for transforming public education. This is the focus of our research.
The concept raises several questions relating to physical education and sports, particularly the relationship between formal and non-formal education, the aims and challenges of public policy, and the construction of a social project based on emancipatory values.
2 – Speech by Sylvain Connac
Research methodology(ies) in the field of education
Phenomenological approach to cooperative situations through group work
Many teachers choose to structure their students' learning around group work. This involves giving them the opportunity, after thinking individually about how to solve a problem, to compare their opinions in order to stimulate socio-cognitive conflict. These controversies can give rise to cognitive conflicts, associated with a state of uncertainty about the soundness of the knowledge available to overcome the obstacles encountered. We studied these processes among high school students enrolled in a cooperative classroom project, as part of the Lieu d'Éducation Associé (Léa) program at the Jacques Feyder high school in Epinay-sur-Seine. To do this, we developed a phenomenological methodological approach. This means that we investigated these situations through the opinions of students experiencing these group work situations, collected through semi-structured interviews, partly enriched by simple self-confrontations. The conclusions of this research reveal several key factors for organizing teaching sessions with group work: the choice of a relevant problem situation, individual preparation time, group work for which students have been trained, measured interventions by the teacher, specific postures on the part of the teacher when the groups report back, a formalized relationship to knowledge, and the final inclusion of individual time for immediate retroactive application.
3 – Work on the collective publication
Initial proposals