Laurent Cosnefroy

Workplace Learning Impact: An Analysis of French-Secondary-Trainee Teachers' Perception of their Professional Development.

This study explores how French-secondary-trainee teachers perceive their professional development over their year-long training. Two research questions are addressed: How prominent is workplace learning in teaching competencies acquisition? Is there a relationship between learning modes and the kind of teaching competencies to be acquired? Four hundred and seventy-three secondary-trainee teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire in which they rated to what extent 28 teaching competencies were being acquired at the end of the one-year training, along with the learning mode of these competencies. The findings suggest that learning on workplace is a multifaceted process that cannot be curtailed to mentoring.

Understanding Quality of Learning in Digital Learning Environments: State of the Art and Research Needed

Over the last decade, the practice of higher education in Europe has become highly diversified and more complex. Among the visible phenomena related to the organization of studies that have appeared there are new forms of teaching and learning linked to digital learning environments. Faced with these developments, sometimes called a revolution, actors—policy makers, teachers, students—have very little in the way of scientific results to rely on. Such practices are still relatively new, and research done in this area rarely goes beyond feedback from experiences, case studies and satisfaction surveys. As such, research has not yet produced sufficient knowledge to provide a solid basis for decision-making. This chapter aims to start to address the current lack of scientific work in this area. More specifically, its ambition is to provide a theoretical framework based on the state of the art as well as research trials to answer two major questions: 1. How do student characteristics and those of digital learning environments interact? 2. What are the configurations emerging from these interactions that can lead to quality learning?. The overarching outcome will be to make new forms of teaching and learning linked to digital learning environments in higher education more intelligible.