Raymond LeBlanc

The Sense of School Belonging and Implementation of a Prevention Program: Toward Healthier Interpersonal Relationships Among Early Adolescents

The purpose of this qualitative study is to pave the way for the establishment of healthy interpersonal relations by facilitating an understanding of the impacts of Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence as perceived by adolescents and teachers who took part in it. Lions Quest has become recognized as an evidence-based program for preventing alcohol and drug use through the development of social skills and the promotion of meaningful engagement in the school community (Lions Clubs International, Overview of Skills for Adolescence 2013). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7th and 8th grade Francophone and Anglophone adolescents from three schools in Eastern Ontario who had participated in Lions Quest. Deductive and inductive analysis of interview transcripts clearly underscored that the positive perceptions of those early adolescents on the quality of their relationships with friends outweigh the negative impression that can be created by peer pressures at this age. It is through such a filter that these adolescents came to appreciate the impact of Lions Quest. Their need to be part of a circle of friends also comes to the fore as a crucial component of a sense of school belonging (Faircloth and Hamm (2005) J Youth Adolesc 34:293–309), highlighting the need to incorporate more of this form of positive social norm into interventions and prevention geared toward early adolescents. The data also underline the complementary importance attributed to having positive relationships with supportive adults.

Compétence réflexive, carte conceptuelle et webfolio à la formation des maîtres

Dans le cadre de cette recherche, nous avons examine la competence reflexive de futurs maitres de francais langue seconde lors de leur utilisation de deux outils, soit le webfolio et la carte conceptuelle. Notre collecte de donnees a ete effectuee aupres de 18 etudiants de premiere annee de la formation des maitres de francais langue seconde. Ceux-ci ont cree une carte conceptuelle qui representait la structure de leur webfolio. Les cartes conceptuelles ont ete analysees en fonction de leur complexite et de leur structure. La majorite des cartes conceptuelles etaient structurees en toile d’araignee ce qui demontre un niveau de complexite plus eleve que les structures a rayons et a chainons, et par consequent un niveau plus eleve de competence reflexive. L’analyse des commentaires des etudiants sur l’utilisation d’une carte conceptuelle et d’un webfolio demontre une ouverture vers l’utilisation de carte conceptuelle comme outil d’organisation. Les etudiants jugent que la reflexion suscitee par la construction d’une carte conceptuelle et d’un webfolio leur donne l’occasion de reflechir sur eux-memes en tant que futur enseignant, de faire preuve de creativite et d’utiliser leurs competences technique et organisationnelle.