La thèse a pour objet la mise en place d’un nouveau dispositif pédagogique, le processus portfolio dans le plan de formation 2007-2010 d’un IUFM (Lyon1). Cette innovation pédagogique, associée dans le cadre de la formation des enseignants à l’approche par compétences et à ses modalités d’évaluation, a suscité de nombreuses interrogations de la part des formateurs et des stagiaires. Le portfolio est couramment utilisé dans le monde anglo-saxon. Il y est à la fois un dispositif de formation et un outil de recrutement des enseignants. Qu’en est-il de la transposition de ce processus dans la culture de la formation et de recrutement des maîtres en France ? L’enjeu de cette étude est de comprendre et d’expliquer l’impact de ce portfolio sur la construction de l’identité personnelle et professionnelle d’enseignants stagiaires. Il est aussi de comprendre et expliquer en quoi et comment il peut faire la preuve de l’acquisition de compétences professionnelle / This Thesis presents a new teaching process to be used in Teacher Training at the University Claude Bernard Lyon1 (IUFM) in 2007: the portfolio. This pedagogical innovation, associated with teacher training and linked to the evaluation of abilities, has raised many questions by both students and teachers. The portfolio is often used in the English speaking world. It is also a process of formation and a tool of recruitment for teachers. What effect could this Anglo-Saxon process have upon the French procedure for training and recruiting teachers? The aim of this study is to understand and explain the impact of this new teaching process upon the development of the personal and professional identity of provisional teachers. It also hopes to understand and explain how to prove the attainment of professional skills and what it consists of. The results, analysed in their anthropological, ergonomical and semiotical dimensions, help to understand the professional development of provisional teachers in terms of identity, the inference of reflection with regards to professional skills, the attainment of skills, and the proposal of a new curriculum to improve the portfolio process

The purpose of the study was to assess the effect of a treatment package consisting of computer-assisted instruction using multiple video exemplars to teach safety skills to students with intellectual disability. A multiple probe across participants design was used to evaluate knowledge acquisition and the generalization of knowledge to the authentic setting (e.g, the school parking lot). The results showed training was effective in knowledge acquisition and improving skills demonstrated while crossing the parking lot.

In work with clients having profound learning disability, music therapists may include in sessions assistants not trained as music therapists. This study is a qualitative inquiry addressing the questions: 1) How does improvised music influence the interaction between teenagers with profound and multiple disability and learning support assistants? 2) Which aspects of the music are associated with any influences found? A survey of music therapists, exploring how assistants are used and how effectively they perform their role, found that assistants are often used as ‘interaction partners’. To explore how the therapist may facilitate client-assistant interaction, about which little is known, video clips from the writer’s clinical practice were purposively selected in order to illustrate an approach entitled Triadic Support of Interaction by Improvisation (TSII). Seven learning support assistants (LSAs) each viewed a video clip showing her own interaction with a teenager having profound disability, supported by the writer’s improvised music. Semi-structured interviews explored the LSAs’ understanding of the behaviour and inferred mental processes of the teenagers, their own behaviour and mental processes and the music improvised by the therapist to support the interaction. A variant of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis generated shared themes, which included concern for the teenagers’ autonomy, interest in their communicative behaviour and understanding of the mutuality of interaction. The therapist’s improvisation was seen by the LSAs as influencing only the teenagers. All the clips were also viewed by three music therapists, who used a mechanical continuous response device to register the influence of the therapist’s improvisation on four ‘scenarios’: the teenagers’ behaviour, their inferred mental processes, the LSAs’ behaviour and their inferred mental processes. Inter-rater agreement between the three therapists’ continuous responses was generally low, but some intra-rater correlations were found between pairs of scenarios, which the music was perceived as influencing in similar ways. This finding supports the conclusion that musical influences, although they may be analysed according to the four scenarios, actually function as a mutually inter-related system rather than as four independent processes. Each therapist selected decision points from the graphic record of her/his individual responses to discussed with the other therapists as a panel. Positive evaluations were made of the role of TSII in supporting the observed teenager-LSA interactions and the inferred underlying mental processes. This research design was exploratory, and not intended to test specific hypotheses about the mechanisms of musical influence. Tentative suggestions of associations between influences and musical features are however offered by the writer. Indications for the use of TSII are given and other applications suggested for novel aspects of the methodology developed for this study. A refinement of the continuous response task is proposed, and the requirements for any future formal evaluation of TSII are outlined.

Government and higher education see the employability of graduates as a priority. Anecdotal and empirical evidence from the researchers own fully accredited institution suggests there is little structure to the delivery of Personal Development Planning (PDP); it is not related to the world of work and of limited relevance to the learning that takes place. A critical review of published literature has revealed that an understanding of the links between PDP and work-based learning (WBL) could provide routes to improving professional membership. The thesis resolves this gap in knowledge enabling HE practitioners to enhance the development of skills and competencies. The research is mainly set in a positivistic paradigm with mixed methods research following a survey based methodological approach. Data collected through questionnaires, structured interviews and focus groups, are used to analyse the opinions and beliefs of staff and students in HE and experienced professionals working at the cutting edge of the construction industry. The work identifies the skills and competencies needed for academic study and employability, with PDP seen as an essential element of an academic course. Reflective practice is key to learning new knowledge and skills in the workplace and empirical investigation suggests experience plays a significant part in the learning process. All students should have an opportunity to see the application of theory with practice through WBL. The research has contributed to the body of knowledge by challenging the inadequacies in existing practice. The thesis identifies the key components and linkages in a theoretically informed model that proposes the use of a Graduate Skills Framework for Construction Management. This new-found understanding and toolkit promotes the teaching of employability skills alongside PDP in a structured programme of WBL. Research participants agree that this is expected to support the development of professional competencies and enhanced capability for the benefit of students, professionals and the construction industry.

This investigation is concerned with determining the value, if any, of certain curiosity constructs and thought skill experiences upon "raw score" responses of black sixth grade pupils to selected standardized and experimenter made tests. The major purpose of this study is to determine whether the curiosity levels of black children will be increased and if gains will be made in reading comprehension and responses when selected questioning procedures are used. The study is confined to teacher-directed instructional situations where pupils are engaged in reading acts.

Twenty-seven parents with young children were randomly assigned to an experimental group which underwent an affective skill-building program, or one of two control groups. Pre and postassessments measured levels of communication, discrimination, and child vocalization for each parent. Multilinear regression analysis indicated that final communication skills among the three groups were significantly different. Final communication skills of the experimental group were significantly greater than those of the Hawthorne control group. Final discrimination skills for the three groups showed a trend toward being significantly different. Levels of child vocalization did not show significant changes. The experimental program was successful in improving accurate parent-child communication in the affective realm.

It is widely acknowledged that under situations of heightened pressure, many expert athletes suffer from performance decrements. This phenomenon has been termed ‘choking under pressure’ and has been the subject of extensive research in sport psychology. Despite this attention, gaps in the literature remain leaving opportunities for further advancements in knowledge about the phenomenon, particularly in relation to its underlying processes and the development of appropriate interventions that can be adopted in order to alleviate, or even prevent choking. The present programme of research, in general terms, aimed to develop and test the efficacy of an intervention tool, based on priming, to alleviate choking under pressure. It was acknowledged that such a tool should be matched to the mechanisms that underlie the choking process and although an abundance of research has provided valuable information about these mechanisms, it was identified that there still remains a lack of consensus regarding the most appropriate explanatory theory. Therefore the initial study in this thesis aimed to provide further insight into the processes that govern choking by examining accounts from elite international swimmers of their experiences of performing under high levels of pressure. The results provided further support for the postulation that choking under pressure occurs as a result of a combination of conscious processing hypothesis (Masters, 1992) and processing efficiency theory (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992) and that an optimum level of skill-focused attention is beneficial to performance. The following studies utilised this information as well as that of the existent theories of choking, to develop and examine an effective priming based intervention tool (a scrambled sentence task). Specifically, Studies 2, 3 and 4 examined the amount of residual working memory available after activation of the prime, the optimisation of the priming task and the efficacy of the tool in promoting performance under high pressure respectively. Results revealed support for the efficacy of the tool in reducing online skill-focused attention and promoting performance under both low- and high-pressure conditions. Finally, the general themes that emerged throughout the whole programme of study are discussed, as well as the limitations and recommendations for future research. Implications for coaches, athletes and practitioners are also presented.

In this ubiquitous computing society, most students are required to be proficient in computer skills to compete in today’s global job market. These computer skills usually include skills in business productivity applications. Assessing those skills is normally accomplished by hands-on skills exams, which can become onerous and costly. This study explored whether a combination of a computer self-efficacy (CSE) survey, cognitive questions, and skill-based questions could indeed be a valid alternative to a hands-on skills exam. The findings of this study indicate some types of questions may be better predictors of performance on the hands-on skills exam, and some combinations of survey items and questions may be viable alternatives to hands-on skills exams. As a result of this research, schools and companies could adapt these indirect and direct assessments to their situation to perform their own study or assess the skills of their students/employees.

Title: Strength as a determinant of kick speed of young soccer players. Objectives: Identify the relationship of strength of extensors and flexors of knee and the kick speed and accuracy of young soccer players. Methods: The study group consists of 20 players in the age between 20-25 years (22,45±1,12 years) league level engaged in the provision of an elite soccer club. The players passed the tests of strength abilities week before field testing of kick speed and accuracy. Strength extensors and flexors of knee were measured in laboratory conditions at three different stages of the angular velocity of the dominant and nondominant lower leg. After week the players completed three shots on goal by preferred and non-preferred leg, where we measured the speed and accuracy of kick. Results: The results of work submit information about relationship between the strength of extensors and flexors of knee and the kick speed and accuracy depending on the degree of angular velocity. It has been found moderate - strong correlation between conditionings depending on the different degrees of angular speed of the movement. Keywords: accuracy, kick, skill, soccer, speed, strength

Title: Analysis of the Tennis Serve from the perspective of the receiving player Objectives: To determine whether it is possible for the receiving opponent to estimate the direction and type of tennis serve based on the server's toss. Methods: The indirect method was used in the form of video surveillance to meet the objectives. The analyzed group consisted of five professional tennis players, who were exposed to the research model game situation. All five servers were recorded by a high speed camera in the area of the receiving player; radar was used to measure the ball speed. The key point for evaluation was the moment of release of the ball from the server's hand, the highest reached point of the ball and the moment when the ball was hit by the racket. The analyzed results were presented in the form of tables and graphs; from the statistical methods, the arithmetic average was used mainly. Results: This research focused on anticipating the tennis serve from the perspective of the receiving player. Overall, we observed five players, who served first from the right side and then the left side into the dedicated opponent's receiving area marked by lines. We established a research question whether it is possible to estimate the direction and type of serve based on the server's toss. When comparing...