The different stages

1 Observations

• • The OCED and French Education Ministry's statistics reveal the extremely mediocre results of French students in both national and international means tests (PISA).

  • Further reports confirm that proficiency in written French has been regressing over the last 100 years (an observation noted by Luc Ferry (the former Education Secretary), the Ministry of Defense, plus teachers and parents).

  • The European First Language Survey in 2012 highlighted the fact that after more than 5 years of studying English, 71% of French secondary school students attained English language skills expected at the end of primary school (A1) according to the Education ministry's grading of linguistic proficiency (these results do not include spoken English which was not evaluated).  Only 25% of 15-16 years olds reached the basic preliminary A2 level.

2 Questions

Several serious questions needed to be answered to account for the above results.  As the basis for our investigation, we took for granted the fact that today's French students are not less intelligent than their predecessors or less competent than other European students.  However, these are the questions we found ourselves confronted with:

• • Why do French school children find it more difficult to recall knowledge in current means tests than in the past?

• • How is it possible to under achieve to such an extent when the compulsory school leaving age is now 16 and French school children spend tremendous amounts of time in school (24-26 hours of lessons per week from age 3 -15)?   Not to mention the fact that the Ministry of Education's annual budget hovers around the 69-70 billion Euro mark.

• • Where do the apparent difficulties lie?  Are they due to differences in pupil's sociocultural backgrounds?  The pressures of modern day life?  A lack of expertise in the teaching profession?  Teacher training? etc... 

• • Why does the number of trainee teacher resignations seem to be tripling in recent years (p36, November 2016 French Senate Report by Jean-Claude Carle and Françoise Férat)?

3 Initial Findings

The teaching methods used in French schools and vocational training today:

• • do not encourage pupils to think in a deep and meaningful way.

• • do not allow teachers to really comprehend the most efficient way of transmitting knowledge and thus, how to put it into practice.

• • overcrowd the learning environment with tools, tasks, activities and even learning gadgets that are both cumbersome to learners and teachers.

• • focus on keeping both teachers and learners occupied but distracted from the intensity of profound mental activity, which gives rise to behavioural problems in class. 

4 The challenge was to find a practical solution

Our goal was to create a pedagogical environment and atmosphere that would stimulate both learning and teaching, thus benefitting pupils and teachers allowing all to attain high levels of achievement.

We noted that in order to reach this goal, it was essential to implement change in two areas:

• • teacher-pupil relationships

• • the physical classroom environment, making it more comfortable and less distracting