Quelles attitudes possèdent les futurs publicitaires envers la publicité et son éthique ? Analyse compréhensive des représentations sociales d’un corpus d’étudiants

Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude menée sur 24 étudiants en Publicité et communication commerciale. L’investigation possède deux objectifs liés : premièrement, distribuer ces étudiants parmi des catégories d’attitudes par rapport à la publicité et son éthique et, en second lieu, sur base des mêmes données récoltées, présenter des propositions pour l’établissement d’un dispositif d’éducation critique à la publicité. Au moyen d’un entretien individuel semi-directif alliant l’approche compréhensive et la méthode du tri de cartes, les étudiants ont été confrontés à un tour des représentations sociales de la publicité présentes dans la littérature critique. Cette recherche a mis en lumière une nette tendance au cynisme vis-à-vis de l’éthique publicitaire dans le chef des étudiants se destinant au métier de publicitaire. Ces derniers conçoivent et acceptent pourtant comme vrais une majorité des écueils faits à la discipline. Ils envisagent difficilement les impacts et enjeux du discours et du secteur publicitaire si ce n’est sur les plus jeunes ou les personnes moins éduquées. Ils dédouanent la discipline en évoquant les campagnes non marchandes, la lucidité du consommateur et le caractère acquis, normal, de la situation. Enfin, leur capacité à imaginer des scénarios différents lorsqu’ils s’enquièrent des enjeux sociétaux de la publicité s’est avérée très parcellaire. Mots clés : Attitudes, étudiants en publicité, éthique, représentation sociale, éducation critique, approche compréhensive   This article presents the results of a study carried out on 24 advertising students. The investigation comprises two interrelated objectives: firstly distribute these students among categories of attitudes toward advertising and its ethics and, secondly, on the basis of the same data, submit proposals for the establishment of a mechanism of critical education to advertising. Through semi directive interviews combining the comprehensive approach and the method of card sorts, students were confronted with the social representations of advertising present in the critical literature. This research has brought to light a clear tendency to cynicism toward advertising ethics in students intending to pursue a career in advertising. They nonetheless understand and accept as real a majority of reproaches formulated to the discipline. They hardly consider the impacts and issues of the advertising discourse and sector except on the younger or less educated people. They clear the discipline by mentioning the non profit campaigns, the clear-mindedness of the consumer and the acquired, normal, nature of the situation. Finally, their ability to imagine different scenarios when analyzing the societal issues of advertising has proved to be very fragmented Key words: Attitudes, advertising students, ethic, social representation, critical education, comprehensive approac

Quelles attitudes possèdent les futurs publicitaires envers la publicité et son éthique ? Analyse compréhensive des représentations sociales d’un corpus d’étudiants

Cet article présente les résultats d’une étude menée sur 24 étudiants en Publicité et communication commerciale. L’investigation possède deux objectifs liés : premièrement, distribuer ces étudiants parmi des catégories d’attitudes par rapport à la publicité et son éthique et, en second lieu, sur base des mêmes données récoltées, présenter des propositions pour l’établissement d’un dispositif d’éducation critique à la publicité. Au moyen d’un entretien individuel semi-directif alliant l’approche compréhensive et la méthode du tri de cartes, les étudiants ont été confrontés à un tour des représentations sociales de la publicité présentes dans la littérature critique. Cette recherche a mis en lumière une nette tendance au cynisme vis-à-vis de l’éthique publicitaire dans le chef des étudiants se destinant au métier de publicitaire. Ces derniers conçoivent et acceptent pourtant comme vrais une majorité des écueils faits à la discipline. Ils envisagent difficilement les impacts et enjeux du discours et du secteur publicitaire si ce n’est sur les plus jeunes ou les personnes moins éduquées. Ils dédouanent la discipline en évoquant les campagnes non marchandes, la lucidité du consommateur et le caractère acquis, normal, de la situation. Enfin, leur capacité à imaginer des scénarios différents lorsqu’ils s’enquièrent des enjeux sociétaux de la publicité s’est avérée très parcellaire. Mots clés : Attitudes, étudiants en publicité, éthique, représentation sociale, éducation critique, approche compréhensive   This article presents the results of a study carried out on 24 advertising students. The investigation comprises two interrelated objectives: firstly distribute these students among categories of attitudes toward advertising and its ethics and, secondly, on the basis of the same data, submit proposals for the establishment of a mechanism of critical education to advertising. Through semi directive interviews combining the comprehensive approach and the method of card sorts, students were confronted with the social representations of advertising present in the critical literature. This research has brought to light a clear tendency to cynicism toward advertising ethics in students intending to pursue a career in advertising. They nonetheless understand and accept as real a majority of reproaches formulated to the discipline. They hardly consider the impacts and issues of the advertising discourse and sector except on the younger or less educated people. They clear the discipline by mentioning the non profit campaigns, the clear-mindedness of the consumer and the acquired, normal, nature of the situation. Finally, their ability to imagine different scenarios when analyzing the societal issues of advertising has proved to be very fragmented Key words: Attitudes, advertising students, ethic, social representation, critical education, comprehensive approach &nbsp

INVESTIGATING DIFFERENCES IN STRUCTURAL KNOWLEDGE AND METACOGNITIVE PROCESSES AMONG LAY HELPERS ADVANCED STUDENTS AND SENIOR PROFESSIONAL THERAPISTS

Therapist expertise is associated with the use of complex knowledge structures and metacognitive processes. A cross sectional ex-post facto design assessed differences in structural knowledge and metacognitive processes between lay helpers, advanced students, and senior professional therapists. A card sorting task involving 19 therapist intentions was used to assess the following structural knowledge indicators: minutes to complete a card sort, number of card sort categories, and card sort score. Metacognitive processes were assessed using an adaptation of the Metacognitive Awareness Inventory and the Self-reflection subscale of the Self-Reflection and Insight subscales. An inverse U shaped relationship was found in where compared to lay helpers and senior professional therapists; advanced student's had higher card sort scores, indicative of greater consistency with a sample of experienced therapists. Compared to lay helpers and advanced students, senior professional therapists used significantly more time to sort therapist intentions and sorted intentions into a greater number of categories. Relative to metacognitive process, advanced students and senior professional therapists reported significantly greater knowledge of cognition than lay helpers. Also, advanced students also reported greater self-reflection than both lay helpers and senior professional therapists. Discriminant analysis assessed the potential for a linear combination of structural knowledge indicators and metacognitive processes to differentiate participants by level of therapist development. Self-reflection and card sort scores discriminated advanced students from senior professionals, whereas knowledge of cognition and minutes to complete the card sort discriminated experienced professionals from lay helpers. Multidimensional scaling analysis was used to assess the optimal structural configuration of the pooled card sort data and yielded a 4 dimensional solution of the 19 therapist intentions. Results were consistent with Skovholt and Ronnestad's (1992) model of therapist professional development. Results also supported the attenuating effect of ill defined problems on problem solving ability of highly experienced individuals in their respective domain. The study concludes with implications for training, therapy, and research

Using knowledge elicitation techniques to establish a baseline of quantitative measures of computational thinking skill acquisition among university computer science students.

The purpose of this study was to establish a baseline of quantitative measures of computational thinking skill acquisition as an aid in evaluating student outcomes for programming competency. Proxy measures for the desired skill levels were identified that reliably differentiate the conceptual representations of computer science students most likely, from those least likely, to have attained the desired level of programming skill. Insights about the development of computational thinking skills across the degree program were gained by analyzing variances between these proxy measures and the conceptual representations of cross-sections of participating students partitioned by levels of coursework attainment, programming experience, and academic performance. Going forward, similar measures can provide a basis for quantitative assessment of individual attainment of the desired learning outcome. The voluntary participants for this study were students enrolled in selected undergraduate computer science courses at the University. Their conceptual representations regarding programming concepts were elicited with a repeated, open card sort task and stimuli set as used for prior studies of computer science education. A total of 135 students participated, with 124 of these providing 296 card sorts. Differences between card sorts were quantified with the edit distance metric which provided a basis for statistical analysis. Card sorts from cross-sections of participants were compared and contrasted using graph theory algorithms to calculate measures of average segment length of minimum spanning trees (orthogonality), to identify clusters of highly similar card sorts, and to reduce clusters down to individual exemplar card sorts. Variances in distance between the card sorts of cross-sections of participants and the identified exemplars were analyzed with one-way ANOVAs to evaluate differences in development of conceptual representations relative to coursework attainment and programming experience. Findings Collections of structurally similar card sorts were found to align with categorizations identified in earlier studies of computer science education. A logistic regression identified two exemplar sorts representing deep factor categorizations that reliably predicted those participants most, and least likely to have attained the desired level of programming skill. Measures of proximal distance between participants' card sorts and these two exemplars were found to decrease, indicating greater similarity, as students attained progressive coursework milestones. This finding suggests that proximal distances to exemplars of common categorizations for this stimuli set can effectively differentiate conceptual development levels of students between, as well as within, cross-sections selected by achievement of coursework milestones. Measures of proximal distances to one exemplar of deep factor categorization were found to increase, indicating less similarity, as participants’ levels of programming experience increased. This finding was contrary to the theoretical framework for skill acquisition. Further analysis found that variances in experience level as captured by the study instrument were not equally distributed among the cross-sections. The preponderance of participants reporting greater levels of experience were degree majors not required to enroll in the courses most likely to develop that specific conceptualization. Therefore, for this deep factor categorization, instruction was found to have a greater influence on conceptual development than programming experience. However, it is possible that other categorizations, such as those related to software engineering technology, may be found to be more influenced by experience. The orthogonality of participant card sorts was found to increase with each category of increase in academic performance, as in keeping with prior studies. Orthogonality also increased with greater levels of programming experience as expected by the theoretical framework. However, since experience was not equally distributed across categories of coursework achievement, the relationship between the orthogonality of participant card sorts and milestones of coursework achievement was not found to be statistically significant overall. Based on the findings, the researcher concludes that a baseline of quantitative measures of computational thinking skills can be constructed based upon categorizations of elicited conceptual representations and associated exemplar card sorts. Eleven categorizations identified in a prior study of computer science seniors appear to represent reasonable expectations for deep factor categorizations. Follow up research is recommended (a) to identify for each categorization the exemplar card sorts that may be specific to different degree majors, and (b) to identify which categorizations may be more influenced by programming experience than by instruction. Given an elicitation tool that prompts for the specific categorizations and a set of exemplar representations as proposed above, instructional programs can establish expected ranges of proximal distance measures to specific exemplars. These exemplars should be selected according to particular categorizations, degree majors, and coursework milestones. These differentiated measures will serve as evidence that students are meeting the instructional program learning objective for developing competency in the design and implementation of computer-based solutions