SELF-CONFIDENCE AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS

This paper studies the interactions between an individual self-steem and his social environment, whether in the workplace, at school, or in personal relationships. A person generally has only imperfect knowledge of his own ability (or long-term pay) in pursuing a task, and will undertake it only if he has succinct self-confidence. People who interact with him (parent, spouse, friend, teacher, manager, colleague, etc.) often have complementary information about his ability, but also a vested interest in his completing the task. This generates an incentive for such principals to distort their signals so as to manipulate the agent’s self-confidence. We first study situations where an informed principal chooses an incentive structure, such as offering payments or rewards, delegating a task, or simply giving encouragement. We show that rewards may be weak reinforcers in the short term and that, as stressed by psychologists, they may have hidden costs in that they become negative reinforcers once withdrawn. By offering a low–powered incentive scheme, the principal signals that she trusts the agent. Conversely, rewards (extrinsic motivation) have a limited impact on the agent’s current performance, and reduce his intrinsic motivation to undertake similar tasks in the future. Similarly, empowering the agent is likely to increase his motivation and effort, while offers of help or assistance may create dependence. More generally, we identify under which conditions the hidden costs of rewards are a myth or a reality. We then consider the fact that people often criticize or downplay the achievements of their spouse, child, colleague, coauthor, subordinate or teammate. We formalize such situations of ego–bashing, and argue that they may reflect battles for dominance. By lowering the other’s ego, an individual may gain (or regain) real authority within the relationship. Finally, we turn to the case where it is the agent who has superior information, and may attempt to signal it through a variety of self–presentation strategies. In particular, people with low self–esteem often deprecate their own accomplishments in order to obtain leniency (a lowering of expectancies) or a “helping hand?on various obligations. Such strategies are costly: they are met with disapproval, and may back…re if the desired indulgence is denied. We analyze this signaling game, and characterize the levels of self–esteem that give rise to self–deprecation.Selfconfidence, selfpresentation, motivation, rewards, incentives, standards, signaling, psychology and economics

Du papier à l'écran : modalités énonciatives de deux quotidiens d'information

Quels sont les effets de sens propres à un support particulier ? Au plan descriptif, il s'agit de se demander comment faire apparaître la spécificité d'un support médiatique : sur quoi, et par quelles méthodes, mettre l'accent quand on est face à des productions culturelles complexes ? Au plan explicatif, il s'agit de se demander à quoi sont dues ces spécificités : sont-elles inhérentes à la matérialité du support, ou renvoient-elles également à d'autres dimensions du régime de la production ou de la réception des discours médiatiques

Science, télévision et rationalité

National audienceCet article présente l'analyse d'un corpus d'émissions de vulgarisation pour montrer comment le discours télévisuel à propos de science s'inscrit dans une matrice sociale, celle des représentations de la rationalité scientifique. L'étude de plusieurs métaphores du fonctionnement cérébral permet de comprendre que le discours télévisuel à propos de science est structuré par un certain nombre d'axiologies, d'axes d'opposition, qui renvoient à un imaginaire socialement partagé. Les formes, et donc l'efficacité potentielle du discours télévisuel à propos de science auprès du public, ne seraient donc pas seulement dépendante du travail des journalistes et réalisateurs ou de l'évolution des connaissances scientifiques, mais également de cet imaginaire de la rationalité qui traverse l'ensemble de notre culture

Le déplacement : une dimension d’analyse et une modalité pour comprendre les relations entre nature, science et société

International audienceL’objet de cet article est la notion de « déplacement » et la manière dont elle peut être articulée aux concepts de territoire, de champ, de légitimité et de médiation. Il s’appuie, d’une part, sur une lecture des utilisations du déplacement comme analyseur ou comme méthode dans la littérature sociologique et communicationnelle, d’autre part, sur un ensemble de recherches empiriques portant sur les relations entre sciences et société, ainsi que sur des problématiques environnementales. Le déplacement fournit à l’enquête ethnographique un objet pour l’analyse, mais aussi les modalités de sa mise en œuvre. Par ailleurs, il constitue une dimension de l’analyse communicationnelle des discours. Dans ces deux cas, il a pour enjeu d’unifier une diversité de phénomènes tout en évitant les métaphores textuelles ou narratologiques qui aplatissent l’hétérogénéité de ces phénomènes, en particulier dans la sociologie de la traduction

POLITENESS AND COMPLIMENTING WITHIN AN ALGERIAN CONTEXT -A SOCIO-PRAGMATIC ANALYSIS-

Complimenting is the speech act that reflects some politeness strategies in every day’s life. Its main characteristic is expressing positive appraisal in order to build up new relationships or reinforce current relationships and give them support. It is commonly used or found in various circumstances and within different moods i.e. in happy and sad events and temperaments. Actually, the satisfaction which generally results from receiving a compliment may lead to the conviction that the person who uses compliment is in a way or another is polite and friendly or at least tries to make the addressee feels more relaxed. The research at hand aims at investigating the way Algerians make, receive, accept and reject compliments. The methodology followed is based on two main tools namely; participant observation and questionnaire tool so as to be able to capture the phenomenon as it occurs. The results shows that complimenting in Algeria may result in either accepting or rejecting as it can lead to the employment of some religious terms so as to avoid the happening of bad incident. &nbsp

Que serait le tourisme sans pétrole?

Descriptif éditeur, 4ème de couverture:Cet ouvrage est nouveau dans le sens où peu de personnes à ce jour s\u27interrogent sur les conséquences de la rareté d\u27une énergie fondamentale pour le secteur du tourisme. En dénonçant les excès pratiqués tout en lui reconnaissant ses vertus, les auteurs osent défier le temps. Ils nous transportent en 2050 ... Ils insistent sur la nécessité de trouver des alternatives au kérosène/pétrole. Ce liquide est indispensable pour l\u27acte du voyage précédant le ressourcement touristique. Ils interrogent le lecteur sur la conduite à adopter dans un avenir proche pour une activité certes internationale, au vu des touristes du même nom, mais non globale au regard des écarts de nos modes de vie. Si les pratiques du tourisme doivent demeurer, elles s\u27entendent, naturellement pour eux, "autrement". Le tourisme peut être à l\u27origine de nombreuses innovations alliant technologies et pratiques sociétales. C\u27est en cela que l\u27ouvrage dérange, interpelle. Il ne peut laisser indifférent car il suggère des solutions. Foisonnant d\u27idées, indéniablement novateur, cet ouvrage déroutant peut être lu par tous les acteurs de la filière : citoyens/touristes, hôteliers, voyagistes, collectivités ..

An examination of science teachers’ pedagogical perceptions and orientations in relation to student centred learning in science education in Gambian Upper Basic Schools

In 2004 the Gambian Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE) policy (2004) highlighted the necessity of shifting from traditional teacher - centred to student - centred approaches, to improve teaching quality and help students to acquire high order thinking. In order to make such a shift the MoBSE made several interventions to develop the capacities of teachers in order to enhance the teaching and learning of science in schools. Some of these interventions were in the form of workshops spearheaded by the Science and Technology Education Directorate (STED) - a directorate responsible for the enhancement of the teaching and learning of science in schools in Gambia. Since this intervention no research had been undertaken into science teachers’ classroom practice in the Gambia to gain a better understanding of whether teachers’ classroom practices are in any way linked to student centred learning approaches as outlined in the education policy. This study addresses this gap by critically examining how teachers’ pedagogical perceptions and orientations influence their classroom practices with reference to student centred learning. Using a small-scale qualitative research, lesson observation and interview data were collected from twelve experienced, science teachers. Focus group data was collected from forty-eight students from six Upper Basic Schools (UBS) within Greater Banjul Area and West Coast Region in the Gambia. Each teacher was observed and interviewed face to face. Four students were selected from each teacher’s class as a focus group. The data obtained was transcribed verbatim and analysed using a combination of Magnusson, Krajcik, Borko.’s (1999) model of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK), and Friedrichsen, Van Driel, and Abell.’s (2011) model of science teaching orientations (STOs). The interpretive method of qualitative data analysis suggested a number of findings from students’ perspectives, the most notable of which include teacher centred dominated lessons. Students pointed out that they hardly do practical work during their science lessons. Additionally, the findings also indicated students’ perceived difficulties and challenges in the learning of science in some schools, primarily concerned with resources, and which resonated with many teachers’ perspectives. In general science teachers perceived student centred learning as a good pedagogy but hardly practised due to a range of factors that impede its usage in the classroom. The findings also indicated that teacher pedagogical orientations have greatly influenced teachers’ classroom practices although this has been hindered by the lack of resources among other constraints. This study argues for the need for Upper Basic Schools to be better equipped with the basic science materials that the students require for teachers to effectively practise SCL in the classroom

Le tourisme à la croisée des chemins

Vivement critiqué pour sa contribution au changement climatique d’une part (5% des émissions totales de CO2), jouant un rôle fondamental dans la réduction de la pauvreté et la création d’emplois d’autre part, le tourisme est à la croisée des chemins. Reposant jusqu’à maintenant sur 3 capitaux : acteurs, espaces, images, ce papier propose une nouvelle approche en 4 capitaux : air, espaces, temps et argent. Ces quatre capitaux constituent une piste pour une offre de tourisme plus orientée vers la responsabilité sociale de l’entreprise et donc le développement durable