NCube/papyrus huggingface dataset:
Analyse des relations entre les pratiques professionnelles réfléchies et le bien-être pédagogique des enseignants du secondaire

This research explores the relations between the well-designed professional practices of high school teachers and their educational well-being. To do this, we conducted an exploratory research, with a qualitative dominance, among eleven female and two male high school teachers from the Greater Montreal Area. We adopted a sociocognitive approach to document their levels of reflection throughout their relations with their students and colleagues and their relations with dimensions of educational well-being among high school teachers. We used two data collection techniques: the Q technique and critical incident technique. To explore these links, we started by examining the change level model of Korthagen and Vasalos (2005), which highlighted the interactions between the specific reflections of six levels of reflection: work environment, schooling-centered behaviors, class management skills, professional beliefs and identify and mission with students. We then explored the concept of the educational well-being of teachers. According to the overall results of our research, the educational well-being of high school teachers is both a dynamic process whose evolution is influenced by what is going on in the work environment, especially in the classroom, and by the teacher’s essential qualities, and a construct based on specific dimensions; three dimensions were used in this study: self-efficacy, commitment and job satisfaction. Educational relations with students seem to be the main source of educational well-being for teachers. Believing in the efficiency of their class management skills and noticing that students are happy to be in their class and are involved in their learning apparently stimulates the commitment and job satisfaction of teachers. Reflections on the characteristics and background of students, including their well-being in the classroom, and professional skills seem to be the aspects of interactions with students that affect the educational well-being of teachers the most. As for interactions between work relations with their colleagues, they seem to have a positive impact on educational well-being, namely through collective reflections on the ordinary situations of professional practices. Lastly, despite certain methodological and conceptual limitations, this study highlights the existence of empirical links between well-designed practices and the educational well-being of high school teachers. It also identifies directions for future research on the reciprocal influences between educational practices and educational well-being, and proposes foresight research ideas.

Keyphrases: well-designed practices, pedagogical well-being, sociocognitive approach, work environment, professional skills, professional identity, self-efficacy, commitment, job satisfaction
Le concept de série dans les manuels au niveau collégial : registres de représentation et activités cognitives

At the post high school level, advanced mathematical concepts are difficult to grasp for many students. The series concept is one such advanced concept that students meet for the first time formally in their postsecondary studies (Cégep in the Québec context). This concept has a very large number of applications both in mathematics and in science. However, its own complexity and nature against-intuitive make it very difficult to understand by some students. Among the difficulties to apprehend it, in many cases, we can find the idea that the sum of an infinite number of terms will give a quantity which will necessarily be infinitely large. Given the importance and complexity of this concept, one might expect it to be considered with great attention by the research. However, our literature review shows that there are very few studies focusing on the concept of infinite sum. In this Masters thesis, we will present the results of an analysis carried out on seventeen textbooks used in Cégeps in Quebec. The results of this analysis have allowed us to realize that the textbooks used by the current education rarely make use of the graphic register and that the algebraic register is often favored. Thus, most of the textbooks used in Cégeps rarely use visual representations that could be an important tool that can contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the concept of series and graphics are virtually absent in all the exercises and problems that these books offer. Furthermore, the results of our research show that mathematical and extramathematical applications are scarce, although infinite sums are a key concept in the introduction of other mathematical concepts and they allow modeling several phenomena. Moreover, among the few extramathematical applications that appear in the seventeen textbooks, many are of little use to the understanding of the concept in question since they are artificial (difficult applications to perform in daily life). Finally, our research results reveal that the content of textbooks in connection with the concept of series deserves to be readjusted to allow students a better understanding of this concept.

Keyphrases: Analyse cluster, Concept of series, Textbook analysis, Registers of representation, Visual representations, Mathematical applications, Collegial level, Extramathematical applications, Cluster analysis
Coreference resolution with and for Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a resource of choice exploited in many NLP applications, yet we are not aware of recent attempts to adapt coreference resolution to this resource, a prelim- inary step to understand Wikipedia texts. The first part of this master thesis is to build an English coreference corpus, where all documents are from the English version of Wikipedia. We annotated each markable with coreference type, mention type and the equivalent Freebase topic. Our corpus has no restriction on the topics of the documents being annotated, and documents of various sizes have been considered for annotation. Our annotation scheme follows the one of OntoNotes with a few disparities. In part two, we propose a testbed for evaluating coreference systems in a simple task of measuring the particulars of the concept described in a Wikipedia page (eg. The statements of Pres- ident Obama the Wikipedia page dedicated to that person). We show that by exploiting the Wikipedia markup (categories, redirects, infoboxes, etc.) of a document, as well as links to external knowledge bases such as Freebase (information of the type, num- ber, type of relationship with other entities, etc.), we can acquire useful information on entities that helps to classify mentions as coreferent or not.

Keyphrases: Coreference Resolution, Corpus Creation, Wikipedia
La création de sens dans un contexte d’ambiguïté extrême : Bombardier et les performances du programme organisationnel visant à améliorer l’engagement de ses employés

This thesis focuses on a particular organizational socialization tactic, namely organizational programs aiming to improve employee engagement (OPIE). I became interested in how the concept of employee engagement relates to employee participation and involvement in OPIE, specifically in an extremely ambiguous organizational setting characterized by repetitive reorganizations and massive layoffs. To study this phenomenon,  I conducted a naturalistic case study. As an organizational insider, I led a number of observations and interviews at Bombardier, the world’s leading manufacturer of both planes and trains. I looked at how Bombardier employees of various hierarchical levels make sense of OPIE, based upon Karl E. Weick’s sensemaking theories.  The present research project, a unique and non-generalizable case, enabled me to study employee engagement, Bombardier’s OPIE as well as sensemaking of this program, at a moment where employee engagement is tested by the prevailing organizational uncertainty. This research led me to conclude that, in this case, 1) a company can take advantage of organizational socialization tactics; 2) OPIE don’t always improve productivity or engagement; 3) the relationship between a manager and an OPIE can play a capital role in employees’ perception of said program; 4) OPIE can be considered as symbolic organizational rituals; 5) team meetings can be considered as symbolic performances; 6) extreme ambiguity can influence how employees make sense of an OPIE; and 7) symbolic rituals can stabilize organizations in periods of extreme ambiguity.

Keyphrases: engagement, organizational socialization, organizational commitment, employee engagement, employee voice, reorganization, organizational change, extreme ambiguity, engagement program, sensemaking, organizational insider
La représentation de la collectivité dans la mise en acte du chant choral sénégalais chez les Sérères noon de Saint Pierre Julien Eymard de Koudiadiène

On the modalities of appropriation of Western choral practice among Catholic Sérères noon of Saint Pierre Julien Eymard of Koudiadiène, Senegal, this dissertation tries to demonstrate why and how different syncretisms act on various Senegalese symbolisms. It aims to understand more particularly the importance of the community in the mise en acte of the choral repertoire, and how spontaneous improvisation is built in performance situation in what is called here the plurivocalité linéaire. This dissertation is in this vein to decipher the meaning of that specific practice of choral singing and to point how the acculturation process acts on the cultural identity of Sérères noon. Finally, it aims to identify affects in performance situation of the choral that seems to have a central role for members of the parish of Saint Pierre Julien Eymard, and understand and enhance a musical practice and its social context of integration hitherto little studied systematically.

Keyphrases: Koudiadiène, Saint Pierre Julien Eymard, Mise en acte, Performance, Plurivocalité linéaire, Ethnomusicology, Choral singing, Syncretism, Collectivity, Senegal
LE SCRIPT DE LA VIOLENCE CONJUGALE: UNE ANALYSE PROCÉDURALE DES VIOLENCES ENTRE CONJOINTS

Objective. The crime script perspective was developed in criminology to capture the step-by-step accounts of the crime-commission process of any crimes in order to offer a greater range of intervention-points for situational prevention purposes (Cornish, 1994). The main objective of this project is to adopt this innovative approach to provide a detailed description of the step-by-step process of intimate partner violence. Information on the casting (as well as their roles and actions), the crime facilitators and precipitators, and alcohol/drugs, are provided for each step of the crime-commission-process. Once the script is established, pertinent situational measures to prevent intimate partner violence are offered.   Methodology. In order to provide a script for intimate partner violence, a grid was developed to collect data extracted from 333 crime events registered by the Montreal Police Department (Service de police de la ville de Montréal). Data were organized according to the three main phases of the crime-commission-process: (1) the preparation; (2) the commission; and (3) the conclusion of the event. At each step of the script, interactions between actors were carefully analyzed in order to understand the escalation process and the severity of the outcome (i.e. severity of injuries). Data were used to induce the script of intimate partner violence and chi-square analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with the risk of severe injuries.   Results.  The intimate partner violence script consists of eight steps: (1) initial context; (2) moving to the location of the intimate partner aggression; (3) acquiring a weapon; (4) attacking the victim; (5) reaction of the victim (counter-attacking or submission); (6) counter-attack from the aggressor or the ending of the violence episode; (7) ending of the altercation (police arrives on the scene or the suspect escapes); and (8) dealing with the parties (arresting the suspect or offering services to the victim).   Some steps such as “acquiring a weapon” or “moving to the location of the aggression” are not always required. At the outset of the event, the risk of severe injuries is increased when victims are under medication and when she is in a couple with the aggressor. Risk of severe injuries is also augmented when one of the parties moves toward the scene of the aggression. During the altercation, intoxication of both parties and using a knife are generally associated with severe injuries. At last, as suggested by the escalation thesis, counter-attacks from the victim lead to severe injuries.   Conclusion. Based on the present findings, the following situational measures would either prevent the frequency and/or the severity of intimate partner violence episodes: (1) install physical barriers (e.g., install new locks and alarms); (2) improve guardianship and natural surveillance (e.g., police presence and neighborhood watch); (3) reduce provocations (e.g., separate parties and limit alcohol availability).

Keyphrases: Intimate partner violence, Situational prevention
Lire à l’ère du numérique « Le nénuphar et l’araignée » de Claire Legendre

This article is both a reflexion on the impact of digital culture on social sciences and humanities, and a theoretical reading of Claire Legendre’s essay « Le nénuphar et l’araignée », published on 4 February 2015 by Les Allusifs. Our hypothesis is that it is important to think simultaneously about the theoretical aspect of digital culture along with the pragmatic implementation of new research tools developed for and by social sciences and humanities researchers. The latter are tied directly to a new generation of critical editions with new possibilities of data mining or representing an array of data, be it sound, visual, or text based. This article thus offers a preliminary case study for exploring these new possibilities within Quebec literature.

Keyphrases: Data mining, Close reading
Les consultants face aux défis d’implantation de la 
Réforme du Secteur de la Sécurité (RSS)

Security Sector Reform (SSR) is a growing priority for actors on the international scene. Through this process the beneficiary states are supported in the reorientation of their institutional frameworks, the strengthening of their structures, of their institutional capacity, and of the groups involved in the security sector (African Union, 2013). The implementation of these programs is today more outsourced towards the private sector, among others, the consultants. The interest of these external actors is that they offer donors a solution to quickly mobilize teams of technical experts with the necessary soft skills. However, our knowledge of the results of SSR programs are limited; furthermore, the study on the contribution and the subcontracting practices to external actors remains a neglected research area (Jackson, 2011). In this sense, the objective of this study is twofold: firstly, we aim to address the empirical research gaps by confronting the major normative principles of RSS as stated in the manuals of international organizations by addressing ourselves directly to consultants, leading players in the implementation of the RSS. Secondly, we aim to identify the challenges that affect the projects and prove decisive, according to the experience of these consultants, to the success or otherwise failure of reforms. Thus, this study will reveal, among other things, project implementation difficulties resulting from the conflicting interests and gaps in coordination of donors, despite the existence of international standards. We also will reveal how the effectiveness of consultants’ missions is compromised because of the particular political interests of the involved parties and willingness, on the part of donors, for immediate and tangible results that lead to conduct programs that are limited to getting internal support for external activities. Finally, we discuss some of the issues characterizing these complex operations and their outsourcing.

Keyphrases: consultants, security sector reform, implementation, outsourcing, consultants
Pedagogical Appropriation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by West African Educators = Appropriation pédagogique des technologies de l’information et de la communication (TIC) par les éducateurs ouest-africains

This research investigates how and why educators in West Africa, in Mali in particular, pedagogically appropriate information and communication technologies (ICT) and with what effects. Appropriation involves integrating newness into one’s very being and mobilizing it strategically to meet contextualized objectives, often in resistance to the status quo. It is assumed that ICT use is shaped by the values and objectives of users as well as by the local and global hierarchies of the milieus in which they are used. Qualitative research methods and interpretive approaches revealed meanings educators give to their reality and experiences. Interviews were conducted with 31 persons: 23 primary through high school teachers, six university professors, and two administrators. As educators digested ICT, it became part and parcel of their beings and everyday lives. As they adapted it to their milieus, they worked as cultural agents, mediating between ICT and society. The professors in particular expressed desires to use ICT to facilitate and enhance African participation in global debates and scholarly production and to transform how Africa and Africans are projected and perceived. Educators harnessed ICT for its transformative possibilities. The changes apparent in student-teacher relations (more interactive) and classrooms (more dialogical) suggest that ICT can be a catalyst for pedagogical change, including in document-poor contexts and ones weighed down by legacies of colonialism. Learning from the perspectives and experiences of educators pioneering the use of ICT in education in Africa can inform educational theory, practice and policy and deepen understandings of the concept of appropriation as a process of cultural change.

Keyphrases: Appropriation, Technologies - TIC, Lycée, Mali, Pedagogy, Technology - ICT, Primary and high school education, Higher education, West Africa
L’influence de la perte d’un parent et du deuil chez l’élève de niveau primaire sur sa réussite scolaire

Elementary school achievement is a determining factor for the student’s future academic success. Some elements, like student’s psychological health and parental involvement, might play an important role in school achievement but can be undermined by some life events such as parental loss. Our thesis has focused on a research conducted on 3 students of regular elementary school in Montreal, who lost a parent in the last two years. The research aim was to study the influence of both parental loss and bereavement on elementary school children’s school achievement. Few studies have been conducted on this subject and most of them have examined mainly the influence of bereavement’ psychological consequences on school achievement. In this research, we have adopted a global developmental approach by focusing on the student himself, his parents and his school environment. The research relies on three main concepts: bereavement, school achievement and parental involvement.  The methodology was based on an exploratory qualitative approach and on a content analysis. The participants consisted of 3 bereaved and non-immigrant children, aged between 7 and 10 years old; the surviving parent (2) and their teacher (3). Data had been collected through semi-structured interviews with all participants; children grade reports and school intervention plans. Our findings show that bereavement’ psychological consequences may have a negative influence on school achievement. Moreover, parental loss seems to have a negative influence on student’ family social economic status and on all parental involvement types, including helping at home with homework, collaborating with the school and the community. All those elements may influence negatively school achievement.

Keyphrases: bereavement, parental loss, school achievement, parental involvement, elementary school student
The neuroscience of cognitive enhancement : enhanced attention, working memory and visual information processing speed using 3D-MOT

Cognitive enhancement is a domain of burgeoning interest in many domains including neuropsychology. While there are different methods that exist in order to achieve cognitive enhancement, there are few that are supported by research. The current work examines the state of cognitive enhancement interventions. It first outlines the weaknesses observed in these practices and then proposes a standard template for assessing cognitive enhancement tools. A research study is then presented that examines a novel cognitive enhancement tool, 3-dimensional multiple object tracking (3D-MOT), and weighs the current evidence for 3D-MOT against the proposed standard template. The results of the current work demonstrate that 3D-MOT is effective in enhancing attention, working memory and visual information processing speed, and represent a first step toward establishing 3D-MOT as a cognitive enhancement tool.

Keyphrases: 3D-MOT, Cognitive Enhancement, Perceptual-cognitive training, Brain training
Exposure to Stressful Life Events and Lung Cancer Risk

Objective: To examine exposure to stressful life events in relation to lung cancer risk. Methods: Our research used data from a case-control study conducted in Montreal from 1996 to 2001. Cases were diagnosed with histologically confirmed incident lung cancer at one of 18 Montreal-area hospitals. Controls were randomly selected from the Quebec electoral list and frequency matched to the distribution of cases by sex and 5 year age groups. Data was collected on sociodemographic characteristics, lifetime smoking, and lifestyle factors including 8 stressful life events. Participants indicated the stressful life events they experienced over the past six years, and an appraisal of their level of stress due to each event on a three-point scale. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Each stressful life event was analyzed individually as well as in grouped variables measuring total number of events, loss events and socioeconomic events. Analyses of self-appraised impact scores were also conducted; additionally an external perceived stress score was also employed. Results: 1061 cases and 1422 population controls were included in the analyses. Overall, we observed no association between lung cancer and stressful life events. A decrease in risk for socioeconomic events self-appraised as not very stressful was observed (OR, 0.50; 95% CI, 0.31, 0.81), which included job loss, increase in debt, and move to another city.  Conclusion: Our results suggest that socioeconomic events, deemed not very stressful, may reduce the risk of lung cancer.

Keyphrases: Epidemiology, Case-Control, Lung Cancer, Stressful Life Events, Psychosocial Stress