Title:	ONLINE FORUMS IN PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' TRAINING: TRACING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN DISCOURSE
Author(s):	Nicole Clouet , Dominique Roué
ISBN:	978-972-8924-48-5
Editors:	Kinshuk, Demetrios G. Sampson, J. Michael Spector and Pedro Isaías
Year:	2007
Edition:	Single
Keywords:	Forum, Professional Development, Online Discussion, Interaction, Linguistic Analysis
Type:	Full Paper
First Page:	212
Last Page:	219
Language:	English
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Paper Abstract:	In France, pre-service teachers start training part of their time in a school where they are in charge of students and the other part in a training institute (IUFM) where they follow courses both related to their teaching topics as well as pedagogy. Within this general framework, the school librarians of the training institutes of Caen and Rouen make their trainees share an e-learning platform which fosters hybrid formation situations based on exchanges, mutualisation and collective work. Among these situations, case studies lead the students of the two institutes to discuss issues raised during the analysis of a professional problem by means of a forum. More than ten discussion forums have been gathered and are the aim of our study. This current research tries to study how discussions foster the construction of professionality, individually and collectively, and how they demonstrate this professionalization process at the same time. An analysis of interaction explores different stages in the organization of discourse, the criteria being lexicon and discourse analysis. The lexicon shows how the process of professional affiliation takes place, as well as it underlines the social representations the novice teachers have of their profession. A comparative study of the terminology used in the discussion forums with that of various professional experts indicates how the young teachers use and control the lexicon referring to education and to documentation. Beyond the accurateness of lexicon, a closer look reveals the way the trainees mobilize the background information they mutually share, so that we could check its internalization. A discourse analysis, particularly a study of explanative and argumentative sequences, is of great interest to understand on which grounds the whole text is negotiated and elaborated. Finally, a study of enunciation, within a discourse analysis framework, tells the strength of personal beliefs and opinions, but it also reveals doubts, besides judgment nuances or strong assertions. This research has been run on four forums discussing various topics during the years 2004-2006. Through the rhetorical dimension of speech, it indicates how novice teachers express their professional situation and it gives an image of their current professionality.
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