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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Pupils' psychosocial skills in primary education : analysis of their relationship with teaching practices and pupil achievement

subject

description

The explanation of the differences in success between pupils in primary schools has already mobilized a great deal of research in the field of education. In this thesis, we explore the development of six psychosocial skills (WHO, 1994): cooperation, empathy, self-control, anxiety, self-esteem and internality. Given the prevalence of the effect of teaching practices on the student's educational pathway (Bressoux, 1994, 2001; Hanushek, 2002, 2014), we hypothesized that (1) the interactional profile of primary school teachers was related to the level of development of psychosocial competencies, and (2) the level of development of psychosocial competencies in relation to the teachers' profile had an effect on the academic success of primary schools’ pupils.Psychosocial competencies were therefore considered as potential mediating variables between teacher practices and student performance. Based on a sample of 623 pupils in CE2, CM1 and CM2 and 26 teachers, our research protocol made it possible to collect (1) data on the interactional profile of teachers based on the perception of pupils and teachers themselves, (2) data at the beginning and end of the year on pupils' psychosocial skills and (3) data on pupils' performance in French and mathematics. While we find a smaller effect of the teacher's interactional profile on students' academic level, we find a direct effect of the teacher's interactional profile on students' psychosocial skills and an effect of these skills on students' achievement. The use of covariance structure analysis with LISREL revealed an indirect effect of a form of teacher benevolence on pupil performance, which would be mediated by the pupils' psychosocial well-being at school.