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Traditional theories of motor learning emphasize the automaticity of skillful actions. However, recent research has emphasized the role of pre-reflective self-consciousness accompanying skillful action execution. In the present paper, we present the course-of-experience framework as a means of studying elite athletes’ pre-reflective self-consciousness in the unfolding activity of performance optimization. We carried out a synthetic presentation of the ontological and epistemological foundation of this framework. Then we illustrated the methodology by an in-depth analysis of two elite windsurfers’ courses of experience. The analysis of global and local characteristics of the riders’ courses of experience reveal (a) the meaningful activities accompanying the experience of ongoing performance optimization; (b) the multidimensionality of attentional foci and the normativity of performance self-assessment; and (c) a micro-scale phenomenological description of continuous improvement. These results highlight the fruitfulness of the course-of-experience framework to describe the experience of being absorbed in an activity of performance optimization.

This study aimed to analyze the effects of the teacher's “use of time” (Chopin, 2010) on the student motor engagement in PE. First, we adopted a “first person” approach, filming an expert EPS teacher during the first PE unit of the year (seven volley-ball lessons) in front of high school students, then we realized with him a self-confrontation interview after each lesson. Second, we tested the teacher’s point of view by adopting a "third person" approach, consisting of measuring the quantitative and qualitative engagement of students from an observable point of view. The “first person” approach revealed four categories of use of time by the teacher. The main were: “Pressing students to limit wasted time” and “Boosting student engagement in volleyball”. The teacher sometimes perceived positive effects of his use of on the students motor engagement, and sometimes a lack of effects, especially when their engagement wasn’t dynamic. According to the "third person" approach, the students motor engagement time increased significantly over the lessons. However, these positive effects of the teacher's use of time were erratic and variable. There were convergences and divergences between the effects perceived by the teacher and the observed effects. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical interests and their contributions to teaching.

Technological innovations contribute to developments in the technical culture of sports. The current field of competitive sailing provides an opportunity to study the development of a technical culture linked to the spread of an innovation in equipment – that of “hydrofoils”, which allow sailboats to “fly” over the water. The objectives of this study were to investigate: (i) the nature and structure of the knowledge of “pioneering” hydrofoil sailors, in relation to the question of flight stability management and control, and (ii) the development of a technical culture specific to hydrofoil sailing. We conducted “experience sharing” interviews with 12 participants recognized for their involvement in the practice or teaching of hydrofoil sailing. The analysis consisted in identifying typical experiences related to flight stability recognition and control, and in the categorization and inter-linking of explanatory elements on flight stability states, from the point of view of the participants’ knowledge. These two sides of the analysis helped to apprehend the emergence of a shared culture within the group of participants. Our results suggest the development of a technical culture of hydrofoil sailing that integrates to a greater extent the emotional dimension of this practice, and highlight the crew's incorporation into a boat that presents the characteristics of an autonomous system.

The purpose of this exploratory and comprehensive study is to assess the barriers and opportunities to the implementation of the policy of school inclusion of the children with disabilities in Burundi from the point of view from different actors involved directly in this policy. It was conducted in reference to the Grounded Theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990). The results reveal four major barriers: (a) limits of the possibilities of educational system of Burundi to welcome all children; (b) incompatibility of the educational practices in front of pupils with disabilities;(c) limits of the burundian government policy to implement the right of education; (d) representations and stigmatizing faiths against children with disabilities. However, the results also highlight two already available resources: (a) educational initiatives favoring the inclusion, and (b) vectors in favour of the implementation of an inclusive pedagogy. Furthermore, the results show conditions associated to the success of an inclusive education especially human resources and school environment which are required to implement an inclusive education.

This study aimed to analyze the collective activity of students engaged in cooperative situations in Physical Education (PE) to take account of how they lived and enjoyed their experience of cooperation. We used the notion of collective meaningful story to describe and to characterize the phenomena underlying the cooperation between students. Three students and their teacher were volunteers to participate in this study. Their activity was studied in situ during a circus unit of seven lessons. This study was carried out in accordance with the assumptions of the “Course of action” scientific program (Theureau, 2006). The results show, in the first part, typical categories of collective meaningful stories and the characteristics relating to the temporal arrangement of stories in the units. We identified three characteristics: (a) the diversity of temporal spans, (b) the continuous or discontinuous nature of collective meaningful story development, and (c) patterns of collective meaningful stories. The third part presents a case study which reports on the dynamic of collective meaningful story development during the unit. These results contribute to the understanding of cooperation and provide input for the design of original cooperative learning structures.

Este artigo propõe, na primeira parte, uma reflexão baseada nas dificuldades encontradas no âmbito dos Institutos Universitários de Formação de Professores - IUFMs -, na França, para articular de maneira eficaz os resultados da pesquisa em educação e formação com as práticas de formação docente. Nossa hipótese é que essas dificuldades referem-se a uma oposição entre aquilo que denominamos uma "epistemologia dos saberes" e uma "epistemologia da ação", o que se concretiza na concepção, organização e administração dos IUFMs. Essas duas epistemologias são em seguida comparadas, a fim de ilustrar algumas das aporias que persistem no exercício profissional e na formação e nas suas relações com a pesquisa e com os resultados desta. Na segunda parte, voltada para a apresentação de uma abordagem denominada ergonomia/formação, o artigo mostra que as dificuldades simétricas observadas por essas duas epistemologias poderiam ser parcialmente reposicionadas a partir de uma análise do trabalho e sobretudo do desenvolvimento do trabalho nas questões de formação e de pesquisa. Na seqüência, apresenta-se esse programa de ergonomia/formação a partir de um complexo que articula opões de ordem ética, ontológica e epistemológica, acreditando-se que ele pode contribuir para reconciliar os componentes acadêmicos e profissionais das formações e satisfazer ao mesmo tempo as exigências que são pertinentes à prática e ao rigor científico.On its first part, this article proposes a reflection based on the difficulties found within University Institutes for Teacher Qualification - IUFMs - ,in France, to efficiently articulate the results of education and qualification research with the practices of teacher qualification. Our assumption is that these difficulties refer to an opposition between what we call an "epistemology of knowledge" and "an epistemology of action", which is concretized in the conception, organization, and administration of IUFMs. These two epistemologies are then compared in order to illustrate some of the recurrent aporias of the professional exercise and in the qualification and its relationship with research and its results. On its second part, aimed at presenting an approach called ergonomics/qualification, this article demonstrates that the symmetric difficulties observed by these two epistemologies could be partially repositioned by means of an analysis of the work, and especially of the development of work on the issues of qualification and research. Following, this ergonomics/qualification program is presented from a complex that articulates options in the ethical, ontological, and epistemological spheres, and which is believed to contribute to reconcile the academic and professional components of education and satisfy the demands concerning both practice and scientific rigor.

This study analyzed how the teacher’s interventions influence cooperation between students in dyads in climbing. It was especially aimed to identify and characterize (a) the typical situations where the teacher’s activity was meaningful for one and/or the two students in the dyad, and (b) the effects of the teacher’s activity on the students’ cooperative activity. This study was carried out referring to the “course of action” theoretical and methodological framework (Theureau, 2006). The results showed five typical situations in which the teacher’s activity was meaningful for the students and two kinds of effects of the teacher’s activity on cooperation: “positive effects”, facilitation of cooperation between students thanks to development of their trust in the skills and the reliability of their partner’s activity, and “negative effects”, harmful to the cooperation. These effects are interpreted in relation to two influence processes respectively qualified ‘validation process” and “invalidation process’ of students’ action by the teacher.

The aim of this study was to analyse the phenomena associated with coordination between a crew of rowers during a race by confronting an analysis of the rowers’ courses of experience and an analysis of correlative mechanical parameters of their activity during the race. It was designed (a) to acquire a better understanding of performance and to optimize the rowers’ training, and (b) to explore the usefulness of a method that describes the processes of coordination at both significant and non-significant levels for the actors. Two female crews volunteered to participate in the study. Their activity was studied in situ during two time trials, relating to the theoretical and methodological framework of the course of action (Theureau, 2006). Mechanical measurements were collected, enabling a set of parameters on the rowers’ performance and coordination to be calculated. The results are presented in two parts. The first describes the significant phenomena for the rowers related to their coordination. Three phenomena were highlighted: (a) a particular sensitivity to their state of coordination, (b) a recurring interpretation of their partners’ activity, and (c) four typical ways of making mutual adjustments. In the second part, a case study analyses one specific moment in a race, experienced by the rowers as a malfunctioning of their coordination, by confronting analyses of the rowers’ courses of experience and mechanical parameters. These findings are discussed at three levels, answering the empirical, methodological and practical aims of the study.

The aim of our study was to analyze the construction of a collective activity. We focused on interpersonal coordination process within a basket-ball team during a match. We characterized the way how basketball players took mutually into account their respective activities. In order to consider in the same time both units of analysis, the individual one and the collective one, this study referred to the framework of the course of action theory (Theureau, 2006). Results allowed us to specify the relational network between players, the various coordination modes between two players and the different forms of team coordination. These results are discussed with regard to the nature of interactions within the team, and with regard to the notion of a collective action plan: they highlighted that some collective activity construction modalities are based on local overlapping coordination. These results thus question the status of a collective plan (as a scheme shared by all the players).

This article presents an original program that combines research and This article presents an original program that combines research and training development. Between 1997 and 2002, several studies of the activity of expert table tennis players during matches were carried out within the framework of course-of-action theory (Theureau, 1992, 2004). These studies had been formally agreed on by coaches, athletes and researchers and responded to both sports needs and scientific interests. Matches were videotaped during international meetings and followed by self-confrontation interviews during which the players described and commented on their activity as they viewed the tapes. A grounded theory of players’ activity resulted from the data collected and the ensuing theoretical issues that were raised. This theory focuses on the three modes of players’ involvement identified in the studies: exploration, execution and deception. The findings on table tennis players’ activity led to questions about some of the usual practices of coaches and pointed to a new direction for training proposals.

The aim of this article is to test the fruitfulness of bringing together two research programmes, Course of Action (PRCA) and Distributed Cognition (PRCD), for the study of human-animal interactions. This development of the PRCA towards an “augmented PRCA” aims to raise new research questions, linked to the integration of animal activities and human-animal interactions in the field of practice analysis. This article makes an empirical contribution to the development of this program by analyzing human-horse communication, in particular the interactions between Cadre Noir écuyers and sauteur horses. To study interspecies interactions, we use several theoretical concepts from these two research programs: cultural practice, mutual appropriation-action, and another concept already explored in previous work, namely sensorimotor empathy. We argue that the cultural practice of airs above the ground, shared by the écuyer and the sauteur, is both a condition and a result of sensorimotor empathy, which develops through a process of mutual appropriation-action. This study confirms the relevance of an “augmented” PRCA to account for animal activities and interspecies interactions, and contributes to a better understanding of the latter. It opens up prospects for new empirical studies to be carried out that highlight the development of mutual sensorimotor empathy within other shared cultural practices between humans and animals.