This text is part of the special section Les prix de l’Acfas
In his village of Mestegmer in eastern Morocco, a young Berber named Abdelkrim Hasni had no idea that one day he would leave for Quebec and establish a science education research center there. Sherbrooke University. “When I arrived for my PhD, no one in Sherbrooke was interested in this field of study,” explains Acfas Jeanne-Lapointe Prize Winner in Educational Sciences.
In 2005 he was awarded a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) to launch the Research Center for Science Teaching and Learning (CREAS), around which orbit 12 regular researchers, 30 associates and some forty master’s and doctoral students.
Before becoming a science and technology education teacher, the researcher taught secondary school science for five years in Morocco, then spent three years training education inspectors. He was therefore convinced, right from the start, that the primary vocation of CREAS is to guarantee a better transfer of knowledge.
“If we want teachers to take ownership of our research, we need to make the effort to engage in dialogue and build trust,” she says. For this reason CREAS, which he directed from 2005 to 2009, then from 2012 to 2017, brings together not only teachers, but teachers from the faculties of science and engineering and pedagogues from school service centers and teachers.
‘A big part of the job is understanding what the barriers to learning knowledge are,’ says the researcher, whose article on student interest published in the British journal Studies in science education it is the second most read in the magazine’s history. “The third is my article on teaching by project. »
In studying what determines students’ interest, the originality of CREAS is its curricular approach. In other words: how the whole curriculum values science or not. “We know that if the acquisition of scientific knowledge is uneven in primary school, the transition to secondary school will not be optimal. »
scientific citizenship
He feels that science education in Quebec compares quite well in international tests. “But there is still room for improvement,” she says, emphasizing the issues of citizenship and the promotion of science, which are the other two major objectives of CREAS.
“Society has great needs. And it’s not just doctors and engineers. We also need technicians, electricians, mechanics,” she explains, pointing out that CREAS is currently paying particular attention to the under-representation of women in different disciplines.
“And there is a need for an enlightened citizenry in the face of scientific questions,” he adds. We cannot adequately discuss climate change or health security without a modicum of knowledge, especially when scientists are not unanimous.
“This is an issue we were studying before COVID, especially around the human papillomavirus controversy [VPH]. Science education is not just about producing scientists and technicians. It also aims to make good citizens. »
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