Interviewee: Yannick Skelling, Étudiant à la maîtrise, Université du Québec à Montréal
Date: May 20th, 2016

Q: WHAT IS YOUR ROLE IN THE CHANTIER SEPT PROJECT?

A: Well I started working on this project in 2013. Of course, as you can see with my accent, I was the French translator [laughs]. I was responsible at first to find validated questions, to build a first version of the diagnostics tool. My job was to find validated questions to make the first version of the tool. I also had to translate them in French, for a first version, to present them to French teachers. Well like I said I've been involved in quite a lot of activities, and I will also perform the statistical analysis that will come out from the results that they've gathered.  

Q: WHAT WOULD YOU SAY YOU'VE LEARNED FROM BEING INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT?

A: Well, I'd say that this project is pretty close to my thesis but in a different way. I work a lot on the importance of teaching to an individual level, to take into account individual differences, and this tool, well it evaluates children to see what are their own difficulties, so we can address them. So I've learned that people, and actually teachers, are really interested in learning what's in the head of a single student...a single student's head.

Q: WHEN YOU SAY WHAT'S IN THEIR HEAD, YOU MEAN LIKE THE KNOWLEDGE THEY HAVE?

A: Yeah, the knowledge, the conceptions, what's more difficult for them, individually, not as a group necessarily. To see that there's an interest in the field for that, well, this is for me a big thing.

Q: IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT'S THE NEXT STEP FOR UNIVERSITY PARTNERS, TO SUPPORT TEACHERS IN THEIR TEACHING?

A: Of course, there's always difficulty linking research to practice. It's not just for this particular project, it's always the same. Linking research with practice is not done enough. This project tried and is actually doing quite well compared to many other research projects. I believe we have to continue in that sense, and generalize, make the tool known to teachers, make them understand the idea of diagnostics evaluation, and to make them want to use that tool in their practice. Yeah, to generalize and to reach a maximum number of teachers.

Q: WHAT DO YOU THINK ARE SOME OF THE ISSUES TEACHERS FACE, WHILE TEACHING SCIENCE?

A: There may sometimes be a conflict with the science content that is included in the science programs, in the curricula, and the science that we see and interact with in real life. Because, of course, science in real life is quite complex, and you have to nuance pretty much everything. When you start at the basics you can't do that kind of nuance, so you have to dilute the content, which makes it less interesting for children.

Q: IS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU WANTED TO ADD THAT MY QUESTIONS DIDN'T GIVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT FORWARD?

A: [laughs] Let me think about this one. Is there anything? Yeah, actually, this project is really about the teacher's side of the diagnostic tool, but I wonder what the children, the students would think about it. Also, it would be interesting to see how it affects teachers’ practices. So the teachers know their students' prior conceptions, but once they know it, do they change their way of teaching? I don't think that we know that yet. It would be interesting to see how it can affect the teaching, but also the students' perception of the teacher and his teaching methods.

Q: SO I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE I UNDERSTAND THE POINT YOU MADE. YOU WOULD BE INTERESTED TO KNOW IF AFTER THE TEACHERS DO THE DIAGNOSTICS AND USE THE TOOL, DO TEACHERS ACTUALLY CHANGE HOW THEY TEACH AS A RESULT?

A: Yes, exactly.

Q: OKAY PERFECT. THANK YOU SO MUCH YANNICK.

A: Thank you so much.