Interventions pédagogiques pour diminuer le niveau d’appréhension en entrevues enformation technique au Cégep

Abstract: Career programs in the Cegep system base their training on various learning activities, which are followed by a practicum. The objective is to achieve a certain number of competencies, deemed necessary by the Ministry of Education, for entry-level occupations in to the workforce. The Graphic Communications program offered at Champlain College Saint-Lambert is a three-year career program that leads to employment in the field of graphics. Many students have part-time jobs during their schooling period but most of those jobs do not relate to their field of study. Several graduates stated they were unable to persuade employers to hire them for an externship or stage at the end of their program. While jobs are important for their general skills, since they are not directly related to the field, these jobs may not have given the students a suitable model for the conduct of an employment interview. Practice interviews may be one of many successful training methods to lower communication apprehension (CA) levels. CA is defined as "an individual's level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons." This paper examines the literature on CA and employment interviews and evaluates whether pedagogical interventions, including monitored phone calls to employers and practice-videotaped interviews, allow students to feel more confident about interviewing for a future job. A qualitative tool was used to gather scientific measurements of the participants' levels of CA both at the beginning and at the end of the Career Planning course. Open-ended reflective journals gathered quantitative data on the impact specific instructional strategies had on the participants. The pedagogical interventions that were examined and tested were as follows: preparation of scripts, monitored phone calls, videotaped practice interviews, and in-class access to professional assistance. Results indicate that all interventions had a positive impact on lowering levels of CA. It is clear that positive conclusions were drawn by the students as to the usefulness of these activities. Overall, participants who responded to the reflective journal questions felt positive about the contribution of this preparatory career course to their CA levels. The results of the quantitative tool were consistent with previous research and the analysis of the reflective journals gave additional support to the usefulness of the interventions on students' confidence levels. Recommendations for improvements to the curriculum include the need for students to be taught formally about metacognition and how to monitor it. Students need to be exposed to videotaped interviews more often. They should be better prepared for unexpected interview questions, and they should experience formal rehearsals with one of their instructors before the actual practice interview. Some of these recommendations have already been successfully implemented in the program's curriculum.||Résumé: Le but de ce travail était de vérifier si certaines activités pédagogiques sont efficaces pour faire baisser le niveau d'anxiété lié à la communication orale lors de leurs entrevues d'embauche. L'objectif des programmes techniques au Québec est de fournir aux étudiants un certain nombre de compétences définies par le ministère de l'Éducation, des Loisirs et du Sport afin que ces derniers puissent fournir des services de techniciens spécialisés aux entreprises. Le programme nommé Office Systems Technology (412) du collège Champlain de Saint-Lambert, a choisi la voie de la spécialisation en microédition et hypermédia en 1999 et a changé son nom pour Graphic Communications en 2005. Les programmes techniques au Cégep incluent un stage en milieu de travail à la fin d'un programme de trois ans et par le fait même, une entrevue pour obtenir un stage en entreprise. La compétence visée par cette étude est l'intégration au marché du travail et le cheminement professionnel des étudiants. Lors d'enquêtes informelles, plusieurs étudiants du programme ont fait part de leurs difficultés à trouver un stage en fin d'études. Certains auteurs suggèrent que ces étudiants n'ont pas de modèles appropriés lors de la tenue d'une entrevue d'emploi. Ils proposent de diminuer le niveau d'anxiété lié à la communication orale lors d'entrevues d'embauche en offrant des pratiques d'entrevue aux étudiants. Cette recherche a examiné la littérature au sujet de l'anxiété de communication, plus précisément lors d'entrevues. Elle avait pour mandat d'évaluer si les activités pédagogiques d'un cours de préparation à la carrière ont été efficaces pour faire baisser les taux d'anxiété en communication orale lors d'entrevues. En plus, une conseillère à l'emploi fut invitée à plusieurs reprises afin de fournir un support professionnel en classe, étant donné que les étudiants ne prennent pas nécessairement le temps de consulter des professionnels en raison de leurs activités personnelles trop nombreuses. Le type d'enseignement évalué est considéré comme stratégique, étant donné qu'il agit au niveau cognitif et métacognitif de l'étudiant. Le cours de préparation à l'emploi débute par la vérification des acquis antérieurs des étudiants et il tient compte de leur motivation scolaire et professionnelle. De plus, il est axé sur la construction du savoir en proposant des activités de plus en plus complexes, débutant par la rédaction de textes à utiliser lors d'appels aux employeurs, en passant par la préparation et la pratique d'appels et se terminant par des entrevues d'emploi qui serviront de modèle à perfectionner par chaque étudiant. Ces entrevues se font avec des employeurs qui ont déjà embauché des étudiants du programme de Graphic Communications au collège Champlain de Saint-Lambert et sont enregistrées sur bande vidéo afin de permettre une visualisation ultérieure et cohérente avec les objectifs visés. La méthodologie de cette recherche inclut deux outils, un quantitatif et un qualitatif. L'outil quantitatif permet de mesurer scientifiquement les taux d'appréhension en communication des étudiants au début et à la fin du cours de préparation à l'emploi. Cet outil est la fusion de deux outils, le Personal Report of Communication Apprehension ou PRCA-24, qui fut développé par McCroskey (1984), en tandem avec celui de Wongprasert & Ayres (2000), qui lui met l'accent sur les entrevues d'emploi. Les réponses à cet outil combiné sont évaluées sur une échelle Likert de cinq points. L'outil qualitatif est une série de questions auxquelles les étudiants ont répondu quatre fois lors de la session. Les réponses à ces questions ont été analysées et les commentaires des étudiants évalués. Il découle de cette analyse que les niveaux d'anxiété des étudiants qui ont participé (14) étaient définitivement à la baisse en fin de cours. La pratique téléphonique structurée, dans un laboratoire avec les téléphones, a été très révélatrice pour les étudiants. Ils ont appris comment utiliser un script comme piste de départ pour un appel et qu'il était possible de contourner certains obstacles de façon professionnelle. Ensuite, lors d'une visite d'une compagnie de graphisme, ils ont pu observer divers modèles d'emploi. Ils ont eu la possibilité de poser des questions sur le fonctionnement et les besoins de l'entreprise. Ceci facilita la rédaction de leur curriculum vitae en leur permettant de mieux décrire leurs acquis en fonction d'emplois recherchés. Par la suite, ils se sont préparés pour une pratique d'entrevue, filmée. Les interviewers avaient déjà travaillé avec le collège et avaient déjà embauché certains étudiants de ce programme, donc ils connaissaient leur potentiel. Une liste de questions possibles fut suggérée mais il n'en restait pas moins que les interviewers pouvaient les modifier, ceci étant représentatif du marché de l'emploi. Même si le collège fournit un enseignement en anglais, un des intervieweurs donna ses entrevues en français. Trois étudiants se sont portés volontaires, mais deux ont constaté qu'ils auraient dû pratiquer leur script en français avant l'entrevue pour mieux diminuer leur niveau d'anxiété. Finalement, les étudiants durent visionner leur segment d'entrevue : ceci leur a permis de voir si leur attitude non-verbale concordait avec ce qu'ils ressentaient en entrevue et d'emmener les correctifs appropriés. Les taux d'anxiété furent vérifiés une deuxième fois en fin de session et les résultats ont démontré une baisse des taux d'appréhension. Les résultats de cette étude concordent donc avec ceux trouvés dans la littérature et donnent de bonnes pistes pour l'amélioration de ce cours de préparation à la carrière. L'auteur recommande d'enseigner la métacognition de façon formelle et ainsi de faciliter la prise de conscience des apprentissages que les étudiants effectuent. De plus, les étudiants devraient être filmés en studio au moins une fois par année pour diminuer le facteur de stress causé par les caméras et finalement ils pourraient certainement bénéficier de pratiques formelles d'entrevue avec un instructeur avant l'entrevue filmée. L'augmentation des pratiques a déjà été mise en oeuvre dans le programme et des résultats positifs se sont ensuivis.

Les facteurs affectant les taux de réussite des cours d’anglais et de sciences humaines des étudiants dans les programmes de formation technique

A large percentage of Vanier College's technology students do not attain their College degrees within the scheduled three years of their program. A closer investigation of the problem revealed that in many of these cases these students had completed all of their program professional courses but they had not completed all of the required English and/or Humanities courses. Fortunately, most of these students do extend their stay at the college for the one or more semesters required for graduation, although some choose to go on into the workforce without returning to complete the missing English and/or Humanities and without their College Degrees. The purpose of this research was to discover if there was any significant measure of association between a student's family linguistic background, family cultural background, high school average, and/or College English Placement Test results and his or her likelihood of succeeding in his or her English and/or Humanities courses within the scheduled three years of the program. Because of both demographic differences between 'hard' and 'soft' technologies, including student population, more specifically gender ratios and student average ages in specific programs; and program differences, including program writing requirements and types of practical skill activities required; in order to have a more uniform sample, the research was limited to the hard technologies where students work hands-on with hardware and/or computers and tend to have overall low research and writing requirements. Based on a review of current literature and observations made in one of the hard technology programs at Vanier College, eight research questions were developed. These questions were designed to examine different aspects of success in the English and Humanities courses such as failure and completion rates and the number of courses remaining after the end of the fifth semester and as well examine how the students assessed their ability to communicate in English. The eight research questions were broken down into a total of 54 hypotheses. The high number of hypotheses was required to address a total of seven independent variables: primary home language, high school language of instruction, student's place of birth (Canada, Not-Canada), student's parents' place of birth (Both-born-in-Canada, Not-both-born-in-Canada), high school averages and English placement level (as a result of the College English Entry Test); and eleven dependent variables: number of English completed, number of English failed, whether all English were completed by the end of the 5th semester (yes, no), number of Humanities courses completed, number of Humanities courses failed, whether all the Humanities courses were completed by the end of the 5th semester (yes, no), the total number of English and Humanities courses left, and the students' assessments of their ability to speak, read and write in English. The data required to address the hypotheses were collected from two sources, from the students themselves and from the College. Fifth and sixth semester students from Building Engineering Systems, Computer and Digital Systems, Computer Science and Industrial Electronics Technology Programs were surveyed to collect personal information including family cultural and linguistic history and current language usages, high school language of instruction, perceived fluency in speaking, reading and writing in English and perceived difficulty in completing English and Humanities courses. The College was able to provide current academic information on each of the students, including copies of college program planners and transcripts, and high school transcripts for students who attended a high school in Quebec. Quantitative analyses were done on the data using the SPSS statistical analysis program. Of the fifty-four hypotheses analysed, in fourteen cases the results supported the research hypotheses, in the forty other cases the null hypotheses had to be accepted. One of the findings was that there was a strong significant association between a student's primary home language and place of birth and his or her perception of his or her ability to communicate in English (speak, read, and write) signifying that both students whose primary home language was not English and students who were not born in Canada, considered themselves, on average, to be weaker in these skills than did students whose primary home language was English. Although this finding was noteworthy, the two most significant findings were the association found between a student's English entry placement level and the number of English courses failed and the association between the parents' place of birth and the student's likelihood of succeeding in both his or her English and Humanities courses. According to the research results, the mean number of English courses failed, on average, by students placed in the lowest entry level of College English was significantly different from the number of English courses failed by students placed in any of the other entry level English courses. In this sample students who were placed in the lowest entry level of College English failed, on average, at least three times as many English courses as those placed in any of the other English entry level courses. These results are significant enough that they will be brought to the attention of the appropriate College administration. The results of this research also appeared to indicate that the most significant determining factor in a student's likelihood of completing his or her English and Humanities courses is his or her parents' place of birth (both-born-in-Canada or not-both-born-in-Canada). Students who had at least one parent who was not born in Canada, would, on average, fail a significantly higher number of English courses, be significantly more likely to still have at least one English course left to complete by the end of the 5th semester, fail a significantly higher number of Humanities courses, be significantly more likely to still have at least one Humanities course to complete by the end of the 5th semester and have significantly more combined English and Humanities courses to complete at the end of their 5th semester than students with both parents born in Canada. This strong association between students' parents' place of birth and their likelihood of succeeding in their English and Humanities courses within the three years of their program appears to indicate that acculturation may be a more significant factor than either language or high school averages, for which no significant association was found for any of the English and Humanities related dependent variables. Although the sample size for this research was only 60 students and more research needs to be conducted in this area, to see if these results are supported with other groups within the College, these results are still significant. If the College can identify, at admission, the students who will be more likely to have difficulty in completing their English and Humanities courses, the College will now have the opportunity to intercede during or before the first semester, and offer these students the support they require in order to increase their chances of success in their education, whether it be classes or courses designed to meet their specific needs, special mentoring, tutoring or other forms of support. With the necessary support, the identified students will have a greater opportunity of successfully completing their programs within the scheduled three years, while at the same time the College will have improved its capacity to meeting the needs of its students.