Observing and understanding teaching practices

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the genesis of teaching practices upon entering the educational profession. Based on in-class observations of beginning instructors in Economics & Social Science, this study first serves to pinpoint the variations perceptible among instructors as regards to their handling two core principles of social science instruction in the French secondary school system: i.e. the use of interactive teaching in class, and the transmission of teaching contents directly tuned in to the issues at stake in the contemporary world. The analysis will subsequently offer an explanation of such a polarizing effect, apparent in teachers? Behaviours immediately upon their taking up position as instructors. (c) 2007 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits reserves.