May 2016
Summary
Réalités industrielles
Educating for the unknown
Complete issue
This issue was coordinated
by Marie-Josèphe Carrieu-Costa
This issue was coordinated
Editorial
By Pierre Couveinhes
Rédacteur en chef des Annales des Mines
Introduction
By Marie-Josèphe Carrieu-Costa
Amble - Consultants
Forward-looking education
Understanding and managing the educational transition
By Philippe JAMET et Frédérique VINCENT
Institut Mines Télécom
Economic and social trends have placed the word “disruption” on everyone’s lips. The digital invasion has disrupted traditional paradigms for running firms and creating value. Meanwhile, demands for sustainable development are calling in question ideas about progress and well-being. Societies are facing issues related to globalization and multiculturalism. Till now, these trends have had an apparently limited impact on higher education, despite innovations in distance learning, of which massive open online course (MOOCs) are the most recent example. Classrooms in universities and schools are far from empty, and the pressure of competition, exacerbated by international classifications, has not much affected the universities with a solid traditional clientele. Although higher education as we know it now seems to be enjoying a spell of fair weather, this impression might be mistaken. Major changes, already perceptible, might crop up. A gap risks opening between, on the one hand, the organization of institutions of higher education and, on the other, pressures from the marketplace that will affect the supply and demand sides of higher education and, too, the business models of these institutions. To cope with potential threats, higher education must regenerate itself by changing paradigms and making educational innovations.
Education: Group dynamics for manufacturing
By Isabelle MARTIN
Secrétaire confédérale de la CFDT en charge des politiques industrielles et de la recherche
Current economic, technological and societal changes entail a thoroughgoing transformation of work as jobs are being not only destroyed but also created. According to studies carried out by the National Council of Industry, the primary issue is not the system of education and training but the lack of a shared, strategic vision of the jobs, skills, qualifications, know-how and recruitment for industry in the coming years. It is important for all participating parties (public authorities, industrialists, wage-earners and their representatives) in ad hoc organizations of cooperation (Conseil National de l’Industrie, Alliance Industrie du Futur, etc.) to place national education and ongoing training at the center of a national ambition for “reconquering industry” and identifying the levers of a policy for reviving manufacturing in the country. This policy must meet up to the issues: the priorities of strategic committees in branches of industry, a future plan for manufacturing, industrial solutions for creating a “new industrial France”, a digital strategy, and so forth. Foresight and strategic cooperation must improve industry’s long-term competitiveness, stimulate growth and employment, and provide for careers with successful periods of transition.
STEM jobs and the development of industry
By Christian MARGARIA et Bruno VERLON
Conseil général de l’Économie
Sciences, technology and engineering play a key role in keeping developed countries competitive. Do the skills acquired by graduates match firms’ expectations? Does the number of graduates with a given level of qualifications match the recruitment needs in given branches of industry? These questions are crucial. As all statistics suggest, there is no short-term risk of a shortage of technicians and engineers in France; but recruitment problems are arising in certain branches. In the middle or long term however, the country runs a high risk of having at its disposal but a tiny fraction of the worldwide pool of talent. Information does not circulate adequately between companies and young people. Contacts between the system of education and industry must be widely developed so that the latter will, once again, make young people dream.
Educating for the future: The Erasmus+ program
By Elena TEGOVSKA
Direction générale Éducation et Culture, Commission européenne
The actions proposed by the EU program Erasmus+ directly affect European society as well as institutions of higher education, students and firms. In pursuit of the priorities defined in the strategy for modernizing European systems of higher education, Erasmus+ is helping institutions of higher education draw up educational programs in response to tomorrow’s societal and economic needs. By participating in programs of cooperation with firms or international partners, European universities are modernizing, broadening their offer, adapting to new needs in society, and thus proposing educational programs that are attractive to both students and employers. Erasmus+ affects thousands of students enrolled in courses of higher education outside their home country: they can thus improve foreign language skills, develop an intercultural awareness, and acquire the skills sought by more than 90% of firms – for instance, rapid adaptability to changes and new situations, problem-solving, team work, critical thinking and the ability to communicate effectively.
Science vs humanities: Changing paradigms and perceptions
By Alexandre MOATTI
Ingénieur en chef des Mines, chercheur associé à l’Université Paris-Diderot
Selection procedures based on science – the backbone of the French educational system since Jules Ferry – need to be overhauled. This is especially true for the persons who have been have received this sort of higher education at elite institutions. Given that nearly 80% of secondary school students now obtain a diploma, the major issue is no longer selection, which, in particular when based on science, leaves too many students stranded. It is (and this is now well known) the formation of a common core of knowledge, to which history and general culture are essential. In secondary and higher education, there is a woeful shortfall in the humanities. Fitted out with a form of scientific methodology, the humanities can cultivate creative thinking in an increasingly complex world of work. Moreover, the common core in general culture serves as the grounds for “living together”. It is necessary to fully change the current paradigm and analyze its origins and consequences.
Looking forward: From anticipating to preparing the future
By Pierre PAPON
Physicien, professeur honoraire de physique thermique à l'École supérieure de physique et chimie industrielles de Paris (ESPCI)
Foresight aims to enlighten the future, by conjecturing about disruptions in various areas, notably with help of scenarios. Regarding science and technology, it envisages possible paradigm changes, identifies promising avenues and makes assumptions about the social and economic impact of scientific and technical progress. This article focuses on methods of foresight in various science and technology areas, it highlights its successes and failures. The prospective approach is a tool to develop strategies and should find a place in the training of engineers, scientists, and more generally, managers.
Effects of the digital revolution on education
On-line education stimulates a new craving for knowledge
By Gilles DOWEK
Chercheur à l’Inria et enseignant à l'École normale supérieure de Cachan
The development of on-line education is part of a vast social trend for sharing knowledge. By breathing new life into ideas related to distance education, computer-assisted education and mutual education, on-line learning is stimulating a revival that affects teaching, educational methods and the time-line of education.
FUN, a MOOC platform in the service of institutions of higher education
By Catherine MONGENET
Professeur d’université
Arriving in France from the United States in 2012, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have, as of 2013, aroused a strong interest in the broader context of the digital transformation of higher education. To support this change, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research drew up, in 2013, a digital strategy with, as one of its actions, the creation of a MOOC platform. Set up in October 2013, this platform for French institutions of higher education and research, dubbed FUN (France Université Numérique), was soon a success both with the institutions that uploaded a growing number of courses and with those who wanted to learn, evidence of this being the number of enrollees. Given this success, the Ministry transferred FUN to the participating institutions, whence the formation of an independent public organization: GIP FUN-MOOC. The project, its origins and evolution are presented along with its prospects for growth…
The MOOC adventure from Lausanne to Yaoundé: Practices and research related to MOOCs in Lausanne and French-speaking Africa
By Dimitrios NOUKAKIS, Gérard ESCHER et Patrick AEBISCHER
École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
The digital revolution is transforming universities – witness, for example, massive open online courses (MOOCs), which, produced by the best universities, are free. An original MOOC program by the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and its African academic partners has been deployed in Africa. In two years, 54.000 persons residing in Africa have enrolled, of whom 17.000 are very active: two-thirds are young people in school; and a third, adults in ongoing training programs. By improving the acquirement of skills by a larger group of learners, EPFL’s MOOC program, conducted with academic partners in Africa, seeks to make up for the shortage of qualified personnel in key areas of the continent’s emerging economies.
Teaching and learning differently
Education and the child’s cognitive development
By Olivier HOUDÉ
Professeur de psychologie à l’Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (USPC), directeur du LaPsyDÉ, UMR CNRS 8240
At school, children have always learned mainly through repetition, practice and drills. That’s fine, but their brains also have to learn a reverse form of reasoning that inhibits automatic, habitual cognitive processes. It would, therefore, be worthwhile to develop an education centered on the prefrontal cortex, the area in the front of the brain with control over inhibition. Here are a few examples of patterns of reasoning drawn from arithmetic, spelling, reading and tasks involving logic and mathematics (dating from Piaget)…
A plea for primary schools and vocational education
By Thierry WEIL
Professeur à Mines Paris Tech
France spends heavily on education, but the academic level of 15 year-olds is so-so. Many students fail to keep up or lose interest; and companies do not find the qualified persons they want to recruit. French schools are among the least egalitarian in the world, since success mainly depends on the parents’ cultural and economic background. This inequality, obvious by middle school, originates in primary schools, the place where actions can be undertaken to thwart it. By emphasizing abstract knowledge, the educational system underrates pupils who could learn if teachers had more consideration for practical intelligence, vocational education and an individualized transmission of what is to be learned.
The crafts enhanced: Conceptions, education and practices of a digital art applied to craft work
By Bruno MONPÈRE
Directeur de la Chambre des Métiers et de l’Artisanat du Tarn-et-Garonne Cellule de recherche @artisanumerique
Questions about the future of craftsmen, the legacy of know-how, and the models of new vectors of learning and apprenticeship are arising at a time when digital technology is thriving. Various trends are developing at the junction between “knowing” and “doing”: makers, neo-crafts, digital arts, design and craftwork… In response to these trends, the group “Artisan Numérique” in the Chambre des Métiers of Tarn-et-Garonne Department has worked out: training programs on craft work and additive manufacturing; a multidisciplinary bachelor’s curriculum on design and trades in partnership with the Institute of Applied Arts at the University of Toulouse 2; and a digital listing of “craftsmen’s gestures”.
Doing in order to invent the future: A concrete utopia?
By Rafaële COSTE LARTIGOU
Inspectrice de l’Éducation nationale chargée de l’information et de l’orientation dans l’académie de Versailles
et Emmanuelle REILLE-BAUDRIN
Chercheur au CRTD-Cnam et directrice d’un centre d’information et d’orientation (académie de Créteil)
The findings of research based on an analysis of activities in a coworking environment and the development of innovative spaces in schools raise questions about “doing”: doing work in an occupational environment and doing in order to learn and invent in an educational environment. Focusing on new forms of activities and the changes to come, this article concentrates on action as a powerful means of leverage for the future. Changing paradigms, transforming organizations and inventing educational methods are seen as being collaborative and participatory. Doing in order to invent the future: a concrete utopia? An emerging training course?
How to reinforce relations between schools and firms so as to prepare young people for tomorrow’s economy?
By Christiane DEMONTÈS
Directrice de Centre d’Information et d’Orientation
Although the future of occupations, jobs and the economy has never been so unpredictable, students still choose an orientation for their education and careers. How to prepare young people for entry into the word of work while endowing them with the skills, qualifications, know-how and know-how-to-be necessary for success? The author’s report to the Ministry of National Education in October 2015 has insisted on the need to reinforce relations between schools and firms, and to institutionalize them so as to prepare careers for young generations. By relying on positive experiments and generalizing them, the system of education and the economic world can come to grips with this situation.
Educating for the unknown: Looking forwards
By Thierry GAUDIN
Président de Prospective 2100
et Anne-Marie BOUTIN
Présidente de l’APCI
Education’s role is not to perpetuate civilization as it exists but to prepare society for the second half of the 21st century. What we foresee are transformations of such a scope that the very foundations of education must be relaid in the perspective of a new “art of living”.
Miscellany
Two hundred years of metallurgy at the École des Mines de Saint-Étienne
By Michel DARRIEULAT
Ingénieur général des Mines honoraire
Two hundred years ago, the École des Mineurs – later the École des Mines – was founded in Saint-Étienne, Francen with metallurgy as its emblem, owing to the city’s traditional production of coal and guns. Changes in metal-working are described since the foundation of this mining engineering school. In the early days, the aim was to stimulate industry and imitate what was being done in England: make pig iron, wrought iron, steel… Then came a period when professors from the school served as experts to companies and diffused empirical know-how. As scientific metallurgy dawned, instruments of measurement had to be made from scratch. There followed the race to purity, to improving the quality of alloys. Nowadays, creativity in materials is the most appreciated quality among researchers. New challenges have arisen from the demand for lighter-weight and safer metallic parts and the extreme conditions for using them. Additive (3-D) manufacturing can be used to create parts with previously unknown forms. What now counts are a material’s psycho-sensorial properties. Researchers in Saint-Étienne are trying to be ever more creative and original in a scientific community that now stretches out over the planet.