Multidisciplinarity and professions in teaching, education, and training [FDE]

– Train students who wish to prepare for the elementary school teacher certification exam from their first year of undergraduate studies by guiding them toward MEEF first-level master's degrees.

– Acquire multidisciplinary and professional knowledge and skills essential for success in the competitive examination and in the practice of the profession.

– Consolidate your career plans toward a teaching career in elementary education or reorient your career plans toward various careers in education, training, facilitation, and mediation.

Competency 1: Develop and exercise critical thinking

Faced with the exponential growth of information in our contemporary societies, faced with the multiplicity of sources and the increasingly frequent manipulation of opinion produced by some of them (conspiracy theories, alternative facts, various dogmatisms, etc.), and the prevalence of ready-made thinking, universities and schools have a duty to educate citizens who are capable of taking a step back from objects (images, information, statements, concepts, etc.) by questioning their relevance, contextualizing them, referring them to various frameworks, and taking their complexity into account. It is this critical distancing that enables the formation of a point of view and the production of a detailed and reasoned judgment. Its development and exercise thereby promote a process of subjectivation and emancipation.

Competency 2: Communicate appropriately

Teaching and learning also involve communication. These acts of communication are becoming more complex today due to cultural changes in our societies, the multiplicity of means and tools of communication, the diversification of school populations, new methods of teaching and learning, etc.

Communicating effectively therefore requires the ability to take into account the specific contexts of given situations in order to understand and produce the appropriate language. This means being aware of the differences and discrepancies between the reception and production of a message, mobilizing the knowledge necessary to understand and produce the message, grasping and taking into account the issues at stake in the situation, and adapting the content to the skills, knowledge, and culture of the recipients.

Competency 3: Utilizing Information

The proliferation of content and information media, amplified by the speed of dissemination via the internet and social networks, requires, on the one hand, the ability to prioritize the constant flow of information in a systematic and reasoned manner; and, on the other hand, the ability to structure information by linking it to situations. These analytical and comprehension skills enable relevant choices to be made in order to facilitate the use and exploitation of information.

Competency 4: Developing and exercising creativity

To cope with changes in our societies (the value placed on self-fulfillment, the accelerating pace of change in our professional and daily lives), we need to create the conditions for the development and construction of a unique individual, capable of inventing, discovering, and achieving.

Exercising creativity means taking a fresh look at a situation or context. By exploring a range of possibilities in a given situation and working on a different relationship with norms and standards, individuals can develop in imaginary and symbolic dimensions, transform their relationship with the world, and act upon it.

Competency 5: Solving problems

The 20th century and the industrial era were mainly marked by Fordism and Taylorism, i.e., the division of tasks, automation, and the routinization of professional activities. In schools, too, the same ideology of repetition long dominated the concept of learning.

Today, the world of work and school are changing in tandem. High-level cognitive processes are increasingly required in both spheres: reasoning, adapting to new situations, producing creative and non-routine responses, etc.

Problem solving helps develop these processes by encouraging students to analyze and question the complex situations they face, imagine possible and varied solutions, test responses, and experiment. It promotes flexible cognitive functioning and an open, non-dogmatic approach to knowledge.

Skill 6: Developing a nonviolent relationship with oneself, others, and the group

Having self-esteem, self-confidence, not putting yourself down, and loving yourself are essential to living a good life. It is also essential for finding one's place in society, where relationships with others or with a group can sometimes be tinged with violence and lead to conflicts that are detrimental to the quality of the relationship. It is therefore important, within a group or in the relationship between one group and another, to be able to implement and accept the exchange and sharing of ideas.

Everyone must have freedom of information and freedom of expression, in accordance with the principles of pluralism and neutrality. This commits individuals to peaceful and benevolent relations with others, in which conflicts, which are inevitable between different personalities, must remain opportunities to develop responses tailored to each other's needs.

Developing this skill allows us to better respect differences and value openness to those who are not like us.

Competency 7: Cooperate and work in a team

Being able to work in a team, find and build partnerships, and open up to other people's worlds has become an important skill in many professions. To this end, cooperation is the preferred approach because it allows everyone to enrich their skills. The aim is therefore to identify and understand the conditions for cooperative work and its advantages over competition in particular, even though the two approaches remain complementary.

It will still be a matter of developing projects, implementing them, and negotiating them collectively: these are important factors for the socialization of the individual.

 Skill 8: Adopting effective working methods

"Schools, colleges, high schools, and higher education institutions are responsible for transmitting and imparting knowledge and working methods." With this sentence, as early as 1989, the legislator placed the transmission of knowledge and working methods on an equal footing. The effectiveness of working methods is therefore a key factor in learning and success. Organizing one's work, planning it methodically, and managing one's time: even if these methods can be developed empirically, systems must be designed to allow everyone to test their validity and effectiveness.

Furthermore, questioning one's own ways of working in light of the results they produce, comparing them with other possible choices made by others in the same situations, in order to modify one's own ways of working, allows them to evolve and become more effective. This methodological reflexivity, fueled by the analyzed comparison with the methods of others, is a powerful lever in improving one's own working methods.

In semester 4, there are two possibilities:

-Spend a semester abroad at partner universities offering courses related to teaching, education, and training professions.

OR

-Complete internships in schools abroad and in educational, cultural, or social organizations in France. At the same time, students must study a foreign language during an intensive course.