Connaissance de l’élève et différenciation pédagogique : Applicabilité de l’outil de la description de soi selon le modèle de MARSH et SHAVELSON, dans un environnement scolaire africain

Abstract

This article explores one of the dimensions of the differentiated pedagogy: the student’s knowledge through the feelings he has about himself in the academic and non-academic fields. In order to do this, it suggests an analysis of the self-concept in the African school context patterned after Marsh and Shavelson models which psychometric qualities have been tested and proved by Dierendonck on a sample of 450 Belgian students in 2008.
The results show that this test, though it is adapted to preadolescents and teenagers and despite some difficulties of understanding related to social desirability, hardly questions the external environment of the subject. It doesn’t take in to account the student’s family SSE. The self-concept as expressed by the young African is usually positive. That leadsto the thinking that the overwhelming majority of students would be animated by a sense of happiness and well-being according to Hatier’s theory (1993). Paradoxically, the non-academic self-concept notably the one related to the family SSE is globally negative. This seems to be a characteristic of African subjects who develop greater resilience face to adverse social factors.
However, taken individually, the subjects show very individualized self-concepts which is characteristic of a great diversity of pupils. That confirms the impertinence of the “unique college” as a mode of governance of the teacher/student didactic relationship.