Grammar, care and personal response systems: Analysing the renovation of an english grammar course in a French University

Abstract

The notion of care in education cannot be reduced to the teacher's intent. It should also translate into concrete implementations in teaching choices. This paper investigates the way students perceive teachers' goodwill towards them as well as the pedagogical choices that best support its development in the classroom. Our analysis is based on an experiment in course renovation carried in 2015-2016 on a cohort of 264 second year English majors enrolled in a compulsory English grammar course in a French university. We suggest that care on the part of the teachers is a major preoccupation for students and that personal response systems may help nurture a caring atmosphere in the classroom. However, using personal response systems can merely transform the nature of the stress that students may experience in the classroom, especially when the introduction of this device coincides with the disappearance of more traditional written material to which students are accustomed.