Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Therefore, they are related to the two central goals of ergonomic prac-
tice: to ensure operative performance and to ensure the well-being of
workers. Because of this, fostering the development of skills is a goal
for ergonomists.
This goal is confronted with an obstacle: the incorporated nature of
knowledge. Indeed, gestural knowledge feeds off the experience of situ-
ations, off their variability and diversity. They combine with rules that
frame the use of the body, with trade-speciic know-how, with pragmatic
knowledge, with typical conducts, with types of reasoning, to form skills
(de Montmollin, 1984). Accessing this incorporated knowledge is diffi-
cult. Observation is not enough, because of the refined nature of abilities.
Collecting information via interviews with experienced workers is very
haphazard; these workers are able to deploy an activity that is effective,
efficient and relevant, but are not conscious of their modes of operation
and the decisions underlying them. Because of this, the transmission of
skills between experienced and novice workers is difficult. In order to per-
form this transmission, tutors must 'know what they know', in the case of
both formal tuition and transmission in situations of work. This difficulty
is compounded by the fact that the conditions of transmission are often
sketchy: lack of training for experienced workers, lack of time for tutoring
(Chassaing, 2010).
The question is therefore that of defining the methods that allow, on
the one hand, the elicitation of incorporated knowledge in experienced
workers, so that they might transfer this knowledge to novices, and on the
other hand, the development, in novices, of an ability to analyze their own
gestures so that they might learn more easily.
Following this prospect, this chapter proposes a method to train
experienced workers and novices. This method is grounded in the self-
analysis of work. We begin by presenting the conceptual frameworks that
ground it, then the method itself, its use in two situations of occupational
training, and finally, the conditions for its implementation.
Reflective practice, realization
and conversion factors
The idea that human intelligence is characterized by reflection on one's
own cognitive operations is not new. In 1923, Spearman referred to Plato
and Aristotle to raise the possibility that having one's own thought as an
object of thought is crucial in the acquisition of knowledge. Subsequently,
Jean Piaget, in his books
The Grasp of Consciousness
(1976) and
Success and
Understanding
(1978), developed a theory of the construction of knowl-
edge from action, considering reflection on one's actions or realization as
