AQPC

Interview with Catherine Fichten, teacher at Dawson College and researcher

AUTHORS:

• Fanny Kingsbury, researcher, French teacher at Cégep de Sainte-Foy and editor in chief of Pédagogie collégiale.
• Sébastien Piché, history teacher at Cégep régional de Lanaudière à L’Assomption and person in charge of the college history project undertaken by the Association pour la recherche au collégial (ARC)

  This interview presents the vibrant testimony of a teacher and researcher at Dawson College who has been working in research since the creation of CEGEPs and provides us with an opportunity to look inside the research process. Alternately, Ms Fichten recalls her beginnings in research and explains the different types of financial support she has received. She gives us her view on the dissemination of research results, shares with us her experience with teamwork and establishes links between her dual role as researcher and teacher as well as the emergence of scientific careers among students. On the subject of applied research, she explains the history and role of the Adaptech research network which conducts research on the use of IT, learning and adaptive technologies by handicapped students. Ms Fichten also highlights the impact of her research on her teaching, while specifying the determining factor of her research career, and retraces the outstanding events in the history of college research. According to her, a love for research and hard work are necessary elements for successfully managing all her projects at the same time. Along this line of thought, she underlines a few necessary characteristics for researchers, insisting mainly on perseverance.

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