L'evolution des pratiques de lecture a haute voix d'enseignantes expertes et leur influence sur le developpement de l'habilete des eleves du prescolaire a faire des inferences

This collaborative research is an attempt to study expert teachers' reading aloud practices and their impact on the development of preschool students' ability to make inferences. First, the interventions of four expert teachers specifically trained to work inferences while reading aloud are described and compared with those of two non trained expert teachers (objective 1). Next, the impact of all teachers' practices on the development of their students' ability to make inferences (n=92) is examined (objective 2). Finally, we look into collaborative research as a way to support professional development for teachers (objective 3).;In order to attain our objectives, we observed participant teachers four times while they were reading children's books. Data gathered from those observations were completed with other data provided by the teachers about their practices over a nine-week period. Moreover, the ability of the students to make inferences was assessed twice: once at the beginning and once at the end of the research. Teachers also completed two written questionnaires, one at the beginning and the other 2 years after the end of this research, concerning the impacts of their participation in this research on their practices.;While all teachers worked inferences with their students, our results showed that there are significant differences in the way they do it. Three of the trained teachers (number 1, 2, and 3) predominantly put emphasis on co-elaboration of the implicit episodes' meaning and gave their students appropriate scaffolding. Because she found it difficult to assimilate training contents, the other trained teacher (number 4) failed - not without numerous attempts - to offer the same kind of scaffolding. As for the two non trained teachers (number 5 and 6), they gave preference to the transmission of the implicit episodes' meaning, and supported their students less efficiently when they tried to elaborate it.;The differences in how the work on inferences was done had an impact on students' progression from the beginning to the end of the research. Three of the trained teachers' students had significantly superior results in comparison to the others'. Therefore, a specific work on inferences only does not ensure that students will make progress. There are other important contributing factors: choosing quality books, students' involvement in discussions in order to co-elaborate the text's meaning, and appropriate scaffolding from the teacher.;Finally, according to our results, a participation in a collaborative research, which promotes reflexivity and offers coaching, seems to give the teachers the opportunity to bring about long-term changes in their practices. In consequence, a participation in that type of research appears to contribute to teachers' professional development.;Keywords : reading aloud practices, inferences, expert teacher, preschool, collaborative research, professional development, children's books.