The current survey tests the effects of social comparison distance on investment in learning. The social comparison is known to have two directions: upward and downward. It is hypothesized that, apart from these two directions, there are two distances: moderate and extreme. These distances are supposed to have an impact on the learning investment (when students will strive) or the disinvestment (when they will not make a great effort). Globally, students seem to put more effort in the case of moderate-distance conditions than in the case of extreme-distance conditions. However, the effect of distance is different according to the achievement goals reported by participants (interaction between comparison distance and achievement goals): the participants with performance goals strive more in the moderate-distance condition, whereas those with mastery goals seem to put a quite stable effort regardless of the distance. Implications in educational settings are discussed. Key words: achievement goals, learning investment, social comparison distance.

La formation des enseignants à la lutte contre la discrimination est complexe, celle-ci s'exerçant souvent de manière indirecte et inconsciente. À partir d'une approche psychosociale, cet article présente un dispositif de formation déplaçant le focus souvent opéré sur l'individu et son appartenance vers la situation éducative et la possibilité de la modifier. Il rend compte d'une étude, menée dans le milieu naturel (lors d'un cours semestriel), analysant des récits de futurs praticiens rédigés en début et en fin de formation (2 x N = 64), à partir d'une séquence de film. Une analyse de contenu montre que, d'une manière générale, si dans les récits du début de la formation l'attention de futurs enseignants est focalisée sur l'élève et son milieu d'origine comme sources du problème, dans ceux de la fin de la formation émergent des éléments liés aux circonstances et à la pratique pédagogique et leur rôle dans la réaction de l'élève.

With the aim of dealing with educational cross-domain problems that are likely to appear in each course regardless of the teaching domain, the teachers can either take the initiative to help or they can choose not to intervene. Despite the helpful recommendations to make all pupils participate (UNESCO) or no child left behind (NCLB in the United States), most teachers are unaware of their differential helping behavior when they are faced with an ambiguous or problematic educational situation. In line with the bystander effect literature and stereotype content model, the mechanism that underlies the decision of not helping is identified as the feeling that drives an individual to get into the given situation: the feeling of being concerned (FBC). FBC is supposed to redirect individuals away from hasty, biased conclusions and lead them to some distance from any information (i.e., social cognitive flexibility). It is hypothesized that the more one feels concerned by the situation, the more distance he or she tends to take based on the available information. In a current online survey, the participating teachers in training first gave their opinions about the proposed statements (i.e., the social cognitive flexibility measures), then they read one standardized scenario of the educational situation, and finally they responded to questions related to the perceived possibility of helping the pupils in the scenario. The quantitative results (according to ANOVA) show that the teachers with a high FBC report a higher perceived possibility to help and show a higher level of social cognitive flexibility compared to those with a low FBC. These results are supported by significant correlations and are discussed in terms of their implications for the teachers’ practice. Key words: bystander effect, feeling-of-being-concerned, helping behavior, unruly behavior.

The school often generates different kinds of reputations. These reputations can have negative consequences on pupils’ learning process. Bad reputations make pupils’ efforts invisible, whereas good reputations restrict teachers’ perception of pupils’ desinvestment in learning. Although individualization seems to be an ideal alternative to thwarting reputation creation, it cannot be permanently applied in teachers' practice because of time pressures, cognitive overload, and other facilitators of the automatisms emergence. Hence, the aim is not to banish stereotypical reasoning, but rather to keep a balance between automaticity and reflection through a social cognitive flexibility approach (SCF). The current study tests the impact of a social cognitive flexibility approach on teachers’ thinking about pupils. Social cognitive flexibility seems to help teachers suspend hasty judgments of pupils’ attitudes and behaviors. The study considers the implications of social cognitive flexibility on teachers’ practice in terms of better perception of pupils’ learning potential. Key words: social cognitive flexibility, categories of pupils, teachers’ thinking.

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