Example of subjective camera device (subcam): Mini camera on glasses, lavaliere microphone, mini-camcorder in belt holster equipping a subject. 

Context in source publication

Context 1

... I NTRODUCTION Most long established west European firms such as Electricité De France (EDF) are subject to a high renewal of employees [1] , [2]. For a plant such the Nuclear Power Plant of Chinon (EDF, France) which has 1200 employees (all professions included), this “exodus” is considered by some Human Resource analysts as a “skills drain”: it appears that in the next ten-fifteen years, 33% of population will be renewed and, currently, young employees represent 13% of the staff. Other analysis suggests that 50% of the staff will be renewed in the next 5 years. In such a socio-technical context, improving the training of newcomers in the companies is a crucial point [1]. This is achieved, among other means and methods, through the characterization, understanding and formalization of knowledge, know-how and competencies of experienced workers in order to enhance the quality of the input data of the occupational training programs. Knowledge, know-how and competencies include both declarative knowledge (explicit factual knowledge) including theory and concepts, and tacit knowledge resulting from the experience [3] – [7]. Among these, tacit knowledge is particularly difficult to identify and therefore to characterize, understand and formalize in order to include it within a training program. Furthermore, a key question is to decide whether or not it must be taught: sometimes, it may be better to let the tacit knowledge develop naturally through the professional curriculum. Hence, innovative techniques and analyses are welcome to investigate and study occupational tacit knowledge and related items. On the basis of recent work [8] aiming at understanding and characterizing, from field data, the nature of the transmission and the formalization of knowledge (both explicit and implicit) underlying the execution of professional gestures as part of a given work activity, we developed a protocol helping us, through replay interview of subjective video recordings of activities and additional experiments, to detect and characterize tacit occupational knowledge through speech and behavior analysis. II. M ATERIAL AND M ETHOD The protocol we developed is based on a recent work [8] aiming at retrieving the expert knowledge in individual work situations focusing on professional gestures and leading to the realization of pedagogical tools for transfer of knowledge. It consisted of digital capture of the gesture through subjective and external recordings associated with a goal-oriented verbalization in situations (self-confrontation interviews and reconstruction) in the theoretical framework of the Subjective Evidence-Based Ethnography (SEBE) elaborated by Lahlou [9]. The protocol we developed was structured in four phases: 1) preparation phase, 2) audio-video capture phase, 3) analysis phase, 4) additional interviews and experiments. The preparation phase was to identify the experimental field (location and type of work activity), contact the participants and schedule the experiment and analysis. The audio-video capture phase involved a briefing with participants (the subject whose activity is analyzed and co-workers), equipping the subject, recording by means of a subcam (presented thereafter), and a short feedback of the researchers to the participants. The analysis phase was structured in three steps: i)Pre-viewing of recordings without the subject; ii)Replay interview with the subject; iii)Post-analysis of the replay interviews by the researcher. The additional interviews contributed to validate the findings of the post-analysis. The additional experiments helped to enhance characterization of identified tacit knowledge. They consisted of statistical video analysis of subjective recordings. The replay interview step of the analysis phase applied subjective re-situ interview techniques [10] combining self-confrontation [11] and explicitation interview [12] in the frame of a goal-oriented verbalization applying Activity Theory concepts [13] – [15] and an extended model of competencies in action [16], [17]. It aimed at explaining the subject's activity based on the video recording of the activity according to a subjective situational point of view. Confronting the subject to the subjective video replay captured whilst performing the activity (capture phase), the interview favored the setting in the foreground of the subject, shedded light on what the subject had to do (or not), knew to do (or not), wanted to do (or not), was able to do (or not). The post-analysis step of the analysis phase provided detection and first characterization of tacit occupational knowledge through the subject's speech analysis (including comparative analysis of verbal elements of speech) whilst explaining the behavior during the activity. The equipment used for audio-video capture (Fig. 1) was composed of i) a micro audio digital recorder DVR-500-HD2 (Active Media Concept) providing HD video recording up to 1280 x 960 pixels at 25 frames per second, integrated touch 3" color display, SDHC memory expandable up to 32 GB, USB connection, ii) a 4 mm diameter - 40 mm length miniaturized subcam mounted on safety glasses, 480 lines color, iii) an additional lavaliere microphone. The occupational context chosen for the study was an activity performed by the nuclear reactor pilot in the control room on the French Nuclear Power Plant of Chinon. The activity chosen was common to any pilots' work: in French "le tour de bloc" which may be translated as "block watch-around". This consists in watching and checking operating parameters in the control room. This activity lasts usually from 10 to 30 min. and assumes a replay interview about 1h in the shorter case. Ten pilots have been involved in these experiments among them six novices. The differentiation between novice and experienced was done according to the criterion of the research department "Risk Management" of the company. They carried out in 2003 a research aiming at characterizing deviation from the expected result in work activities. This is since applied in the company for deviations characterization. Among the parameters selected for the features of the deviation's actor was the time spent in the position; this was divided in three intervals: less than 2 years, between 2 and 5 years, more than 5 years. A worker was identified as novice until 2 years spent in the position and experienced after 5 years. We here decided two differentiate novice from experienced worker at the intermediate level, i.e. 3.5 ...