Abstract
Within the framework of teachers' training, this research targets the way unexpected incidents are dealt with by new teachers and expert teachers in technology in secondary schools. That is why we try to clarify the concept of unexpected incidents and events to define a triptych that models the transformations made between unexpected incidents, phenomena and events. Thanks to these analyses, we single out the professional gestures that are used so as to handle the disturbance that has cropped up. Our approach is based on action in situation, work analysis, subject didactics and professional didactics. This research focusing on the activity of new teachers aims at improving their training. We have worked in collaboration with twenty one teachers of technology in training using a tool called "visites à visée formative" (the trainee is visited with a formative objective by a teachers'trainer along with three colleagues) and with two teachers of technology as experts. Ten unexpected situations in technology have been described and analysed. By analysing the results of the research, we show that unexpected incidents play an important part in the technology teacher's activity. The analyses that have been carried out add some more elements to the description of the professional gestures of adjustment to cope with unexpected incidents. They detail how the teacher of technology uses speech pragmatism to adjust his teaching didactics to the unexpected incidents and to the unfolding of the lesson. We also show that language activities acted by the teachers through the professional gestures of adjustment are typical of both new teachers and expert teachers. We believe that we can understand the strategies and adjustments of the teachers thanks to the notion of the combination of professional gestures. These analyses eventually show that some gestures of adjustment and their combination are specifically related to the subject "secondary school technology" and to the activities given to the pupils.