Remote supervision in physical education teaching: exploratory study of trainees in Quebec and in the Vaud County

The Covid-19 health crisis led internship supervisors to stop face-to-face internship visits in favour of remote supervision using various digital devices. The aim of this exploratory study was to measure student teachers’ perceptions of their sense of remote presence during physical education teaching supervised remotely or face-to-face in Canada (n=20 student-teachers) and in Switzerland (n=16 student-teachers). In addition, we sought to identify the difference in trainees’ perceptions between a traditional post-lesson interview during face-to-face visits and a self-confrontation interview during remote supervision, as well as the degree of apprehension before the two modalities. The results show a comparable feeling of remote presence between the two modalities and the two contexts, and highlight the developmental power of self-confrontation interviews, despite the emotional cost they produce, as well as a higher level of apprehension during face-to-face visits. The results are discussed in relation to the different types of remote presence and highlight the potential of remote supervision, using digital tools, in terms of teacher education.