Seeing is Believing: Clinical Supervision

Background/Purpose: Supervision during early field experience (EFE) is a common practice in pre-service physical education teacher education. Supervision focuses on the development of teacher knowledge (i.e., of pedagogy, students, content, and environmental context). There is limited research specific to physical education identifying the impact of supervision on pre-service teacher (PT) knowledge development, specifically in knowledge of content, or subject matter. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two supervisory models, video stimulated recall (VSR) and on- site collaborative supervision, on types of knowledge expressed in written post-conference reflection forms, and to identify PTs perceptions of the different supervisory methods.

Method: This study investigated three PTs enrolled in a semester long EFE. Each PT taught 5-6 high school physical education lessons. Following engagement in two types of post-lesson conferences (VSR, on-site) the PTs completed a post-conference reflection form. Each PT participated in one in-depth interview at the end of the semester.

Analysis/Results: Post-conference reflection forms, reflexive journal, and interviews were transcribed and categorized according to Cochoran et al. (1993) categories of teacher knowledge. PTs were primarily concerned with pedagogy. The knowledge components of content and students was the second most reflected knowledge component, but occurred far less frequently than did pedagogy. Although the PTs preferred VSR over on-site supervision, they identified benefits and drawbacks of both methods of supervision. They enjoyed the visual representation of VSR and the immediacy of on-site collaboration. The most critical issue involved in VSR includes the time delay between the lesson and conference. With the on-site collaboration, it was evident that PTs were not able to visualize specific points in the lesson.

Conclusions: (1) PETE Program focus: Providing alternative assessments (i.e., other than pedagogy) may guide PTs to focus more on the content and students. (2) Writing vs. talking: Perhaps PTs were reflect on knowledge components other than pedagogy if they were allowed to reflect verbally rather than in writing.