Une étude descriptive d’un modèle de supervision en distanciel faisant appel aux TIC lors des stages réalisés dans les milieux scolaires éloignés de leur université

The different actors involved in the provision of practical training must take the cultural and territorial realities of the regions of Quebec into account. Students from remote areas distant from universities want to return to their home community in order to complete one of their practicum. The omnipresence of information and communications technologies (ICT) in school and university settings, and the Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, MEQ’s requirement to develop professional competencies, which integrate ICT, contribute to set up a supervision model, which can meet requirements linked to practical training. There are major challenges and they deserve to be studied at length. Taking into consideration the fact that observation and communication between the practicum student’s different supervisory partners is essential to effective training that meets the student’s needs, this study proposes an approach to supervision which may increase the university’s presence in remote communities and, in doing so, ensure optimal support of practicum students throughout the province of Quebec. The goal of this research is to describe the contributions made by ICT to the practicum supervision process when they occur in remote school settings, away from universities. More precisely, the study meets three objectives by (1) identifying the advantages and (2) the limits linked to supervision of practicums when it is conducted using ICT, and by contributing (3) to understanding the contribution ICT makes to supporting practicum students in the development of their professional competencies with respect to the teaching act, and to the development of their professional identity.  In order to grasp the challenges of such an approach, it is required to select a descriptive qualitative study to carry out the research. A rigorous data collection process was conducted with four practicum students, their associate teachers and their supervisors as subjects, using observation forms, video recordings, practicum journals, and semi-directed interviews, which made it possible for the four research questions to be answered. These questions deal with the efficiency of a distance supervision model to the practicum student’s supervision before, during and after the completion of their practicum, with the efficiency of a distance supervision model to communication between the supervisory partners and to the support of the development of professional competencies with respect to the teaching act and to the development of their professional identity. Data gathered using different tools permited the presentation of a description of each step of the proposed approached and the strengths and limits of each step: introduction, observation, partner-exchanges and feedback. The study also allows an understanding of how the model can contribute to supporting the development of practicum students’ professional competencies. In this way, the study highlights that each step of the proposed online supervision approach contributes, in different ways, to making supervision effective in terms of supporting the development of professional competencies. Recommendations and avenues for research are suggested so as to maximize the potential of the model.

Keyphrases: Supervision, Supervision, Online, Information and communication technologies, Support, Professional competencies, Remote communities