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In addition, we note a convergence between the two teachers in terms of the number of verbal ostensions (22/26) and disguised ostensions (2/3) used by both. Indeed, Anis used disguised ostension in order the last form to adjust the didactic distance in regards to the students during his interventions according to their intentions and their physical abilities. In this regard, he admitted, “I had to reduce this distance from the first event because their level did not allow them to finish the exercise, so to keep them focused on it and to improve their performance I decided to regulate the distance” (Anis, after-work interview, answer 8).
During the teaching action, the variation in the use of the ostensive forms shows his the remarkable “sports expertise” of Anis which is also called “bodily expertise.” In fact, this appears through his high mass of “expert knowledge” which he often transmits unwittingly (Ben Jomaa & Terrisse, 2011). This is considered to be the result of the fruitful physical (bodily) practice as a previous athlete and a deep knowledge of swimming.
Discussion of the Proxemics Aspects
The data highlights the proxemics aspects used by all three teachers. These data and allow us to compare the proxemics modes used according to the teachers’ experience and expertise. The categorical analysis indicates that the intimate distance (15cm/40cm) is the most represented, followed by the personal conversation distance (45cm/1.25m), and the social interaction distance (1.25m /3.60m). However, the public distance (3.60m and above) is not represented. These numbers prove that the actors in the educational space (teachers) consider the classroom (the swimming pool in our case) as an intimate, personal, and social space more so than public. The divergences of Hady and Imane’s proxemics. At the beginning of the teaching “test”, Hady used a personal conversation distance six times during the explanation phase, five times during the regulation phase and one time during the recovery phase.
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In addition, he used an intimate distance three times during the explanation phase, three times during the learning phase, and once during the feedback phase. This type of distance allows him to transmit the knowledge orally and at the same time to demonstrate the gesture to the group. He also used a social interaction distance twice during the explanation phase, twice during the instruction and the regulation phase. Furthermore, throughout the session and until its closing, Hady gradually oscillates the didactic distance that separates him from the students between a social interaction distance in four occasions and a personal conversation distance in 12 occasions.
These distance forms seem to be enhanced to communicate the appropriate knowledge in an ostensive way so that the students understand, feel, regulate, get involved, and succeed to coordinate movements. He confirmed his opinion, From my experience, it is important to change places and to go around the pool if possible for better observation, also to improve the interaction with the students, motivate them and follow them throughout the session, the teacher should never settle down. (Hady, after-work interview, answer 8) In Imane’s case, we have noted two proxemics modes. She used the intimate distance 29 times, 12 times during the explanation phase, eight times during the recovery phase, and four times during the regulation phase and five others.
Similarly, we noted that she prefers to use the social interaction distance (25), six times during the learning phase, 16 times during the regulation phase, and three times during the recovery phase. In what follows, she adjusts and regulates the students’ actions individually more than in the group. For this reason, she says, “There are some students in difficulty, I always try to be always close to follow them and to correct their actions individually from a close distance because these ‘weak’ students have to be encouraged” (Imane, after-work interview, answer 6). Moreover, she moved the most in the same a space where she seems to feel more comfortable and more confident. We borrowed the notion of the “comfort zone” from the psychology field to qualify this space in which a person feels safe or in control (White, 2009). As a result, Imane used this intimate distance throughout the session and varies it just a little, while Hady stands a little further away from the students. From this viewpoint, the divergences noted between Hady and Imane are in terms of the intimate distance (7/29) and the social interaction distance (4/25).
The convergences of Anis and Hady’s proxemics. Anis often used the personal conversation distance 22 times, 12 times during the regulation phase and six times during the recovery phase and four other times. This distance allowed him to transmit the knowledge orally and by a full demonstration of arm movements. To justify this choice he stated, Given their emotional and motor difficulties, I was obliged to observe them closely and keep them under control to look in each regulation, to see how we improve our intervention and to regulate better our students’ performance. (Anis, after-work interview, answer 7) Therefore, the reconciliations between Anis and Hady of the use of the personal conversation distance (12/22) and the social interaction distance are notably equal (4/4). This distance is universal, it makes possible to transmit and communicate knowledge orally and to fully demonstrate the movement to the class.
Moreover, Catteau (1998) notes that the teacher’s position on the edge of the pool is a matter of expertise and seems to be linked to the intention underlying his observation. These aspects are particularly important in teaching-learning interaction since the teacher observation is often a trigger. The convergences of Anis and Imane’s proxemics. Anis uses the intimate distance 16 times during the explanation phase, three times during the learning phase and two times during the regulation phase. These distances, which place Anis close to some students, seem to be organized by the desire to transmit the appropriate knowledge and know-how in an ostensive way so that the students understand and accomplish the front crawl stroke swimming technique with a higher degree of motivation.
However, the reconciliations between these two teachers in terms of the use of the intimate distance (21/29) can be explained, on the one hand by Imane’s fear of losing control of the students as she specified, “I am always close to my students, not only so that they will listen to everything I give them as instructions, but above all to control them and to keep them in front of my eyes” (Imane, after-work interview, answer 7). On the other hand, Anis’ primary concern is about the psychological state of these students, specifically their level of anxiety. In this sense, he confirmed, “The majority of the students have a psychological problem, they are anxious and they believe that swimming is inaccessible and hard to be learned” (Anis, a priori interview, answer 4).
Teachers’ ostension effects on the students’ learning process The effect of ostensive approach on improving students’ learning This final aspect is dealing with the effects that the ostensive forms coupled with proxemics used by the three teachers may have on students’ learning progress in. To identify and track the consequences of the teacher’s intervention types on student’s learning process, we quantified the number of students who often technically perform the movement correctly (+) or not (-).
From the effects of Hady’s ostension forms used on the student’s learning, we noted that they progressed to 81%. Furthermore, most of the scores coming from the combined ostension were quantitatively and generally more important. From a general point of view in regards to Hady’s educational objectives, all the ostension forms play a major role in enhancing the understanding of the contents by the students. Indeed, Hady proceeded with a combinatorial ostension strategy during his teaching, which led him to propose the appropriate solution for each student having difficulty as well as those who were experiencing success. As such, Hady chooses the appropriate time to show the gesture to the student during aerial inhalation. He can generally repeat this information and correct the movement. Hady waits for this sign to validate the importance of the gesture which he delivered to the students in action. Thus, these individual interventions and targeted regulations allowed him to progress in the session and to advance knowledge in relation to time. He explained, “Generally, the session went well considering the average level of this group, the students have assimilated my demonstrations well and they took advantage of my regulations” (Hady, Interview after-work, answer 11).
As for Anis, we can identify students’ progression during different events, in which they performed successfully 74% of the time. This progression depends on specific interventions such as combined and gestural approaches which were mostly addressed to students with difficulties. Therefore, the use of several forms of ostensions can help to encourage student involvement in learning. Indeed, Anis associated between the theoretical and the practical course to facilitate the assimilation degree of the students and to make adjustments as they go along. He continuously motivates and encourages them. He seems to succeed in transmitting the right information by insisting on the head positioning, underwater exhalation, and legs kicking which help to maintain the balance of the whole body.
In this regard, he said, “I was not satisfied with the production of this group because of their low level, but in the end, they were motivated and encouraged by my demonstrations and they also assimilated my combined regulations and consequently they improved” (Anis, after-work interview, answer 11). On the contrary, we observed regression in Imane’s students learning with a 56% success rate. This percentage can be explained by the low use of combined ostension and gestural ostension. From then on, words and speech are powerless to express the complexity of situations and the emergence of several elements simultaneously at the moment when the gesture makes it possible to concretize what there is to see and understand.
Consequently, the absence of the image of knowledge to be given (the reference) to these learners does not make it possible to establish the didactic contract and does not create relationships with these students so that they can take advantage of its way of transmitting knowledge. Through these forms, the students succeeded partially to coordinate arm and leg movements. Nevertheless, this verbalization will have its shortcomings because, at the sight of the video, Imane will discover the failure of some students in the session. This underlined the students’ difficulty with mastering the skill, which required much more time and practice.
Conclusion
This study gathers several macro dimensions. We retain three principal items: the knowledge ostension, the gestuality of PE teachers, and their proxemics aspects. In our analysis, we have noted convergences and divergences between all three swimming teachers. We have shown that Hady and Anis attempt to demonstrate more spontaneous and natural gestures while remaining more distant from their students to supervise the proposed didactic situations. However, the gestural and the combined forms of ostension chosen and deployed by the expert teacher demonstrates his professional bodily expression, which is considered a “speaking body” (Jorro, 2004).
This choice does not only reveal the professorial action, but it is considered also as producers of knowledge and constituents of the didactic relationship. On the contrary, Imane remains closer to the students, using an exclusively verbal mode of knowledge communication by staging a “silent body,” which is not able or does not want to demonstrate (Pujad, 1976). Importantly, the study’s findings indicate that the use of ostension forms in Hady and Anis’s teaching have a remarkable positive impact on their progression level. Most of the students that facing difficulties progressed better with them. Although, we observe a low proportion of execution in Imane’s case where individualized micro-regulations were carried out with students.
These scores allowed us to highlight the importance of the personal experience which acts in the background of the didactic system as a “filter” through which the teacher conveys his previous experience and his own personal knowledge throughout the life path. In this way, we confirm that the association between the ostensive forms and the proxemics modes of teachers is an indicator of their professional action and their link to knowledge. Thus, we can say that the three teachers have a different or even contrasting relationship which refers to their singularity. To conclude, the ostensive practices are vectors of the transmission of knowledge issues. These ostensive forms are rooted in the teaching practices and constitution of the professional signature of PE teachers. Teachers-subjects are asked to combine various ostensive, gestural, and proximity modalities and to try to satisfy their desire to teach (Robert, 2012).
The direction of this research consists of the choice of ostensive practices as didactical strategies to help PE teachers, and swimming instructors, in particular, to enhance their pedagogical and didactical activities. Limitations and directions for future research With respect to the limitations of the present study in clinical didactics, we focused on the analysis of ostensive practices of PE teachers, whereas we can look beyond the characterization of the notion of expertise to also examine the expertise of the student. This perspective could be a focus of future research since the resourceful and expert student can also impact knowledge through ostension.
