Supervisor Feedback: Perceptions From Physical Education Teacher Candidates

This study investigated physical education teacher candidate perceptions on feedback received from cooperating teachers and university supervisors during their student teaching experience. We used a basic qualitative research design (Merriam, 2009) to determine the perceptions of five teacher candidates from a public university in Puerto Rico. Teacher candidates completed daily reflections, weekly descriptive questionnaires, and in-depth interviews, which we used as sources of data. Three themes emerged from collected data: quality of supervision, feedback and evaluation, and satisfaction with relationship. Of particular interest, the teacher candidates in this study perceived cooperating teachers as not offering the needed feedback to improve their teaching performance in the classroom. Conversely, teacher candidates perceived the feedback from their university supervisors as helpful in developing and improving their teaching skills. Although the participants in this study acknowledged both their cooperating teachers and their university supervisors as mentors, the results indicate that the type of feedback received from each may be perceived as beneficial, neutral, and at times negative toward the student teaching experience. Recommendations for cooperating teachers, university supervisors, and student teachers will be discussed with the purpose to improve the physical education teacher preparation process.