A clinical didactics analysis of the use of proxemics forms in the teaching-learning process of sports and physical education setting: a case study in Tunisia

Abstract

This paper aims to explore the link between teacher’s use of proxemics and the “link to body” and its impact on teaching act through the analysis of the teaching practice of one Physical Education (PE) teacher named (E). Relying on a clinical didactic methodology based on a “case study” (Terrisse, 2003; Ben Jomaa, Chihi, Sghaier, Mami & Kpazaï, 2017), two types of data were collected. The observation and the video recording of two PE sessions (gymnastics and volleyball) allows to obtain quantitative data in terms of the amount of proxemics types (Hall, 1966) used by the teacher in each teaching session. To collect the qualitative data, different types of interviews (already-there, post-stroke, ante and post session) were conducted with the same teacher in different research temporalities. As a result, the triangulation of these two types of data (Huberman & Miles & De Backer, 1991) shows an obvious correlation between the use of proxemics types and the link to body (Jourdan, 2006). When he gets close, especially in gymnastics setting, he maintains an intimate link to the body through touching and manipulating liberally student’s body parts. When he stays distant, he sometimes shows a narcissistic aspect by showing off his corporal skills in terms of his unconscious “impossible to support”, although he sometimes manifests a distant and repulsive link to body when he faces a paucity of knowledge especially in volleyball.