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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 11, No. 2

Publication Date: February 25, 2024

DOI:10.14738/assrj.112.16435.

Nasri, B., & Souid, I. (2024). The Effects of Teaching Human and Social Sciences in A Training Program Intended for Physical Education

Students in Tunisia. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 11(2). 151-165.

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

The Effects of Teaching Human and Social Sciences in A Training

Program Intended for Physical Education Students in Tunisia

Bechir Nasri

Higher Institute of Sport and Physical Education of Kef,

University of Jendouba, Tunisia

Ines Souid

University of Lyon/University Lyon 1, L-VIS, EA-7428,

SFR CRIS, FED-4272, France

ABSTRACT

This research addresses the question of the social representation of human

sciences teaching in a training program intended for physical education student

trainees. The objectives of the study are to identify the social representations of

human sciences teaching for student trainees and to see the influence of social

representation on practice1and educational behaviors. Data was collected through

in-depth interviews using an associative method with a representative sample of

students. The results show that the participants' social representation of the human

sciences is organized around common elements: the understanding of human

beliefs, life and culture.

Keywords: Social representation, educational practice, social practice, human sciences,

school culture.

INTRODUCTION

Applied human sciences training to physical and sporting activities in Tunisian institutes of

sport and physical education aims to enable students to access fundamental knowledge in the

human sciences and to develop their ability to exploit this knowledge at the level of teaching

physical and sporting activity. Also achieve the most complete knowledge of the young person,

for whom he will be responsible, in his multiple dimensions, socio-affective, cognitive,

psychomotor, in order to best optimize the educational act and sporting performance2. In

addition, it enriches essential knowledge related to teaching, pedagogy, didactics of physical

and sports activity and sports training and develops its abilities from this knowledge.3At this

level, the Tunisian higher education system offers future physical education teachers dual

training, between scientific disciplines and physical practice. The latter are called "contributory

sciences" or supporting sciences by the official Tunisian programs because they are intended

for future teachers to better understand, then to better learn physical and sporting activities on

1Doise, W. (1986). Social representations: definition of a concept in the study of social representations, (under the

direction of W. Doise and A. Palmonari), Paris, Delachaux and Niestlé, 81-94.

2Zouabi, M. (2003). Evolution of the concept of physical and sport education in Tunisia. From INSEP (special issue), The

Joinville Footprint, (P. Simonet, and L Véray, eds.), Paris, 445-463.

3Errais, B. (1970). Training of EPS executives in Tunisia. Bulletin EP of the INS of Tunis, n°17, pp 3-8.

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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 11, Issue 2, February-2024

Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom

the field and subsequently to better teach them to their future students4.

Furthermore, teachers seek to transmit to their students’ intellectual tools to understand

human societies and their functioning5. The human sciences are the set of disciplines whose

object of study is the human being, in the different aspects of his reality on an individual and

collective level. Among the factors that militate in favor of the participation of the human and

social sciences in teacher training6.

In this study, one of our intentions consists of investing the theoretical and methodological

contributions of the studies of social representations initiated by psychologists and

psychosociologists, in particular the conceptualizations of the role of social representations as

a guide for social practices and behaviors, in the context of a universe in social change. Our

approach favors the analysis of social representations of the human sciences found among

Tunisian student interns.

Our problem, which is part of the more general framework of the study of the scientific

transformation of student interns aimed at meeting practical needs with their students,

highlights the lack of interest given to the role of social representations in this process, a role

that emerges from the function of social representations of being the interface of socio- educational reality. Social representations take a privileged place in individual conduct, as a

system of orientation and regulation of conduct. As part of this research, our choice of social

representations is an epistemological and methodological choice aimed at interpreting the data

from our research relating to the educational behaviors of our participants.

In our research, trying to answer the following questions: What are the social representations

of human and social sciences among physical education trainee students in Tunisia? What type

of influence does social representation have on the practices and behaviors of students in a

teaching context?

The formulation of hypotheses can be established a priori when they arise from the personal

reflection of the researcher based on another previous scientific research. Our first hypothesis,

which is linked to the first question of our problem, assumes that the social representations of

the human and social sciences among trainee students are socially constructed and organized

by a central core and peripheral elements.7. Let us remember that the evolution of a social

representation following a profound change in society is never linear. Several phenomena

intervene in this process: the perception of the past, collective memory, present experiences,

cultural changes.

4Rekik, G. and Bali, N. (2017) Tunisian Physical Education Student Trainees' Agreement Rate about the Consistency

between Initial Training and Integration during the Preparatory Internship for Professional Life. Creative Education, 8,

373-382. doi: 10.4236/ce.2017.83029.2

5Kpazai, G. and Attikleme, K. (2012). The role of professional experience on the dimension of reflexivity in teaching: a

case study of two secondary school physical education and health teachers. Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 7,

254-262.

6

Lapostolle, G. (2005). The orientation of students in college since the 1980s: a problem of political choice between two

forms of democratization, no. 34, 415-438.

7Nasri, B., and Rouissi, M. (2022). Social representation inspector inspected in the Tunisian school system. Journal of

anthropological and archaeological sciences. 7, 915-916.