Since the 1980's, the professionalization of the field of special education (Brichaux, 2001; Perrard, 2008) has resulted in a progressive structuration and complexification of the theoretical and practical training of future special educators. Different models of training coexist, most of which alternate between course periods and phases of field experience. The evaluation of such experiences is mostly focused on students' practical and reflexive 'performance', yielding a lot of information about the student's competence and attitudes in the field. Unfortunately, much less is known about how the students themselves assess the training context and the quality of on the job supervision. In the course of a reorganization of a special education curriculum at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland), a research project was developed with the aim of making up for this lack of information about the students' evaluation of their phases of practical training. The main goal of the research was to run a preliminary validation of a questionnaire aimed at capturing student perceptions of their supervision and their satisfaction with the field experience. Our approach is essentially exploratory and inductive in nature, due to the lack of available instruments or empirical data on the subject.

An experimental version of a questionnaire was developed, including, besides items describing the organisation and context of the experience (duration, population, status of supervisor, etc.), items based on the mentor (Houde, 1996), tutor (Barbier, 1996) and coach (Angel & Amar, 2005) models of on the job trainer-trainee relationships. Items (evaluated on standard Likert scales) were related to the following areas of trainee perceptions : aspects and quality of on the job supervision, relationship with the supervisor, relationship with a significant other in the job place (informal mentoring) and, finally, assessment of the field experience's outcomes. The questionnaire was completed with a qualitative section inviting students to examine which expectations were not met, which were, and to formulate expectations for future experiences. 80 students completed the questionnaire.

Results pertain to the following areas: - Factorial structure: dimensions yielded, stability of factors, limitations and further development. - Effects of organizational factors : we will examine the role of participation, frequency of meetings with supervisor and the characteristics of the cared-for population. - Effects related to the status of the supervisor : status in the institution and specificity of training for supervision will be linked to student perceptions. - The role of the significant other will be discussed. - Theoretical and empirical coherence of results : the coherence of results with existing empirical research or theoretical expectations will be examined, as well as coherence between quantitative and qualitative information. Perspectives for the instrument's future development and applications will be discussed, in particular, the need to link, in a further step, student perceptions to assessments of their practical and reflexive competencies by supervisors on the job or in the University.