Perceptions of Professional Competences in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE)

Abstract

Students’ skills acquisition is one of the main aims of higher education institutions. On the one hand, the development of professional competences is important, but on the other hand, it is known that professionals who feel competent have a more intrinsic motivation in their jobs. The goal of this study was to describe and detail the perceptions of students, graduates, and their university tutors about the level of acquisition by students of professional competences. The methodology was based on a descriptive and comparative study that included a total sample of 2075 participants of the Degree in Primary Teaching and the Degree in Physical Activity and Sport Science. All of them came from 21 different universities of Spain: 345 university tutors, 1243 students, and 487 graduates. The instrument used was a competences perception questionnaire. The statistical analysis included means, standard deviations, and an ANOVA analysis. The results show discrepancies in the perceptions of proficiency levels between students and graduates, on one hand, and university tutors, on the other. Likewise, there was general agreement that competences related to critic capacity and motor games were the most acquired and programs for individuals with special needs were the least acquired.

Interdisciplinarity in Teacher Education: Evaluation of the Effectiveness of an Educational Innovation Project

“…The project that has been presented in this article is based on teacher education in Spain and aims to address the claims from different authors who indicate that, although Interdisciplinary projects play an important role in the development of a student profile based on the 21st century skills [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], the implementation of an interdisciplinary approach is a challenge for both teachers and teacher educators [29,[37][38][39][40]42]. If we also take into account that in many education systems, the school curriculum is compartmentalised in disconnected subjects, it makes it difficult to preservice teacher, who in general have received conventional monodisciplinary instruction, promote interdisciplinary education in their classrooms.…”

“…The project involved the design and implementation of interdisciplinary activities using the National Archaeological Museum (NAM) as an educational resource, in which the preservice teachers could apply what they had learned in different subjects and thus practice the teaching skills required for such activity. Furthermore, the Innovation Project covers the need to promote collaborative work within the faculty [2,[43][44][45][46], and to better understand one of the determining factors for teacher education: teacher's self-efficacy [47].…”

“…Putting an emphasis on collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication skills involves reflecting on the need for future teachers to recognise themselves as active and authentic subjects who are responsible for their own education process. This requires education research to include proposals that commit teachers to their own learning and allow them to develop the skills required to become a teacher [1,2]. Competency based education involves preparing students, not only so that they are capable of solving problems in different contexts, but also so that this problem solving can be more effective as a result of knowledge integration [2][3][4][5][6].…”

“…This requires education research to include proposals that commit teachers to their own learning and allow them to develop the skills required to become a teacher [1,2]. Competency based education involves preparing students, not only so that they are capable of solving problems in different contexts, but also so that this problem solving can be more effective as a result of knowledge integration [2][3][4][5][6]. As a result, preservice teachers will be capable of effectively dealing with different social, personal, academic and professional situations.…”

Examining Gender Differences, Personality Traits, Academic Performance, and Motivation in Ukrainian and Polish Students of Physical Education: A Cross-Cultural Study

“…Thus, means of encouraging PE students to use modern person-centered methods, focused on increasing intrinsic motivation during PE classes, should be the main concern. Improving professional competences, in terms of experiences, knowledge, and skills acquired during physical education teacher education (PETE), can have an essential influence on the future quality of PE [ 105 ]. Kusurkar et al [ 106 ] suggest that motivational processes should be taken into account as a crucial factor in PE curriculum development in schools.…”