Assessment of generic competences in physical education teachers

Abstract

Generic competencies are considered fundamental in all professional fields. However, few institutions evaluate whether their graduates transfer these competencies to the professional context. The objective of the study was to assess the perception of recently graduated Physical Education Teachers from a Chilean university about the generic competencies. The study has a special focus on: (a) to know the level of importance that they give to these competencies in the professional practice; (b) to define, from these actors, the level of development and emphasis that the university delivers to the generic competencies during the formative process. A quantitative methodology, of a comparative descriptive type, was used. A total of 133 Physical Education teachers (35 women and 98 men) participated in the study. All participants answered the questionnaire designed for the Latin American Tuning project (2007). The main findings indicate that according to the graduates, the most important competencies for working in the labor system are «appreciation and respect for diversity and multiculturalism» (89.8%) and «ethical commitment» (88%). The least important are «ability to communicate in a second language (English)» (32.3%) and «skills in the use of Information and Communication Technologies» (56.7%). The graduates state that the generic competencies most developed in their university training process are: «ability to work in a team» (59.8%), «appreciation and respect for diversity and multiculturalism» (59.1%) and «skills to search for, process and analyze information from different sources» (55.9%). The least developed in the university are: «ability to communicate in a second language (English)» (9.4%), and «skills in the use of information and communication technologies» (28.3%).