Learning opportunities in pre-service teacher training for education quality

Abstract

This paper is part of a doctoral thesis, whose objective is to characterize learning opportunities (OPA, by its Spanish initials), which offers a sample of pre-service teacher training careers in Primary Education in Chile, in accordance with four dimensions: 1) knowledge field, 2) type of contents, 3) disciplines and 4) cognitive processes. The purpose is to analyze what are criteria, competencies and knowledge that these programs provide, in relation to the educational quality for pedagogical career students. This research was performed in a quantitative paradigm with a descriptive-correlational design, which considered a sample of ten programs. The results show a pre-service teacher training that prioritizes the conceptual knowledge and relegates the practical and professional knowledge. Given this situation, it is suggested that training institutions are in charge of identifying deficiencies and weaknesses in their training programs, in terms of learning opportunities to develop professionals with the types of conceptual, practical and professional knowledge to guarantee quality training.