In the last years we’ve assisted, in Portugal, to a change in the processes of teaching education, namely at the initial training of Physical Education teachers, which is associated with a new paradigm in higher education in result of Bologna process. These transformations happened together with legislative changes in relation to the qualification requirements for teaching - Decree Law No. 43/2007, 22 of February. This new structure requires changes in higher education training institutions, not only in its curriculum, but also in their educational practices. Thus, we are witnessing the (re)start of a simultaneously fragmented and compressed training based on skill acquisitions. This educational perspective focused in competencies brings several risks. In fact, the acquisition of knowledge and skills is not a guarantee of competence (Batista & Pereira, 2012). As Azevedo, Pereira and Sá (2011) notice, teaching education should give practical and theoretical tools to assist students to make the transition from academic education to professional training. In this understanding, usually the practicum, in the context of initial training, seems to be a process that implies a conflict between what the pre-service teachers have and what they need to face the reality of the school context. In this way, a better understanding of this process can contribute to improve and renew the initial training programs. In this sense, in the context of the initial training, specifically in the context of professional practice, it is important to access to the student understandings about the training process. In order to capture these understandings we need instruments. In this context, the main goal of this study is to present the validation process of a questionnaire to Portuguese language about student teachers’ perceptions concerning teacher education and its contribution for their professional life. With this instrument we intend to better know the value that the teachers’ students training attribute to their educational training.

The Training and Profession Perception (TPP) questionnaire consists of one open-ended question and a structured part that includes 5 dimensions measuring: (1) agents of training, (2) components of teacher education, (3) roles of teachers, (4) motivation for teaching, and (5) conceptions of teaching–learning, originally developed by Ezer, Gilat, and Sagee (2010) - Israeli version. We have previously reported the Portuguese translation and validation (test-retest reliability) of the TPP Questionnaire. The questionnaire has never been translated into other languages, thus its application has been limited to a Hebrew-speaking population. Nonetheless, its application has particular value in cross-cultural studies, therefore the purpose of this study was to test the internal consistency of a questionnaire designed to assess training and profession perceptions in Pre-service Teachers. 

Azevedo, E., Pereira, B. & Sá C. (2011). Perceções docentes acerca da formação inicial na atuação pedagógica: estudo de caso dos professores de EF. In Revista Iberoamericana de Educación (56), 201-226. Batista P., Pereira A. (2012). Uma Reflexão acerca da formação superior de profissionais de Educação Física. Da competência à conquista de uma Identidade Profissional. In Professor de Educação Física: Fundar e dignificar a profissão. Isabel Mesquita, Jorge Bento (Eds.). Belo Horizonte, Casa da Educação Física, 67-91. Ezer H., Gilat I. & Sagee R. (2010), Perception of teacher education and professional identity among novice teachers, European Journal of Teacher Education, 33:4, 391-404.