Teachers’ development policies focus on the quality of teaching that needs to encompass the entire professional life-cycle continuum, which begins with initial teacher education (ITE) and extends to the induction and in-service phases (Flores and Day, 2006; OECD, 2011). The goal of this presentation is to characterize the University of Porto, Faculty of Sport (FADEUP) physical education practicum of pre-service teachers (PSTs) as a structured practice that seeks to bring ITE into the profession by strengthening the partnership between university and schools. This entails a consolidated network of cooperating schools, with experienced cooperating teachers (CT) committed to work together with FADEUP in introducing PSTs to the reality of school life and in scaffolding the efforts of PSTs to work on their own personal teaching identities. Both individual responsibility and team work are emphasized. The PSTs, placed in groups of 3 or 4 per school, work four days a week at school under the supervision of their CT. Activities revolve around three main areas: (1) classroom-level activities, i.e., planning, implementation and evaluation of teaching and learning; (2) school/community-level activities, i.e., involvement with school staff organization or with sport-based or other extra-curricular activities; and (3) professional development area, i.e., reflection of the whole practicum experience and research on a pedagogically relevant topic. The faculty supervisor meets with the PST once a week to provide advice on the elaboration of their reflective report and research proposal, to analyse and discuss their practical problems at the practicum context, as well as to challenge them to improve their level of reflection and to improve their professional competencies and teacher identity. The faculty supervisor visits the school three times a year, to both observe lessons and assess how the PSTs experience their learning and professional development. The faculty promotes regularly meetings with CTs to coordinate mentoring and advising practices and provides in-service training in different physical education and mentoring subjects (e.g., specific didactics, curricular models). Invaluable elements of the process include the strengthening of collaborative practices. The involvement of CTs with research projects related to teacher education and professional contexts available in the FADEUP ITE programme inspire the supportive practices for beginning teachers.

Flores, M. A., & Day, C. (2006). Contexts which shape and reshape new teachers' identities: A multi-perspective study. Teaching and Teacher Education, 22(2), 219-232. Schleicher, A. (2011), Building a High-Quality Teaching Profession: Lessons from around the World, OECD Publishing.