INTRODUCTION: The role of the teacher is of special importance in the education of the 21st century. The social changes that are being experienced now have a direct impact on the teachers' task. These teachers have new professional demands due to the introduction of technologies in the classrooms, the increase in the ratio of students, interculturality, the requirement of mastery of non-native languages, among other aspects.
Consequently, the training of future teachers is of vital importance, since they have to adapt to the new changes that are taking place in society. Moreover, their future performance will fall on the students' learning, so their training will take an important role. Several authors have focused their attention on the two ways to train future teachers through the development of teaching competences: on the one hand, the work environment through continuous training and, on the other, the academic university environment.
In this paper we will focus on initial training, a key stage for future teachers to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to become a good teacher. For this, these future teacher students have to develop a series of teaching competences during their university education.
It is convenient to stop at the definition of competence, a concept that has been confusing since its appearance. Among all the contributions highlighted by Perrenaud (2004, p.11), who defines competence as the ability to mobilize various cognitive resources to deal with a type of situation. Regarding the classification of teaching competences, there are three major dimensions (Fernández et al., 2016, Valdivieso, Martín y Martín-Antón, 2013; Ramón, Redondo, Gundín y Fernández, 2015):
- Instrumental competences: are those related to the knowledge domain of the profession and general knowledge, information management, planning, communication skills, decision making and educational evaluation.
- Interpersonal skills: are those related to social relationships, cooperation, teamwork, feelings and emotions.
- Systemic competences: those that allow teachers to adapt to new educational situations and know how to act in the face of new changes.
In-service teachers state that they have not acquired these skills during their initial training, especially those who teach in the primary education stage. Therefore, the objective of this study is to evaluate the acquisition of instrumental competencies self-perceived by future teachers of primary education and their satisfaction during their years of university education.
METHOD. This research is framed within non-experimental studies. It is an ex-post-facto type study and framed within the quantitative methodology. Through a system of indicators, sub-dimensions and indicators, an instrument composed of 41 items was elaborated. The sample of the study is composed by 247 students who study the last year of Bachelor's Degree in Primary Education.
RESULTS.
The results of the descriptive studies show a medium-low level in the self-perception of the students on their acquisition of the Instrumental Competences during the degree and in the Satisfaction with the training received in the university.
In the Instrumental Competencies dimension, future teachers self-perceive with a medium-low level in linguistic competences and in the domain of the subject and results with low or very low levels in methodological aspects and in use of resources. In the dimension of satisfaction, future teachers feel little satisfied with the teaching system and with the training received throughout the degree.
The differential studies show that the future students who have class in the afternoon, those who attend more time to the classes and those who have pending subjects self-perceive with higher levels of development of teaching competences. The cluster analysis differentiated three profiles of students: the first with medium levels, the second with medium-low levels and the third with low or very low levels.
