PHYSICAL EDUCATION TEACHERS' PROFILE FROM INITIAL TRAINING STUDENTS PERSPECTIVE

This work belongs to a major exploratory study, initiated in 2010, focused on a definition of the "effective teacher". In this stage we use an open questionnaire to compare students' conceptions of the physical education teacher. Our research's comparison sample (N=80) includes 40 students at the beginning of the graduation in Sport Sciences and 40 students entering the Master in Physical Education Teaching course, all with no professional experience. We also compare those conceptions with the teachers' professional profile defined by Decreto-Lei n degrees 240/2001 and also legal dispositions about teacher evaluation. Results show that, for masters' students, a PE teacher is a professional that uses appropriate strategies and is able to create a positive teaching relationship, a perspective which is close to Portuguese professional teaching standards. For beginners is the ability to teach specific content of physical education programs and sports disciplines in general, the most significant aspects of an effective teacher.