Critical incidents in the practicum of Physical Education Pedagogy students: a qualitative study

Competency-based teacher training is a process that consists of different stages for the integral development of each student, highlighting the practicum as one of the most appropriate for the application of the knowledge learned. However, it is also a stage that presents multiple difficulties because it is a real context of teaching performance. Therefore, with the purpose of favoring future teacher training processes, this study aims to understand the critical incidents of Physical Education Pedagogy students during their practicum process. A qualitative methodology was used, with a phenomenological perspective and a case study design. Thirty-four Physical Education Pedagogy students from a private university in the Metropolitan Region of Chile participated. The data were collected with an anecdotal record by means of a portfolio and subjected to an inductive content analysis in the Atlas.ti 22 program. The participants signed an informed consent form declaring voluntary participation, confidentiality, and anonymity. The main results mention situations of school violence, absenteeism, communication problems among teachers, emotional difficulties of school stu-dents and difficulties in the sessions due to weather conditions. It is concluded that having learning associated with these critical incidents would be important to favor their consideration when planning and developing Physical Education classes in these real school learning contexts.