Perceived professional competence: a study with physical education students in initial formation

Abstract

The general purpuse of this descriptive study was to investigate the professional competence perceived in academics who act in the supervised curricular probation of the subject Teaching Practice in Physical Education from the 4º grade of integral period and from the 5º grade of the noturn period from Physical Education course from the Maringá State University in Maringá/PR. Participants were 91 academcs, being 47 feminine gender and 44 masculine gender. A strcutured questionnaire and the Scale of Perceived Professional Competence in Physical Education (Nascimento, 1999) were used as mesure instruments. The data was colected at the second semester of 2005. The descriptive statistics and Man-Whitney test for means comparison were used for the data analyses. The results indicated that: the investigates´s mean age was 23,7 years; the academics preseted a sufficient level of domain for the competences evaluated (professional knowledge and abilities), being perceived more competece at the professional abilities (planning, comunication, evaluation, organization and administration, stimulation and self-reflexion) for a p < 0,05; overall the masculine genderwas perceived more competent than the feminine gender (p < 0,05); the academics who got envolved with monitory activities were those whom showed better professional knowledge an ability in front of the other academics whom didn´t get envolved in any activity. So it is concluded: the academics in initial formation presented a sufficient leve of perceived professional competence to act at the work market.