Professional potentialities and necessities in physical education

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to analyze the evolution of the self-perception of professional ability, as well as to identify the profile of the potentialities and professional necessities according to the cycles of professional development, and to observe if the context (institution of initial education) interferes with the perception of professional ability of Physical Education teachers. 58 teachers attending the Physical Education specialization course of UFSC and ICPG participated of the investigation. A scale for measuring the personal effectiveness was used to evaluate the perception of professional activity. Non-parametric statistics resources (Kruskall-Wallis’ variance analysis and Mann-Whitney’s U test), inserted in SPSS program, were used for data analysis. The results showed that the institution seems to be associated to the perception on the teacher’s potentialities concerning both the dimensions of knowledge and the professional abilities. The subjects of the study think they are more competent and attribute a greater importance to the domain of the abilities than to the domain of the professional knowledge.