Skills Acquired by Primary School Teachers When They Are Trained in

Higher Education

2. Distance Education Institute, Catholic University of Mozambique)

Abstract: This presentation is a synthesis of the field contact made with a group of primary school teachers who attend the licenciatura/honours course in Portuguese language teaching at the Catholic University of Mozambique at the Center for Distance Learning. For the research we came up with the following theme: “Competences/Skills acquired by teachers of basic education at the time of their training in higher education”.
Our research was aimed at: verifying the competences that are foreseen in the licenciatura/honours course in Portuguese language teaching; to assess whether the elementary school teachers attending the licenciatura/honours course in Portuguese language teaching at the end of the course develop new skills at a personal, interpersonal, professional, scientific and pedagogical level and if the skills that primary school teachers develop respond to their expectations and professional needs and to see if the modality of distance learning is effective in the formation and promotion of new skills of primary school teachers.
Throughout our work we reflect on the main issues, trying to highlight the main theories or ideas that allowed a constructive reflection on teacher competence; training models, and the development of competencies of teachers in basic education in higher education.
After the theoretical foundation was established, we tried to give voice to the interviewees, that in the perspective of Boaventura Sousa Santos (s/d), Harding and Haraway, 2003, it was intended to give voice to the subject of study (trainees), giving them not only the possibility of sharing their experience but also to give chance to individual to speak openly, using words s/he wishes and in the order that suits her/him” (Quivy & Campenhoudt, 1995, pp. 92 93).
In this sense, taking into account the context and the theme of the research, a semi-structured narrative interview was used as an information gathering tool, which allowed and facilitated the reflection on the reality using the theoretical aspects that underlie this article/presentation and obtaining themes to from interview registration. Ten (10) student teachers participated in the research.
The teachers’ discussions allowed us to identify some recurrent themes that are: acquired competences, continuous training, experience and professional development, reflection on practices and attitude change in teaching practice

Key words: competences, training, teacher training