PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCIES OF THE PRIMARY TEACHER: A STUDY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE TUTOR OF PRACTICUM

The Practicum is a crucial element in the initial education of teachers, where tutors play an essential role as a nexus between university and school. From that perspective, the current study intends to find out what the Primary-School-teacher professional competencies are, from the tutors' perspective and their perception of the achievement of those competencies in initial training. The research has been conducted with a sample of 131 tutors, from a range of private and public schools in the Community of Madrid. It has been a descriptive and transversal study, in which an ad hoc questionnaire -consisting of 40 items and validated by experts- has been used. The findings reveal that there is a favorable perception on the part of tutors as regards the importance of teaching competencies included in the initial education of university students of this degree. At the same time, the results highlight the formative deficiencies, especially at the social and personal dimension of the professional function. Those results -which differ from the 21st century teacher's supranational guidelines and from the research that currently is being conducted- demand a revision of the teacher's profile, in accordance with the 21st century school. This reality points to the idea that there is a gap between first teacher formation and the demands of society. The analysis of these proposals and the redefinition of the content of competencies, which have to be present in the design of the degree of Primary School teachers, is a prevailing necessity advocated by this study.