Are graduates of the Bachelor Degree in Primary Education prepared for the teaching profession?

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. The assessment of digital, pedagogical and disciplinary skills of teachers through the TPACK model has a wide international acceptance (Jordan y Dinh, 2012; Koh, Chai y Tsai, 2013). METHOD. In this work, we assess the perceptions of students who are completing their Degree in Primary Education at different Spanish universities about their competence, using the questionnaire designed by Schmidt et al (2009) and Cabero (2014), based on the TPACK model. Furthermore, we analyse the relations between the level of skills and the general academic achievement of students completing this Bachelor Degree as well as the impact of taking ICT-related subjects. RESULTS. The pre-service teachers perceive better results in the Pedagogical Knowledge dimension (PK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge dimension (TPK) and Content Knowledge in Literacy sub-dimension (CK-Lec). However, their skills in the Content Knowledge in Mathematics dimension (CK-Mat) and Technological Knowledge dimension (TK) seem to be more limited. The graduates´ perceived skills level is related to their general academic achievement. What is more, students who took a ICT-related subject about in their university curriculum consider themselves better equipped in some dimensions of the TPACK model (Technological Content Knowledge, Technological Pedagogical Knowledge and Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge). DISCUSSION. The current university curricula of the Bachelor Degree in Primary Education are providing future teachers with a sufficient level of professional skills (based on TPACK model). However, there is a great scope for improvement that should be addressed by the universities, especially when the curricula do not contemplate the offering of specific subjects on digital technologies.