Future physical education teachers and self-efficacy on teacher initiation program

Abstract

This research project to be held abroad aims to improve the scientific processes of qualitative analysis research in the theoretical reference, to expand and to update the review of the literature in international databases as well as the participation in academic and investigative activities at the Lab headed by Professor Ellen L. Usher, the supervisor abroad. The original project, approved by FAPESP with the acceptance of a semester taken abroad, investigates the contribution of a teacher training program to the constitution and strengthening of future Physical Education teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and teaching self-regulation. Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs are significant predictors of teachers' behavior in the classroom. To understand the way they develop, as well as to identify the situations that contribute to their development and empowerment may help to design more significant training practices for future teachers. Professor Usher is the head of the P20 Motivation and Learning Lab at the University of Kentucky, USA. She has been a pioneer in the investigations on the sources of self-efficacy and has also been proposing qualitative studies that contribute to the understanding and development of meaningful training practices. The completion of the doctoral internship under her supervision can contribute to the acquisition of knowledge about theoretical and methodological aspects so as to continue the data analysis in Brazil. The accomplishment of such partnership will contribute to the gathering of further knowledge about the construct proposed by Bandura, considering the different dimensions and variables related to teaching and teacher training in the field of Physical Education concerning the Brazilian context and its particularities. (AU)