Skills development in teacher Practicum: PBL and Multidimensional coaching

The initial teacherThis research aims to contribute to the knowledge of the Practicum influence in the teachers' development of competences in the initial training. This work presents a review of studies in this area and the development of the methodology used in the Practicum at the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Cordoba. Bases of the Practicum current model are presented, focused on Problem-Based Learning by Multidimensional Coaching (PBL-MC model), especially designed to enhance the development of competences. A pretest/postest study was made in order to study the impact of the Practicum under the PLB-CM model on students' own perception of their competences development. The training experience of the Practicum I in Primary Education Degree mediated between the pretest and the postest. 145 Students took part in the pretest and 196 in the postest. Data were collected using a self-report questionnaire consisting of items about the self-perceived level of generic, specific and practical competences development. The results show a significant advance in the self-perceived development in 50% of the competences. One third of the generic competences (especially personal and systemic) were improved; it means more than half of the specific competences, and three quarters of the specific competences of the Practicum. The nature of many of the most benefitted competences is accordant with the nature of the teaching strategies used, which leads us to deduce that the model developed in PBL-CM Practicum is a good catalyst for competences development and crystallization.