An overview of teacher training in Portugal

This paper presents an overview of teacher´s training in Portugal concerning initial teacher training (ITE), specialized training and in-service teacher training, as considered by the Portuguese legislation. A special emphasis was given to training in information and communication technologies (ICT) and to teaching of experimental sciences for primary school. Moreover, chemistry teacher’s training was contextualized in this scenario. Presently ITE corresponds to level 7 of the European Qualifications Framework (master degree). It is a career-long professional development, where research-based and in context practice are important features. Nevertheless the implicit valorisation of the teaching career arising from Bologna process implementation, a master degree is needed for all teaching levels; a lack of motivation to pursue teaching careers is generally noticed in Portugal as a consequence of the actual context of a surplus and unemployment among the new teachers. Following ITE, in-service training allows teachers to complement, deepen and update their knowledge and professional competences. This is an important measure for in-service long date teachers’ and particularly relevant for the ones that, following teacher career reorganization, had to readapt to new curricula and even new teaching subjects.

An overview of teacher training in Portugal Conference Paper