ABSTRACT:
The subject of this study is educators' professional development for teaching. Studies on teacher education supports the conceptual theoretical analysis option. Professional development is sustained by the principle of integration between experience and continuous education. The goals of this study were to understand how learning happens when teaching educators that work in a Brazilian public higher education institution, and to understand how professional experiences are interpreted by these professors. The study analyzed how the professional experiences contribute to educators' professional education. The qualitative approach through a questionnaire and the creation of discussion groups were the methods used. The results show that professors do not choose teaching as a primary profession; professional experiences were punctuated by trial and error and the solution of problems usually happened based on experience; and the responsibility for failure or success is connected to students' profiles. The complex nature of universities and of the teaching career is a reality; professors tend to analyze their professional role in a simplistic manner, characterizing their main activity as intellectual and teaching as secondary or non-existent; and education aimed towards teaching is constituted of a solid process for professional development in teaching.
Keywords:
Professional learning; Teaching; Higher education