The Participation and Reflection of Students in University-School Collaboration Projects in Physical Education

Abstract

Democratic classrooms facilitate placing critically engaged students at the center of the learning process by developing real practices evaluated by different agents during the initial training of Physical Education teachers. The objective is to analyze the perception of students about their participation in early childhood educational proposals considered “good practices” that allow university-school collaboration for the acquisition of competency-based and reflective learning. The methodology is qualitative, involving four Spanish universities, with semi-structured interviews conducted with students selected through extreme case sampling. The results report that the students perceive their reflective and critical participation in a real educational situation, solving problems in situ; the importance of mentor support from schools; awareness of the level of skill acquisition through self-assessment and feedback received. In conclusion, students consider that this good practice allows them to feel competent enough to be able to teach Physical Education in early childhood.

Keywords
Reflective practice; Critical thinking; Experience-based learning; Self-assessment