University Professors profile in Public and Private Universities within the Education Major

Abstract

This article is the result of a research process carried out by the National Council for Private University Education (CONESUP), the Ministry for Public Education and the Institute for Research in Education (INIE) of the University of Costa Rica. Findings of the following objectives are presented: To determine the required professional profile for teaching performance in the courses of the study plan within Education careers in public and private universities; to validate a professional profile needed for professors to teach courses of study plans within Education careers. A qualitative methodology was used, through interviewing techniques, questionnaires and content validation by experts judgment. The study included 31 participants, distributed among five Academic Authorities, ten professors and sixteen students. The results obtained describe the characteristics that the university professors profile must have to teach courses within Education careers, and they are organized by knowledge, skills, values and attitudes. Some of the features that stand out in the findings are: updated deep knowledge in Educational Learning Theories; ability to be creative and to have self vocation to promote ¨knowledge and possession of values such as respect, ethics and responsibility¨. For university teaching profile features validation there were seven expert professionals in Education, content analysis was carried out using expert judgment and group consensus methodology