**1. Introduction**

Initial teacher training (ITT) is a matter of debate among scientists, educators and educational researchers. Scientists advocate for greater scientific training with explicit criteria about scientific competence based on scientific disciplines, while educators and educational researchers call for greater pedagogical and didactic expertise based on educational research.

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Notwithstanding, both sides defend professional practice based on theoretical knowledge. They both acknowledge that through practice, one can acquire professional knowledge, while also recognizing that the dominant influence of the practice may prevent the use of more innovative strategies [1]. Adding to the debate and from a different perspective, students consider the teacher training programs to be too theoretical and are calling for a greater practical component [2]. So ITT involves different perspectives and debate regarding the role of theoretical versus practical knowledge in teaching and requires an answer for how students integrate theory and practice, and how learning environments contribute to this integration.

According to recent perspectives, teaching involves a process of knowing and acting, while simultaneously presupposes the unity of thought and action and the rejection of the duality of knower and the object known [3]. Teaching requires the use of specialized forms of knowledge for promptly responding to the problems arising from teaching practice. Indeed, teachers engage in a process of dialogue with their practice that provides either the construction or the reconstruction of their knowledge concerning practice. Teachers do not just find a solution to a problem; they have to start by equating the problem by understanding a problematic and uncertain situation, and then, they have to go through a specific process of decision making considering the purposes to be achieved and the means to be achieved. So the deliberation process involves thinking about the consequences of the actions outlined, using the knowledge already gained through teaching, and it provides increased knowledge that can change future actions and decisions.

One important point is that problems are reconstructed and interpreted from real situations. Indeed, according to several authors [4, 5], teacher experience is an important source of teachers' learning. However, learning from experience is only made possible if teachers are able to reflect on their own practice, looking at it from different angles and building new meanings from it. This involves a process of personal reconstruction of professional practice, which escapes the *"canons"* of technical rationality. Indeed, the resolution of the problem depends on how it is equated, the meanings attributed to the different aspects that are involved in the problematic situation and the application of knowledge already gained from the professional activity in which teachers have been involved [6, 7].

Many authors have been advocating the idea of teacher as a researcher of his/her own practice, on the base that it is this dimension that allows teacher to go further away in his/her reflections and in exploring new possibilities for action [8]. Research about their own practices begins with an authentic question rooted on teachers' practice [9]. By researching their own practices, teachers are challenged to establish connections between theoretical knowledge and the knowledge gained from their practice [10]; also, it allows teachers to develop a different perspective about their own reality, as they become a participant observer of their own actions and decisions and the consequences of it [11].

Thus, researching own practices is a powerful tool in the teachers' lives, as it helps teachers learn about their students, about school and about themselves as teachers. It should also be noted that researching their own practices can go beyond the resolution of concrete problems and overcome the classroom boundaries, giving voice to teachers and making them constructers of educational knowledge [12].

For this reason, recently, many educational training models are based on the idea of teacher as a research of his/her own practice. Research in practice as a component of ITT has been advocated by several Portuguese researchers [12, 13]. Main arguments are: the investigative dimension allows teachers to become constructors of professional knowledge and not only users of knowledge produced by others [14]. In addition, it facilitates the development of questioning competencies of teaching practice and the contexts of practice, helping studentteachers learn from their own teaching practice, and throughout their professional career [15]. According to an ITT perspective, in the process of learning to teach it is necessary that student-teachers learn to consider the thoughts and actions of other teachers, while simultaneously they begin the process of researching their own practice. This process requires strategies for promoting critical reflection of the teaching practices as well as a learning context where they can communicate the results of their research. These two training processes research and professional communication—contribute to student-teachers' professional development.

Notwithstanding, both sides defend professional practice based on theoretical knowledge. They both acknowledge that through practice, one can acquire professional knowledge, while also recognizing that the dominant influence of the practice may prevent the use of more innovative strategies [1]. Adding to the debate and from a different perspective, students consider the teacher training programs to be too theoretical and are calling for a greater practical component [2]. So ITT involves different perspectives and debate regarding the role of theoretical versus practical knowledge in teaching and requires an answer for how students integrate theory and practice, and how learning environments contribute to this integration.

According to recent perspectives, teaching involves a process of knowing and acting, while simultaneously presupposes the unity of thought and action and the rejection of the duality of knower and the object known [3]. Teaching requires the use of specialized forms of knowledge for promptly responding to the problems arising from teaching practice. Indeed, teachers engage in a process of dialogue with their practice that provides either the construction or the reconstruction of their knowledge concerning practice. Teachers do not just find a solution to a problem; they have to start by equating the problem by understanding a problematic and uncertain situation, and then, they have to go through a specific process of decision making considering the purposes to be achieved and the means to be achieved. So the deliberation process involves thinking about the consequences of the actions outlined, using the knowledge already gained through teaching, and it provides increased knowledge that can change future actions and decisions.

One important point is that problems are reconstructed and interpreted from real situations. Indeed, according to several authors [4, 5], teacher experience is an important source of teachers' learning. However, learning from experience is only made possible if teachers are able to reflect on their own practice, looking at it from different angles and building new meanings from it. This involves a process of personal reconstruction of professional practice, which escapes the *"canons"* of technical rationality. Indeed, the resolution of the problem depends on how it is equated, the meanings attributed to the different aspects that are involved in the problematic situation and the application of knowledge already gained from the professional

Many authors have been advocating the idea of teacher as a researcher of his/her own practice, on the base that it is this dimension that allows teacher to go further away in his/her reflections and in exploring new possibilities for action [8]. Research about their own practices begins with an authentic question rooted on teachers' practice [9]. By researching their own practices, teachers are challenged to establish connections between theoretical knowledge and the knowledge gained from their practice [10]; also, it allows teachers to develop a different perspective about their own reality, as they become a participant observer of their own

Thus, researching own practices is a powerful tool in the teachers' lives, as it helps teachers learn about their students, about school and about themselves as teachers. It should also be noted that researching their own practices can go beyond the resolution of concrete problems and overcome the classroom boundaries, giving voice to teachers and making them construct-

activity in which teachers have been involved [6, 7].

40 Science Education - Research and New Technologies

actions and decisions and the consequences of it [11].

ers of educational knowledge [12].

The ITT program of the University of Lisbon is based on a conceptual framework that proposes that student-teachers construct professional knowledge from their teaching supervised practice. According to this model, students design a didactic proposal taking into account the suggestions of the curriculum that they discuss in collaboration with the school teacher and the educational researcher; afterwards, they put the plan into action in the classroom (intervention). Simultaneously, student-teachers plan a research for studying their intervention. They collect data on students' learning that will be the subject of analysis and reflection. Afterwards, student-teachers write a report where they present the research questions, the theoretical rational, the description of the didactic proposal with justification of the chosen tasks, methods of data collection and analysis, the responses to the initial research questions and a reflection concerning the intervention and the research process as well as about their own learning. Finally, they publicly discuss the results of their intervention and research about the intervention.

Considering the importance of the ITT for professional knowledge and also educational research suggesting the importance of the process of researching their own practice for facilitating professional knowledge, it is important to know the student-teachers' perspective regarding this ITT model. This paper aims to describe the interpretations that studentteachers make about the Portuguese science curriculum as they are expressed in their options regarding the didactic proposal, as well as to describe the research questions and methods they used to collect data concerning students learning, and their evaluation of the learning process in which they were involved when they research their own practice.
