Abstract:

Lately, the teacher's training is being criticized and research, in this ambit, has shown that there is a direct correlation between initial training and teaching performance, especially in compulsory education levels. It has been proven that the initial training of teachers is highly theoretical, with a poor connection with professional practice, fragmented curricula and little clarity about what is taught (Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Zeichner & Gore, 1990; Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1981). Also the mastery of the knowledge of the specialty of the teacher and the incorporation of research in their training have been questioned. In this context, the objective of the study is to assess what kind of research skills acquire future teachers, and to what extent they achieve mastery of the contents of the subject of Theory and History of Education (THE). The study involved 176 future teachers of Primary Education and 138 of Early Childhood Education (N = 314), who have studied this subject.

A questionnaire called Development of teacher competencies and skills was used to improve teaching authority and coexistence in the classroom (Merma, & Gavilán, 2018) which assesses two dimensions:
1) content and
2) research skills: in the first dimension analyzes 5 variables: domain of the subject, ability to explain ideas, reflective-non-rote learning, ability to analyze and understand the topics, and the second one also analyzes 5 variables: research, create new content, develop practices innovative and innovative, investigate outside the classroom, and be self-critical and reflective.

For the statistical analysis of the 10 items of the questionnaire we used SPSS v. Software. 21.0. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire content was with Cronbach's Alpha and it was 0.91. The most significant findings show that the students of THE have understood the contents (80.6%) and know and have a mastery of the subjects (80.5%), although there are 19.1% and 11.8% of students who point out that "sometimes" and "almost always", respectively, the contents are learned in a rote way. Regarding the research competences, the students emphasize, especially, that they learned to be critical, self-critical and reflective (79.3%) and point out as the scarcest activity the investigation of the contents of the subject outside the classroom; 24.5% of students indicate that these actions are carried out only "sometimes" and 13.7%, which "almost never" take place. It is concluded that, in general, an effort is made in teaching because the students achieve knowledge and mastery of the contents; however, research skills such as research outside the classroom, innovative practices and the creation of new knowledge are not being sufficiently promoted. Teacher training must be in accordance with the challenges posed by today's society, so it is necessary to introduce changes in their training that contribute to the development of collaborative research skills. The initial training of future teachers can not be done outside the domain of knowledge, reflection or research; as Zabalza (2004) maintains, the challenge is to move from the simple accumulation of rote knowledge to the construction of practical and innovative knowledge.

Keywords:

Content learning, research skills, university teaching, Higher Education.