Universities throughout Chile network teacher training

universities

The professionals met at the University of Los Lagos in Osorno, where they highlighted the role they play and the challenges faced by initial teacher training.

With a total of ten Chilean state universities that share the challenge of teacher training, the two days of intense work began at the University of Los Lagos in Osorno. This is the State University Network for Initial Pedagogical Training (RUEFIP), made up of 16 universities that for two days addressed aspects such as: Law 20.903 that regulates access systems to university life for those entering pedagogy, reviewed the redesigns curricular and quality assurance of the courses, established a work schedule for 2018 and also dedicated a space to focus on topics such as research, postgraduate studies and innovation.

universities2“The purpose of being in a network means facing the country's challenges and with a mentality of collaboration and not just competition, we have a tremendous opportunity to carry out joint work with the network. The projection that this team has is very important where we have many challenges in the training of teachers, improving their quality and with the increasingly higher demands to study pedagogy,” said the Executive Director of Institutional Improvement and Innovation Projects of the U. of Los Lagos, Dr. Roberto Canales, recently elected national coordinator of the 16 state universities that train teachers, whose executive team is made up of Lucía Valencia, from the University of Santiago de Chile, and Roberto Viveros, from the University of Antofagasta, as coordinators of the area of ​​quality assurance, student mobility and diagnostic tests, Nicolás Hormazabal, from the U. of Talca, coordinator of the area of ​​Access to the University, and Dr. Fabián Araya, from the U. of La Serena, who is alternate executive director of the PMI of ULS Pedagogies, as coordinator of the research, postgraduate and continuing training area. 

Among the agreements, it was stipulated to begin executing micro-mobility programs between universities for the exchange of students in short periods of time, allowing them to improve their learning with field experiences of one or two weeks, recognizing among the state's universities the entry-type programs Vocation and pedagogical talent to face common strategies, share criteria and guidelines to achieve high quality standards in the training process, curricular redesigns and career accreditations, carry out educational research and postgraduate degrees in collaboration. For all this, a work plan was established with milestones, activities and academics responsible for the different universities.

“It seems key to me to be here, I would describe it as a historic opportunity that the State universities are having to work together, collaboratively for something key in the development of the country, which is the training of teachers,” said Lucía Valencia, director of the Educational Innovation Unit of the University of Santiago de Chile.

universities3Regarding the diagnosis and the crisis that Chilean education has been facing for some years, Valencia highlighted the role of public universities. “The universities have taken charge of this issue, the State universities have an interest and a responsibility to improve the training of teachers, but also because there has been an entire public policy that requires taking charge. Today there are State resources committed in this regard,” indicated the academic.

For his part, the General Director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Playa Ancha, Carlos González, said that “as a teacher training institution it is very important to be able to meet and join forces in terms of the continuous improvement that the teacher training processes should have. students and those of pedagogy, look for new strategies, new methodologies, new learning focuses so that they can be shared.” In addition, he highlighted the possibility that they have - through this network - of having an important voice before the Ministry of Education. “The idea is that this does not come imposed from the central level, but, on the contrary, that we, the universities, can generate new focuses of interest and ways of facing fundamentally regional problems,” he indicated.

During the first day of work, each of the universities presented the progress in the implementation plans of the Framework Agreements and participated in workshops to coordinate network implementation plans on topics: Access to university life, Diagnostic Evaluation, Assurance of Quality and Student Mobility. On the second day, the work plans by area were deployed and the respective evaluations were carried out.

Source: U. Press of Los Lagos