In Seminar they address the challenges of beginning teachers in their first years of employment

teachers seminar 1

The day was led by Sylvia Rittershaussen, professor of Foreign Language Didactics and University Pedagogy at the PUC, and Nelson Vásquez, academic vice-rector of the UCV, who guided the attendees on how to strengthen their professional development in school establishments.

The Seminar for Beginning Teachers of the ULS “Challenges for quality professional performance and insertion into the school system” was held in the Pentagon Hall of the University of La Serena, organized by this study house together with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso and aimed at teachers who graduated from Pedagogy in History and Geography and Pedagogy in Basic General Education.

In this seminar, whose purpose was to promote professional reflection on one's own performance in schools, the main challenges for quality professional performance were addressed, through the presentation of research results and professional development workshops.

The day included the holding of the workshops “Activating and Systematizing my professional insertion experience” and “Performance evaluation as a professional development strategy”, led by Sylvia Rittershaussen, Master in Educational Sciences at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and professor of Foreign Language Didactics and University Pedagogy at the Faculty of Education of the PUC, and Nelson Vásquez, Doctor in Didactics of History at the University of Barcelona, ​​academic vice-rector of the Catholic University of Valparaíso and professor of Didactics of History from the Institute of History of the UCV, authors of the Fondecyt research project “Beginning teachers: challenges of professional insertion”.

Both academics presented the main results of this research and guided those present on how to strengthen their professional development in school establishments. The Mg. Sylvia Rittershaussen pointed out that the seminar is part of research and its purpose “is to gather from beginning teachers their appreciations, experiences and experiences regarding this early professional insertion, and on the other hand, to provide spaces for reflection and sharing these experiences.” with a view to proposing projections of the needs and challenges that arise in this phase of professional development. Because one of the elements that has been seen is that this initial phase is a stage after training, where a process of professional development begins that I believe never ends.”

teachers seminar 2Regarding the development of these investigations, Dr. Nelson Vásquez explained that it is a line of work that is now in its sixth year. “We realized, through the practices, that we had to investigate something about the insertion, the incorporation into the school system of our teachers when they graduated. We saw that in Chile there was little literature and research on what was happening to these young teachers who joined the school system after leaving the universities," said the academic, adding that "we did not know the academic challenges, what they had to deal with. "I found this graduate when he joined a school community where he had to begin to share with other teachers and generate learning with the demands that any teacher has today." 

During these workshops, the teachers who graduated from the ULS answered questionnaires and then shared their experiences in groups and projected ways of supporting and addressing difficulties, in order to mitigate them. These experiences and forms of support were also contracted with what the literature says. 

Linking with alumni

The director of the Department of Cs. Social of the ULS, Dr. Fabián Araya, highlighted the presence of alumni of the institution and pointed out that “in education it is very difficult to work alone, you always need to work collaboratively, form teams, networks. (…). When Dr. Nelson Vásquez approached us, together with the dean of Humanities, with the idea of ​​being able to develop this workshop, linking the efforts of the UCV, the PUC and the ULS, we immediately thought of this, a network, a work that helps us, first, to link up with alumni, and secondly, to work together with other institutions with which we have the same concern in the training of teachers.” 

The dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Dr. María Zúñiga, and the director of the School of Ped were present at this activity. in History and Geography, Mg. Sandra Álvarez, Ped's career coordinator. in Basic General Education (La Serena), María Ester Álvarez, academics and teachers who graduated from the state campus.