The researchers from the Center for the Study of Policies and Practices in Education, Jorge Manzi, director of MIDE UC, David Preiss, director of the UC School of Psychology, Valeska Grau, academic of the aforementioned School, Sergio Martinic, vice dean of the UC Faculty of Education, and Lorena Medina, academic from the macrounit, were the speakers on this day.

In a Pentagon Room full of teachers and administrators from the region and various parts of the country, as well as academics, students and researchers in education, the Seminar was held: How do our teachers teach?, organized by the Faculty of Humanities of the University of La Serena and the Center for Studies of Policies and Practices in Education (CEPPE), of the Catholic University of Chile. In the activity, prominent researchers from this last university presented research that quantifies and describes what teachers do in the classroom, what are the most frequent routines and what practices are most effective among Chilean teachers.

At the conference, the CEPPE researchers, Jorge Manzi, director of MIDE UC, presented with “What do the evaluations of teachers and pedagogy graduates tell us about professional preparation?”; David Preiss, director of the UC School of Psychology, with “Learning to look at the classroom”; Valeska Grau, academic at the UC School of Psychology, with “Teaching improvement through the use of class videos”; Sergio Martinic, vice dean of the UC Faculty of Education, with “Dialogue and typical classroom activities for learning”; and Lorena Medina, UC Faculty of Education academic, with “Pedagogical practice for teaching initial reading and writing.”

At the meeting, the speakers explained what the research reveals about the main features of teaching practices, the context in which they occur and their consequences on student learning. Furthermore, they identified the implications of these investigations for the initial training of teachers, as well as for their professional development.

“For us it is a very great enrichment opportunity that this team of researchers can share some of the results of the research that is part of a CEPPE research program. This center's mission is not only to develop research, but also to share it with those who are the main recipients of it, who are the ones who do the educational work day by day in the classroom," commented Jorge Manzi, who added that the line of research of this group of academics “has precisely to do with better understanding what is happening in Chilean classrooms with the purpose of extracting from that information lessons, suggestions for educational policy, but also for initial teacher training.”

Present at the Seminar were the academic vice-rector of the ULS, Dr. Jorge Catalán, and the dean of Humanities of the state campus, Dr. María Zúñiga, who highlighted the high attendance at this event and the opportunity to have this group of researchers in the University and in the region.