DIGITAL LIBRARY
FIRST COACHING EXPERIENCE AT THE FACULTY OF PHARMACY (UNIVERSITY OF GRANADA)
University of Granada (SPAIN)
About this paper:
Appears in: ICERI2009 Proceedings
Publication year: 2009
Pages: 1453-1459
ISBN: 978-84-613-2953-3
ISSN: 2340-1095
Conference name: 2nd International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation
Dates: 16-18 November, 2009
Location: Madrid, Spain
Abstract:
INTRODUCTION
This is a novel initiative at the University of Granada where the senior experienced lecturers aid in the formation, advice and integration of young lecturers. The coaching is supported by the petition of starting lecturers who asked for an adequate formation in teaching and communication skills that will complete their specific training in the specific areas where they are specialists. The team was formed by four expert lecturers and six starting lecturers from the departments of Physiology, Pharmaceutical Technology, Pharmacology, Food Science and Nutrition and Microbiology.

OBJECTIVES
1. To improve the teaching-learning process, which will benefit the starting lecturers, the senior ones and the University of Granada.
2. To learn the institutional working of the university.
3. To upgrade the professional and personal development.
4. To transform the teaching starting period in a shared responsibility and to eliminate single working.

EXPERIENCE
It was selected the technique of IMPROVEMENT CYCLES. The followed steps were:
Planning interview (meeting between experienced and starting lecturers)
It was established the initial program of activities to be performed: attendance of experienced lecturers to the lessons of the starting ones, identification of the necessities of each starting lecturer, making of questionnaires for the evaluation of the starting lecturer performance by the students and self-evaluation questionnaires.

Observation
Attendance of starting lecturers to the lessons of the experienced ones.
Video recording of the starting lecturers lessons.
Attendance of starting lecturers to a lesson of a senior lectured who received a prize of excellence in teaching.
In order to obtain evidences it was used the questionnaires, the joint viewing of the recorded videos and the annotations obtained after each observation of the experiences lecturers.

Results analysis
Detected needs after the self-evaluation questionnaires and observation of the teaching activity of starting lecturers
- To learn to inspire the critical spirit in students and to transmit the interest about the subject.
- Improve the use of teaching materials.
- To control the movement along the classroom.
- To proportion the voice tone in every moment and the speed of the lessons
- Difficulties in techniques for students evaluation
- Decrease the use of common tags
- increase the self confidence
- Implement visual scanning during the lessons

Achievements acquired after the improvement cycle
In the case of the starting lecturers
To start and finish the lessons with a little review
High control over the use of common tags, visual scanning and movement along the class
Improvement in the voice tone
Improvement in the inspiration of the critical spirit in students

In the case of the students
Diagram supporting
Dynamic feed-back lecturer-student
Clarity along the exposure
Practical application of the lessons
Final review of the contents
Satisfactory methodological and didactical strategies

CONCLUSSION
The experience has been a reciprocal learning process between experts and starting lecturers, where it has been established different improvements in the teaching activity in order to develop new competences that finally will benefit to the students.
Keywords:
coaching, starting lecturers, expert lecturers, educational innovation.