LEARNING HOW TO TEACH: THE EXPERIENCE OF A NOVICE TEACHER

The first teaching experiences at university are known to have a huge impact in the overall performance of the teacher in the future. Therefore, a good initial training that especially guides the beginner to the first teaching tasks is remarkably important. Many Spanish universities have implemented programmes to train the newly-come teachers. This is the case of the University Jaume I (Castellón). Hence, the objective of this study is to analyse the programme of training and mentoring addressed to novice teachers promoted by this Spanish university, highlighting my own experience as a novice teacher and recent participant in this initiative. Furthermore, and as part of the training programme, I explain the teaching improvement developed in my second year at the university. After the analysis, I stress the positive impact that my participation in all the stages of the programme has reported me, and the positive effect of the improvements carried out compared with the first year. Finally, I emphasise the great importance of these training programmes for novice university teachers, and I encourage them to participate in these initiatives to overcome the limitations that beginner teachers encounter in Spain due to our limited pedagogical training.