Abstract:

An important premise of the European Higher Education Area would be that institutions should have adequate tools to ensure that teachers are qualified and competent for their job. Until a few years ago, novel lecturers were self-taught, leaving on their own the training which ensures the quality of their teaching.
However, some universities have begun to show increasing interest in providing guidelines to new teachers. Among these, University of Granada has three programs: the first led to a continuous training, the second aimed at beginner lecturers formation, and the third consisting of financing experiences and innovative projects in teaching.
In this sense, during the academic years 2008/09 and 2009/10, a mentor teacher group was established in the Faculty of Sciences for the supervision of a group of four young teachers belonging to the Chemical Engineering Area. This group carried out activities (such as seminar and training classes) related with the “Initial teacher training Course” and the project “Initial teacher training in the Experimental Sciences and Engineering Area”. During these years, activities such as the following were carried out: (1) meetings to discuss the teaching situation of each participant and to establish the working plan, (2) class observation visits for all teachers, (3) classroom observation analysis, (4) videotaping one class of each one of the teachers and (5) then view and analyze the tape record and (6) final meeting.
As a result, from both points of view of beginner and senior teachers, the experience along the two years period resulted very positive, considering above all the goodness that the collaborative work is able to add to the process of supervision and training formation. The process was also evaluated by the students by means of a questionnaire, containing several items concerning the improvement of teaching, formative plan and the effect of the activities employed on the lecture.

Keywords:

Chemical Engineering, beginner and senior teachers group, teachers formation.