Abstract:

The project entitled “FAR-MENT: Mentorship Program as a Training Tool to Improve the Teaching Capacity of Novel Teachers in General Pharmacology Applied Practices” was newly developed for mentoring new lecturers who teach practical classes in the subject of General Pharmacology corresponding to the 3rd year of the Pharmacy Degree, as well as the Double Degree in Pharmacy-Human Nutrition and Dietetics of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Complutense University of Madrid. Teachers of the Pharmacology, Pharmacognosy and Botanics Department of the aforementioned Faculty teach this course. Thus, experienced faculty members coached new teachers to help them face the challenges imposed by the complex and demanding teaching task. Continuous guidance was provided to enhance their teaching competences as well as to promote their personal and professional integration into the institution, leading to a high quality and active teaching community.

The methodology consisted of periodic meetings focused on detecting the needs of the novel teachers and accordingly collecting, reviewing, and selecting supporting teaching materials. This teaching material was then used to write an updated and improved practical guide, in which content was coherently integrated with the theoretical program of the subject. Novel teachers were encouraged to attend classes taught by different senior teachers to acquire new and appropriate teaching strategies. Likewise, experienced teachers were encouraged to attend the classes taught by the mentored teachers to support and evaluate the novel teachers' needs. The results obtained have been qualitatively evaluated, being very positively valued by both parts. The participants as novel teachers highlighted the improvement and updating of their knowledge, the acquisition of new pedagogical strategies, the self-confidence gained, as well as their personal and professional integration as members of the Department. Besides, a new and improved guide of exercises for General Pharmacology has been developed which it is freely available as an Open Educational Resources (OER) in the Complutense University repository. Finally, is our intention that this pilot project be established in our Department, being extended to other subjects. In the future, a larger number of participants will allow for an accurate quantitative evaluation of the degree of efficacy and success of the FAR-MENT project.

Keywords:

Mentorship, novel teachers, practical classes, General Pharmacology, Open Educational Resources.