Abstract:

European universities are currently undergoing a deep transformation caused by the social and cultural changes in twenty-first-century societies. This poster seeks to analyse and describe the main difficulties found by new young lecturers at the University of Alicante (UA) during their university teaching experience. The results shown in this research stem from a comparative analysis according to their years of teaching experience at the university, which allowed us to draw a comparison between three distinct groups: less than 1 year; between 1 and 3 years; and between 3 and 8 years, corresponding to a total of 60 interviews carried out among teaching staff belonging to the categories of Ayudantes [Assistant Teachers] and Ayudantes Doctores [Assistant Teachers with a PhD]. The aim was to detect the strengths, difficulties, satisfactions and concerns related to professional conditions in the group of university assistant teachers as a whole. The accounts in their narratives describe the main difficulties in the development of university teaching, as well as their perceptions about the modifications which are being provoked by the Bologna process. At present, the University of Alicante does not have a professional training programme for lecturers who find themselves in the early stages of their teaching and research careers. In this respect, the narratives of new young teachers insist on the fact that initial training represents an important element for the first steps of university teaching and, especially, in a moment when relevant changes are taking place in the Spanish university system. In short, the main complaint among the new young teaching staff is the lack of didactic-pedagogic training. This research study finishes with the proposals and implications derived from it, highlighting the need to implement didactic-pedagogic training programmes for new young university lecturers and, especially, for the group of ayudantes [assistant teachers] and ayudantes doctores [assistant teachers with a PhD) at the UA. We equally emphasise that didactic-pedagogic training not only has an effect on teaching quality but also on the quality of student learning.

Keywords:

Higher Education, Assitant Teacher Training.