The keys to understanding the role of the collaborating teacher

Currently, more than one hundred teachers collaborate with the UC Educational Network, initiative promoted by Faculty of Education of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile to establish an active link between the academic world and the school system. The initiative, which already brings together some 50 network establishments in the Metropolitan Region, seeks enhance the pedagogical practices of the students of the faculty.

The future teachers of the faculty from the first year of their degree approach the school system at the hands of this network of schools and the collaborating teachers. The objective? that students from an early age can develop authentic job skills with the help of the professionals enrolled in this support network.

This year the university wanted to recognize the work of nine educational establishments for their commitment to the training of young people. The professor of the Faculty of Education UC, Magdalena Muller, explains the importance of feedback in this context, which involves both the collaboration of teachers and the learning of students from the different Pedagogy careers.

Why is the role of the collaborating teacher important?

Their role has several dimensions, but a very relevant one is to achieve coherence with the training, explains the academic. “The collaborating professor is the most authentic experience that students have, in which they put at stake whether what they learn at the university can be applied or not”, comments and adds that if there are no role models that “incarnate what they are learning at university, it is difficult for them to disassociate themselves from what they bring from their school life. In this case, what they learn at university becomes something theoretical that works only in the academic context, but not in practice.”

For the academic it is essential that the practitioners embody what they work on in the courses and that this is an example of the type of strategies, generative practices, discussions, classroom interactions that generate learning. At the same time, he states that this serves to provide feedback on the content that emerges from the Faculty of Education and test whether it works to meet the needs of teachers, "as well as to know how effective the training is, that is, how prepared they are our students to face what pedagogical relationships are at an authentic level”.

Feedback between teachers and future teachers

Feedback, according to Magdalena Muller, will be generated between teachers and future teachers when the latter put their knowledge into practice. “For example, they have told us (collaborating teachers) that they lack preparation in leadership strategies or in managing relationships with students. Likewise, they have few resources to work with proxies,” The UC academic points out and adds that from the faculty they have tried to include a training path that has to do with communication with parents.

In turn, he explains that students work with interview simulations in the event that they cannot have them in the authentic context, which is the school. In this sense, they are little by little observing a meeting of parents, then taking charge of a segment of the meeting, to finish directing the results that are possible thanks to the feedback of the teachers in the schools and the simulation opportunities that it gives them. UC College of Education.

On the other hand, the academic pointed out that students are interested in generating value in the disciplinary management of classroom interactions and in the management and implementation of routines and learning environments. All these skills are gradually built and learned, which also works as feedback so that students arrive with better transition routines, instruction, and stress management.

"A feedback What is also important is how our students are developing tools to take charge of diversity in the classroom. They tell us that this is an aspect that they have to work harder on, so we work on it by nurturing the team regarding the specific needs they are facing when they are exercising their professional practice", comments Magdalena Muller and adds that in In this sense, disciplinary training, innovation, capacity, ideas and commitment stand out.

The importance of practical experience

 The academic from the Catholic University pointed out that the important thing about developing an internship is that these experiences "are closely related to daily work in establishments where you have a lot of time and where you leave your mark," adding that in the “In kindergarten programs, students go for a semester, but those who come later stop at the work of others and leave their mark on the establishments. It is a way of working together from which we wanted to set scaling challenges, that is, not only work with some schools, but rather that this way of working be extended to others”, she highlighted.

In this sense, for Magdalena Muller, the number of years does not weigh as much as the quality of experienceTherefore, they allow students to carry out their practice in establishments that represent the concept of collaboration. “These experiences generally have to do with the challenges of the school, from which the collaborator and student work together with the support of the supervisor, who solve problems and can implement tools, digital practices, work models, scenic art, etc ”, He indicated and emphasized that from UC Education they wanted to highlight different academic disciplines and that they were not only language and mathematics, but also different areas and programs were addressed.

“The idea is that teachers can go out and see that this is what is valued,” the expert highlighted, “and for those who do not have that experience, those who have not had that level of collaboration with students, they can see that there is this potential and that this level of collaboration can be reached, in which students really influence what happens in interaction and learning in schools.”