“If a student does not learn it’s the teacher’s responsibility.” This is the opinion of the educational psychologist Lee Shulman, who has inspired the training method used at the education program at Stanford University, United States, a model that the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) wants to emulate.
The Stanford method consists in training future university professors in a way that is similar to the way it is done with doctors. That is, for tutors to transfer their knowledge and experience to them. In this case, distinguished academics will guide the university’s education students.
These tutors will be trained by the PUC to promote feedback with prospective teaches and to help them to solve the problems that can emerge in schools.
What is the point of this initiative? The goal is to train teachers to have the necessary knowledge and skills, in addition to knowing how to adapt and to react to diverse cases that emerge while teaching. In other words, not just being prepared to teach children under ideal conditions, but also, for example, immature students or those with learning difficulties.
This model has aroused great expectations, which is why it has also been incorporated in the University of Michigan in the United States, considered the best teaching school in the country.
In addition, the model seeks partnerships with schools, just as medical schools do with hospitals and clinics, so as to put knowledge and theory to practice. To this end, the Chilean university has signed agreements with nine schools and expects them to total 60 in two years, all selected for having excellent teachers and results. These include the Carmela Carvajal de Prat secondary school, the Sagrado Corazón of La Reina, and San Pedro Nolasco.
In addition to this new model, the current trend is for educational establishments in Chile to prepare specialized rooms for each subject, where the students go only when they have those classes.
The idea is to renew equipment and to help motivate students. This technique is normal in other countries and it will be implemented because of its excellent results.