Teacher Training's Needs in University Context: A Case Study of a Chilean University of Applied Sciences

Abstract

Frequently, the teacher training programs in Chilean universities are designed from a generic vision of pedagogical competencies (not necessarily specialized for a particular discipline) and in form of face-to-face activities. The new demands of the society and the economy, the constant specializations of the scientific fields, and the incorporation of new technologies for teaching and learning make that the typical contemporary forms for the teacher academic training must be reviewed and analyzed. The main goal of this paper is to present the results of a survey about teaching needs on Engineering Pedagogy in engineering departments of INACAP (a Chilean university of applied sciences). In general, the in-strument and indicators seek to obtain information about: (i) needs/demands related to engineering didactic fundamentals, (ii) requirements for the structuring and assessment of teaching-learning processes in a university context, (iii) requirements for the design and evaluation of face-to-face as well as online teaching-learning activities in engineering, among others. The project was led by the International Center of Engineering Education (CIEI) at the University of Talca (Chile) in cooperation with the academic staff of INACAP at the Talca campus, under the pedagogical support of the Technische Universität Dresden (Germany), Faculty of Education. Based on these research results and on the IGIP Curricula, a teacher training program for the academic staff of the engineering schools in online modality was designed and implemented.