Could a kind of spanish medical residency program be proposed for future teachers?
Experts at Education discuss professional challenges at a roundtable organized by the School of Education and Psychology.
The first year students of "Theory of Education" had the opportunity to hear first-hand from experts who spoke to them about the future of what, in a few years, will be their profession.
Pedro González, from committee Escolar de Navarra, Mª del Mar Ayllón, official of the High Inspection of Education in Navarra and Juan Luis Fuentes, professor at the International University of La Rioja(UNIR), presented their perceptions and experiences about the future of the Education by Concepción Naval, dean of the School of Education and Psychology of the University of Navarra.
Pedro González assured that "there is no 'quality' educational system without 'good' professionals. In our country, perhaps there is no social awareness of what it means to be professor", and he invited students not to remain in how they are seen -often as people who enjoy long vacations- and to be more aware, if possible, of the importance that their profession will have as "educators in the construction and development of a better society. We should think about selecting the students who will study teaching with a previous test , a kind of spanish medical residency program, as it is done in Finland, where the grade cut-off is very high and the selection is not only limited to the university entrance exam but also to personality tests".
For her part, Mª del Mar Ayllón remarked on the importance of not only technical preparation, but also human preparation, staff. "We are professionals who also educate with our behavior and we have to assimilate our training work in depth".
A Education professional is someone who dedicates himself to his work without a strictly economic purpose. Jobs related to Education, medicine or law involve an ethical commitment: "being a good person has a significant influence on their practice," said Juan Luis Fuentes. In fact, "you teach more by what you do than by what you say" and he encouraged students to transmit the truth and to encourage them to seek it.
In the question and answer session it became clear that without the partnership of the family, the work educational is very difficult, if not practically impossible.