" TEACHING REQUIRES MORE AND MORE PREPARATION AND TIME BECAUSE THE WAYS OF LEARNING ARE CHANGING AND WE HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO TEACH".

Beatriz Gómez Baceiredo, lecturer at School of Communication at the University of Navarra

What advice would you give to a teacher who has just started his or her degree program?
First of all, to share with others their ideas and their vision of the students and teaching, because they can contribute a lot. Also, to be calm, to breathe (literally; at the beginning I was drowning by giving class), to be enthusiastic about what they teach, to find time to read and think, to remember their good teachers and learn from them while maintaining their personality, their differences. And when the responsibility overwhelms him, let him think that this is a work of many and of much time.

What has helped you as a teacher in the years you have been teaching?
I have been helped by the example of my teachers, past and present, talking to other teachers about what they do at class, being able to share successes and failures. I am helped a lot by teachers who love journalism and communication, who are concerned about improving the profession and making students good professionals who contribute to improving society. I learn a lot from teachers with a vocation, with the attitude of submission for free, those who trust in student and that's why they are the ones who demand the most from them.

Being a mother has also helped me - and I realise this now that I think about it -. And not because of what people think or the cliché that is attributed to us (that you have more patience and treat them like children is false) but because being a mother has taught me to focus on the essential and relativise the rest; to look for people's potential, to understand the value of example, that you can demand a lot and ask for a lot because the other person knows that you care a lot.

What do you think is the secret to a good teacher's teaching ?
I don't know. It' s not just a question of methodologies, or techniques, or even charisma or personality. I have had teachers who, by doing the opposite, have managed to make me want to learn and learn a lot. I suppose it's being so happy and enthusiastic about knowing something that you want to share it, tell others about it and make them understand it. You want student to see that you humbly do everything in your power to make them think and understand something that for you is good and necessary for their profession and their life.

What experience professor do you think works well in your classes?
Reading with the students. It's hard to believe, but something as old as reading aloud, letting them think for a while, rereading and then unravelling the meaning with them works very well. But it's not easy to find essays or stories that grab most of them, but when you do it and they themselves see that they are thinking along with the teacher and their classmates, it's amazing.

Motivation of student. How do you think this is achieved?
Maybe this is not very politically correct, but partly by taking away from entrance the supreme importance they attach to motivation and appealing to their responsibility. If they expect everything in life to motivate them, they're in for it. And also reminding them that they don't have to wait for the teacher to motivate them, they have to do their part. I will do everything I can to transmit ideas or concepts and they have to do the same: really listen, make an effort; do everything they can to learn. Based on this, I think that students (well, my students, because motivations depend a lot on the degree courses) are motivated by the realisation that what we explain to them financial aid helps them to understand something they didn't understand. The catch, of course, is that if the student thinks they understand everything because they don't ask themselves any questions, it is difficult to motivate them. That's why sometimes it works to use their questions and their inability to do something, their mistakes, to force them to look for a solution. Then they want to learn, no matter what.

In your experience staff, what is the best and worst thing about being a teacher?
The best thing is what you learn from your students, both from staff and professionally and, in my case, knowing that, even if it is just a small contribution, I am doing my bit to ensure that journalism and communication continue to be a fundamental profession. It also makes me always have my radar on to read, research, study, be curious about the world and then be able to take my doubts and discoveries to class. And, of course, my colleagues at work, the friendship, the study environment, the culture, the concern for helping others.

The worst thing: for me, that the current system causes the perception that when you correct or spend a lot of time preparing lessons, you should be doing something else, that you are doing something wrong, that you are impractical or unprofessional. The teaching demands more and more preparation and time because the ways of learning are changing and we have to learn how to teach. And this is not valued as it should be in the university teacher.

Also the rush for results. I don't know. The teacher needs time and to be trusted to be able to settle down and establish his or her knowledge in order to transmit confidence and teach with authority. But, unless you are very sure of what you do and why you do it, measurements, results, productivity, can make you lose your footing. You put in a thousand hours and you don't get everything done. Sometimes it's overwhelming.

That, and marking exams at Christmas.

How important do you think it is to coordinate with other course teachers?
Very much so. It's not easy because just coordinating agendas takes hours, but it's essential for student, because you see the relationships between knowledge and stop separating everything by subject. And it is also very enriching for us, because you learn from your colleagues, you broaden what you teach with other perspectives and you create a team.