Call for papers closed

Manuscript submission deadline: December 31st, 2012.

Traditionally, universities have been an amplifier of social, scientific, cultural, political, and economic conflicts. Although always slowly –we cannot forget that the mission of universities is to conserve the so-called scientific knowledge and to avoid unsubstantiated fashions and fads– the universities have managed to adapt many situations and contexts, meeting the demands of each time.

However, universities have rarely been faced to times as turbulent as the current ones, characterized by a deep global crisis of the academic model (incursion of ICT, based-on-competencies curriculum, mobility needs, accountability, etc.), of the economic model (global deficit, bankrupt states, failure in economic markets, etc.), as well as of the socio-political model (student protest movements, the emergence of radical ideologies, etc.). In the context of this maelstrom, it seems surprising that university teachers (e.g., professors, lecturers, teaching fellows) are still in many cases former students, with little or no training preparation. University teachers often move from learning in the classroom, as students, to teaching others, as educators. Their teaching commonly draws on their own mostly implicit conceptions about the meaning and sense that learning and teaching their own subject matter have.

Call for papers closed

Traditionally, universities have been an amplifier of social, scientific, cultural, political, and economic conflicts. Although always slowly –we cannot forget that the mission of universities is to conserve the so-called scientific knowledge and to avoid unsubstantiated fashions and fads– the universities have managed to adapt many situations and contexts, meeting the demands of each time.

However, universities have rarely been faced to times as turbulent as the current ones, characterized by a deep global crisis of the academic model (incursion of ICT, based-on-competencies curriculum, mobility needs, accountability, etc.), of the economic model (global deficit, bankrupt states, failure in economic markets, etc.), as well as of the socio-political model (student protest movements, the emergence of radical ideologies, etc.). In the context of this maelstrom, it seems surprising that university teachers (e.g., professors, lecturers, teaching fellows) are still in many cases former students, with little or no training preparation. University teachers often move from learning in the classroom, as students, to teaching others, as educators. Their teaching commonly draws on their own mostly implicit conceptions about the meaning and sense that learning and teaching their own subject matter have.

Fortunately, there is an increasing awareness of the importance of helping prospective teachers develop their teaching competencies, as well as a growing recognition of the role of university teachers (although the recognition of the teaching role is much lower than that of the researcher role). Interest in establishing fairer evaluation systems has also increased. Seniority is no longer considered the only evaluation criterion.

Different mechanisms to help university teachers improve their teaching competencies have been adopted by many universities: hosting plans for beginners, courses and seminars (mandatory and optional), self-analysis of own teaching practice, portfolios and professional journals, communities of learning, workshops intended to exchange good practices, micro-teaching, problem-based learning, and so forth. Such mechanisms have been implemented in a diversity of ways: conferences and sporadic lectures, continuing education seminars, specific master and doctoral programs.

This variety of initiatives, though, has rarely been examined under rigorous research conditions aimed at describing, explaining, comparing, and/or optimizing the proposed training systems, procedures, and experiences.

Infancia y Aprendizaje's Editors consider that this is the perfect time to focus on original research addressing the topic of university teachers' teaching training.

Research proposals

Proposals should address the interactions that occur between all those psychoeducational variables –cognitive, emotional and/or dialogic– that constitute and are shaped by the new teaching and learning contexts at the university level. We will privilege those manuscripts that address both functional and structural aspects of university teaching training, those focused on both intraand inter-psychological factors, as well as those that seek in-depth and lasting changes in the conceptions, feelings, and/or teaching practices of teaching teachers at the university/college level.

Encouraged thematic areas

We are particularly interested in receiving research manuscripts on university teachers' preparation addressing, among others, the following issues:

• University teachers' professional identity, narrative identity, self-biographical identity, identity/ies in-action. Identity as a learner and as a teacher.
• Analysis of professional teaching paths through various methodological devices (stories and professional journals, peak experiences, critical incidents, etc.).
• Change of roles, concepts, teaching strategies and/or emotions of university teachers.
• Teaching competencies and psycho-educational knowledge of the university teacher. Teacher learning.
• Modalities and alternative methods for training university teachers. Mentoring and peer tutoring in university teacher training. Programs based on events and critical incidents.
• Assessing the quality of training systems of university teachers.
• Professional networks for collaborative and cooperative development of teaching
competencies at the university/college level.

We are less interested in manuscripts focused on: a) Excessively local approaches; b) Theoretical issues, with no data that support the proposed innovations and/or claims; c) Management and administrative issues, or based on institutionalized accreditation systems.

Manuscripts are to be submitted in Spanish or English.

Editor: Dr. Carles Monereo. Co-Editor of Infancia y Aprendizaje.
Professor in the Department of "Psicologia Bàsica, Evolutiva i de l'Educació." Facultat de Psicologia. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain). Vice-coordinator of the Inter-University Master and Doctorate in Educational Psychology (MIPE-DIPE: http://www.psyed.edu.es/mipe/)
Coordinator of the research group of recognized quality, SINTE (www.sinte.es)

Manuscript submission deadline: December 31st, 2012.

Publication date: September 2013 (volume 36/3)

Author guidelines

The complete manuscript should not exceed 7,000 words or 44,000 characters. Submission will be made exclusively online through the RECYT online platform (manuscripts cannot be submitted by postal mail). Please visit our electronic address: http://recyt.fecyt.es/index.php/IyA/login
View the full author guidelines