Challenges and proposals for initial teacher training in the virtual classroom

Abstract

The purpose of the innovation project presented in this paper is to strengthen and enhance the value of initial online teacher (men and women) training as a driving force for social change. In this sense, two main lines of action or objectives are proposed, which in turn are specified in secondary objectives and a series of specific tasks, which are relevant for the initial teacher training in online environments. The first one addresses the need to train professionals with a clear critical and reflective profile, who are aware of the social and moral responsibility of the teaching profession. The second one, on the other hand, aims at reinforcing and optimizing the external internship period, being this a decisive moment in initial teacher training.

This innovation project was launched in January 2021 and will last for one year. It involves a multi-disciplinary team of teachers from different teaching areas (pedagogy, psychology, geography and history, linguistics and literature) from the Faculty of Health Sciences and Education of the Universidad a Distancia de Madrid, UDIMA. In this way, and through eminently practical action-research methodology which focuses on the virtual class, the members join synergies for collaborative work. The first results of this project aim at the need to change methodological and teaching resources in initial online teacher training.