New teachers: limitations for their professional development in the Ecuadorian context

Abstract

University teaching requires quality academic training and specialization, in accordance with the learning needs of society. The objective of this research was to understand the limitations of professional development that novice teachers have in the university context. The focus of the study was qualitative, directed towards the empirical experience of novice teachers belonging to various Faculties of the Central University of Ecuador. The information was collected through an interview using a guide of structured questions, this instrument was designed based on the research objective and validated by a triangulation of experts who mitigated the different problems of researcher bias. The data was analyzed by means of the Aquad Seis program. The results showed that there are three dimensions that interfere with teaching functions, the first being the limitations of students due to the fact that they do not have sufficient prior knowledge, show little interest and have a lot of autonomous work; the second limitation is their personal conditions such as little experience and orientation; and the third institutional conditions such as few resources and overload of activities. It was concluded that novice teachers do not have sufficient academic training to solve these limitations, but they recognize them and can solve them with different actions in the short term.