Dr. Thomas Prola, Project Manager at the Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER) and co-coordinator of the DigitalTA project, presented the results of the project to 37 students of the Primary Education and Early Childhood Education degrees of the University of Barcelona (UB) and to 5 mentors of the Institute for Professional Development (IDP-UB) at the Mundet campus of the UB on March 17.
Throughout the presentation, Dr. Prola explained the project in depth and reviewed the steps DigitalTA has taken since its inception in 2022. The aim of the project is to facilitate the transition of newly qualified teachers to the world of work, as well as to establish a community and support system, while addressing the issues identified in the research phases of the project.
According to the answers given by the newly qualified teachers surveyed, the most common problems they faced when entering the job market were: classroom management, individual teaching support, interpersonal skills (communication, time and stress management), digital technologies, professional collaboration, understanding the school culture, curriculum support and planning. In addition, Dr. Prola also highlighted how a hierarchical work environment poses a problem for young teachers as they try to adapt.
Through the review of existing literature, the researchers detected a common problem in teaching: “We realized, from Europe, that one in three teachers leaves the profession before five years of work.
How does the platform work?
Within the platform, users can share their experiences publicly or privately, and Dr. Prola asked students to formulate a question and construct a case study under his supervision, to be published at the end of the month on the platform. This serves to foster a sense of community and support among young teachers, and also to unify the teaching experience in Europe. The researcher explained that this has been one of the long-term goals of the European Union with projects such as DigitalTA, with the aim of unifying European education in all countries. Users can choose how they want to share their experiences and case studies on the platform, whether through text, images, podcasts or video.
“In these case studies, you can translate it into Spanish, or you can read it in English,” Dr. Prola said as he explained more mechanisms found within the platform. “And they are usually experts or people with more experience, who publish a success case, an experience, to be able to share with the community, and give possible tools.”
The objective of having these tools is to further connect the community and allow them to share ideas, solutions and problems. Dr. Prola fi asked the students to break into groups and choose a case study to discuss and seek solutions. This exercise served to help students explore and use the DigitalTA platform, as well as to practice ways to use the platform to their advantage. The tool, which is still under development, has over 1,000 users and is scheduled for completion in May.
Those interested in the DigitalTA project can obtain more information through its website.
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