COURSE 2024-25
The evaluation of university teaching staff and their training are intrinsically linked in a cycle of continuous improvement. Assessment identifies needs and areas for development, while training provides the tools and knowledge needed to improve the quality of teaching and, ultimately, student learning. This relationship is essential to maintain the relevance and effectiveness of the university educational system.
The strength and potential of this approach has motivated us to propose it as the essence of the training actions that we will develop throughout the 2024-25 academic year, under the motto:
“Evaluation and teacher training: continuous cycle of professional development that guarantees educational quality”
COURSE 2025-26
Universities face the challenge of rethinking and transforming their teaching practices to respond to the demands of a constantly evolving social, technological, and educational reality. In this context, university faculty training cannot be understood solely as technical or disciplinary updating, but as a reflective, collaborative process aimed at improving teaching practice itself.
From this perspective, the ICE proposes a training program articulated around a central idea: the teacher as a researcher of his or her own practice. We assume that quality teaching does not arise from the mere application of external prescriptions, but from each teacher’s ability to critically observe their actions, identify their own questions, problematize what happens in the classroom, and share this process with other colleagues in learning communities. Reflective practice thus becomes a powerful path to transformation, both personal and institutional, which breaks with the traditional isolation of university teaching and promotes a culture of interaction and dialogue among peers.
Along these lines, the focus of the 2025-26 academic year’s programming is on creating spaces where teachers can reflect on, about, and for their practice: starting from what they do, sharing it with others, analyzing it, and jointly developing proposals for improvement and innovation aligned with the real challenges of teaching. This approach is embodied in two complementary lines of action:
- On the one hand, specific courses (workshops, modules and NOOCs) that offer concrete tools to address real problems in teaching and encourage active learning among students.
- On the other hand, learning communities, understood as spaces for mutual support, exchange of experiences and co-creation of pedagogical knowledge, where teachers work together to identify common challenges, share good practices and design contextualized pedagogical solutions.
Through this proposal, we aim to contribute to a more conscious, shared, and transformative university teaching approach, serving the learning and ongoing professional development of faculty members.
Inaugural conference
Carmen Ruíz Bueno
Professor in the Department of Applied Pedagogy at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) since 2011 and coordinator of the Professional Development of UAB teaching and research staff. She holds a PhD in Pedagogy and is a principal investigator of the CIFO research group at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
She specializes in teacher professional development, evaluation, research, and innovation in the context of higher education. Her research focuses on teaching-learning processes, planning, evaluation, and innovation in education, teacher competencies and their certification, training design, educational innovation in the university context, evaluation and development of transversal competencies in the university context, teacher training in the university setting, and evaluation of the transfer and impact of training and innovation programs and projects.
She also holds a PhD in Educational Sciences with her doctoral thesis “The Evaluation of Training of Trainers Programs in the Context of Training in and for Business.” He also collaborates on teaching activities in other teacher training programs.
He has published several journals on topics related to the evaluation of training and employment programs, as well as others related to teacher training.
Reflective practice as a strategy for professional and academic teacher development
September 22nd from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Analyze the core elements of reflective practice as a strategy for teacher training aimed at academic improvement and development.
Current course offerings for teachers
IMPORTANT: teaching staff from the Alcoi and Gandía campuses. If you attend in person any training workshop organised by the ICE, we remind you that you must complete the service commission and the ICE will cover the expenses incurred. You can ask any questions at ice@upv.es