The challenge of Educating in the Beginning of XXI Century: Demands from Social Sciences Students to University Teaching

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe how students from the Social Sciences Faculty at Universidad de Chile conceptualize a "proper teacher". After verifying the low production of Chilean studies about the subject, six focus groups with students of this faculty were created and analysed. The results indicate that student's demands are wide, diverse, interconnected, and focused on different aspects from traditional contents expertise. For students, it is particularly important the teacher's ability to be a clear and expert communicator, a stimulus, a fair assessments producer, a facilitator of participation and a confidence spaces builder. Finally, a discussion about the position from which students establish their demands, as well as the challenges this expectations present to universities and to country are discussed.