Teacher training through the Regression Model in foreign language education

Abstract

In the last few years, Spain has seen dramatic changes in its educational system. Many of them have been rejected by most teachers after their implementation (LOGSE) while others have found potential drawbacks even before starting operating (LOCE, LOE). To face these changes, schools need well qualified instructors. Given this need, and also considering that, although all the schools want the best teachers but, as teachers’ salaries are regulated by the state, few schools can actually offer incentives to their teachers and consequently schools never have the instructors they wish. Apart from this, state schools have a fixed salary for their teachers and private institutions offer no additional bonuses for things like additional training or diplomas (for example, masters or post-degree courses) and, therefore, teachers are rarely interested in pursuing any further studies in methodology or any other related fields such as education or applied linguistics. Although many teachers acknowledge their love to teaching, the current situation in schools (school violence, bad salaries, depression, social desprestige, legal changes and so) has made the teaching job one of the most complicated and undevoted in Spain. It is not unusual to have a couple of instructors ill due to depression and other psychological sicknesses. This paper deals with the development and implementation of a training program based on regressive visualizations of one’s experience both as a teacher as well as a learner.