Teachers’ perceptions of repetition in the Bachelor in Spanish and Literature at UIS

Abstract

This article intends to expand the knowledge about repetition in the Bachelor in Spanish and Literature at UIS, a phenomenon not greatly studied in the university, according to bibliographic tracing carried out prior to this research study. Specifically, it studies perceptions of teachers, both full professors and adjunct instructors, of this phenomenon. In order to do this, a series of surveys and interviews were conducted by the end of 2016. The surveys were answered by 20 teachers currently working in the program, with no distinction whatsoever, and the interviews were answered by two teachers, (one full professor and one adjunct instructor), from each of the lines of emphasis of the program: literature, linguistics, foreign language, and didactics and pedagogical processes. From the analysis of such results, and with the theoretical support on repetition, it was found that teachers, in general, thought that although repetition in the program was not very high then, the few students who repeated subjects did it because they did not have a good prior training, they had poor study habits, they skipped classes, or they did not have teaching vocation, among other causes. We concluded, then, how repetition is a multidimensional phenomenon influenced by diverse causes, and this set the precedent for future studies on university repetition, both in this and other programs at UIS.