Future Teachers Program incorporates six CRUCH universities into new training cycle

With this new stage, the initiative brings together 15 universities and advances in its implementation process, projected until 2029 in the Council's institutions that offer pedagogy degrees.

The program seeks to build capabilities to integrate artificial intelligence with a pedagogical purpose in the training of future teachers.

A new group of 22 academics joined the Future Teachers Program, an initiative that promotes the development of skills to address artificial intelligence from a pedagogical perspective and transfer this learning to the training of future teachers.

This new phase includes the University of Santiago, University of Valparaíso, University of Los Lagos, Diego Portales University, Alberto Hurtado University, and University of the Andes. With their addition, the program will reach 15 participating institutions in 2026 and continues the expansion process initiated after its pilot phase.

The event marking the beginning of this new cycle was organized by the Ministry of Science and included a greeting from the Minister, Ximena Lincolao. Likewise, the Rector of the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences (UMCE), Dr. Solange Tenorio, emphasized that this new phase incorporates the experience and lessons learned from the pilot phase.

“This second cohort is the direct result of the valuable collaborative work carried out since the pilot phase, where the significant impact of learning transfer in artificial intelligence and its ethical use in the training of future teachers was demonstrated with evidence,” he noted.

For her part, the general secretary of CRUCH, Angélica Bosch, emphasized the potential impact of the learning acquired by those participating in the program within their institutions.

“It is not only about training the academics who participate directly, but also about ensuring that these skills can then be implemented in their universities and reach the training of pedagogy students,” he said.

The Future Teachers Program is being developed within the framework of a collaboration agreement between the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, the Undersecretariat of Higher Education, the Council of Rectors of Chilean Universities (CRUCH), the National Center for Research and Innovation (CENIA), and the Kodea Foundation, with the technical and academic participation of the Metropolitan University of Educational Sciences (UMCE). Its implementation is projected for the period 2026-2029 in the Council's universities that offer teacher training programs.

Scaling up training with a pedagogical purpose

According to Dr. David Reyes, academic coordinator of Future Teachers and tenured academic at UMCE, the scaling up of the program allows this discussion to be brought to those in charge of the initial training of teachers.

“This effect is potentially important for establishing discussions about how to use, what to use it for, and when to use AI, from a pedagogical perspective and from the perspective of teacher professional development,” he explained.

Based on the experience of the first cohort, Reyes pointed out that the incorporation of these technologies in universities requires going beyond specific responses and addressing their integration from an educational perspective.

“The main challenge is to ensure that AI literacy and integration are not relegated to isolated initiatives or technocratic criteria, in a task that is essentially human and guided by pedagogical criteria,” he stated.