Preparing new teachers for real classrooms: Challenges and solutions

Who is this webinar for?

Please note that the content of this webinar is tailored for teacher educators and teachers who are engaged in facilitating the professional development of others.

Whether you support pre-service teachers during training or mentor early-career colleagues in schools, this session is for you. The discussion will be especially relevant to those interested in improving placements, making training more realistic, and supporting new teachers during their first teaching years.

What is this webinar about?

Drawing on research from Spanish Master’s programmes, this webinar highlights the key challenges novice teachers face, including classroom management, supporting diverse learners, and adapting to evolving student needs.

We also examine how today’s learners’ needs have changed, creating new demands for teachers. Instead of presenting ready-made solutions, this session opens a space for discussion about how we, as a community of educators, can respond more meaningfully to these challenges.

What will we discuss?

Based on recent qualitative research funded by the British Council, the webinar will invite participants to consider:

• How teacher education can better reflect the complex realities of classroom practice
• Why novice teachers often feel underprepared despite completing formal training
• What kinds of support, practical experiences, and reflective spaces are needed to help new teachers succeed and stay in the profession

Through this session, we aim to build a shared understanding of how to bridge the gap between theory and practice in teacher education.

When?

Recorded on Tuesday 12 August 2025, 12.00 – 13.15 (UK time). Find out the time in your location.

About the speaker

Lorena Salud Gadella Kamstra (PhD, FHEA) works as an Assistant Professor in the School of English at the University of Nottingham. Dr Gadella Kamstra has extensive experience as an EFL teacher trainer and language teacher in Higher Education in England. She is actively involved in undergraduate and postgraduate modules in TESOL and Applied Linguistics. With a background in ELT, her research focuses on teacher motivation and demotivation and teacher education in the context of Spain. Her main research interests are in the field of teaching English as a foreign or second language (EFL/ESL), with particular reference to teachers’ experiences, their motivation, and their professional development.

Supporting material for this webinar

Pre-webinar reading

Find out more about our webinar theme with our suggested pre-reading: Bridging the gap between pre-service teacher education and in-service teachers’ experiences in Spain

Pre-webinar task

Engage with the webinar theme by completing our pre-webinar tasks:

Pre-webinar task 1
https://padlet.com/lgadellakamstra/pre-webinar-task-what-are-the-biggest-challenges-novice-teac-z1of5jx6o0kj8xj1

Pre-webinar task 2
https://padlet.com/lgadellakamstra/pre-webinar-task-what-can-we-do-to-better-prepare-teacher-tr-6ht5ibb1zeem40r0 

Important information about our events - please read

How to watch the webinar

Our webinars are free.

They take place in Zoom Events. You do not need any special equipment to watch the webinars apart from a computer with the audio on. Registration is for the full event - you do not need to attend every session. 

Registration

You should register for the event at the link provided above. In order to receive updates and a link to join the webinar, you will need to provide a valid email address. Your information will not be used for marketing purposes unless you explicitly give us permission to do so during the registration process. For more information about the British Council's privacy policy, please follow this link: https://www.britishcouncil.org/about-us/how-we-work/policies/information-security-privacy 

Once you have registered for the event, you will receive an email with:

• a link to join  
• a passcode that you will need to enter to join the webinar
• any other relevant information

Please do not delete this email.

If you have any specific accessibility requests, please contact us by email at teachingenglish@britishcouncil.org. You should say which webinar you are attending and ask us to contact you regarding your needs. 

Instructions for joining a session in the event

1. Click on the link that was emailed to you when you registered for the event.
2. Enter the email address that you used to register for the event.
3. If requested, introduce the passcode that was emailed to you when you registered for the event.
4. You will join the 'lobby'. From the lobby you can chat to other participants.
5. From the lobby you will see the session that is either currently live or soon to be live. When a session is live, you can click 'join' to watch the live session.

Webinar recordings

All TeachingEnglish webinars are recorded and available to watch on demand between 24 and 48 hours after the live webinar has ended. To view the recording of this webinar, please visit the same page on TeachingEnglish, or go to https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/news-events/webinars where you will find a list of all webinars and available recordings. Recordings will be available to watch for a minimum of six months and up to one year after the live event has ended.

Certificates

Certificates of attendance are available for all attendees. The link to obtain your certificate is provided in the following places:

• At the end of the webinar in the chat box
• In the 'Thank you for attending email' that you will receive after the webinar.
• At the end of the feedback survey once you have answered the questions.
• You should download the certificate to your computer. Once the certificate is saved to your computer, open it and type your name on the certificate. We recommend using Google Chrome or Internet Explorer to do this.

Copies of the presentation and post-webinar content

Where possible, we will make a PDF copy of the presentation available for you to download. However, for copyright reasons, this may not always be allowed. Please visit the same webinar page on TeachingEnglish after the event, where the PDF will be published, if permitted.

Code of conduct - participants

Please be respectful at all times to other participants and the presenter. Our webinars are freely available to attend by participants in all countries. Please be aware that comments you make in the general chat may have a negative impact on other participants and their enjoyment of the webinar.

Do not use insulting or offensive language or comments about the presenter or their presentation or criticise their style of presentation.

Do not use insulting or offensive language or comments towards other participants.

Do not make comments that include cultural references that may be offensive or upsetting to other participants or the presenter.

Any offensive or insulting comments will be deleted and the participant making the comment will be removed from the webinar.

Do not share any personal information in the general chat that may result in other participants contacting you. This includes addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

Do not share links to your website or any websites that you are promoting for the purposes of making money.

Comments that include links to paid-for websites for the sole purpose of promotion will be deleted and you may be removed from the webinar.

Please use the Q&A to ask the presenter questions that are related to the theme or topic of the webinar only. If participant responses to questions are permitted, you should only make comments that are relevant to the question being asked.