**Abstract**

The aim of the chapter is to present how the monitored beginning teachers perceive the influence of undergraduate training on their first years of teaching and what possibilities can be traced based on this to improve the quality of the undergraduate training of future teachers. Thirteen beginning biology teachers with experience ranging from 1 to 5 years were followed. For data triangulation, an elementary school teacher with a completed sixth year in practice without approval with biology and student teachers as part of the focus group were interviewed additionally. Data were obtained through in-depth semi-structured interviews and were analysed using grounded theory. The results show that teaching practices are considered the most valuable component of undergraduate training preparing for a future profession; however, pedagogical practices are included late in undergraduate training and therefore cannot effectively help reduce the "theory-practice" gap in teacher education. Linked to this is the proposal to experience university teaching, for example, through micro-teaching or discussions of real school situations. Thus, they can help to meet the needs of beginning teachers with different experiences, and by mitigating the shock of practice, accelerate the professional teacher development, as was graphically represented by means of intersecting triangles.

**Keywords:** novice teachers, undergraduate training, professional development of (future), "theory-practice" gap, evaluation of undergraduate training, school reality

### **1. Introduction**

Beginnings in a new job are challenging for all professions, and the teaching profession is no different. A beginning teacher enters his new job with certain ideas and expectations. He has plans, goals and dream goals that he would like to achieve. However, it is not always possible to fulfil them, which novice teachers perceive as a difficulty. The nature of difficulties can be different, just as their causes are different. Although the causes of difficulties cannot always be clearly identified, it is possible to divide them into two main categories. According to Johnson et al. [1], the first of them can be classified as inappropriate or insufficient support from the management and staff of the school. The second category includes undergraduate training that does not provide novice teachers with all the necessary skills, see, for example, Jensen et al. [2], which gives rise to distorted ideas about the functioning of the school; this can lead to reality shock and dropping out of school [1, 3]. This text discusses the second category of causes.

The topic of novice teachers is widely discussed in the literature (e.g. [4–7]; however, in the context of a certain rate of departure of (not only) novice teachers to other professional spheres, we consider research in this area still relevant. This study therefore addresses the question of how well novice teachers are prepared to manage teaching in the context of undergraduate training. Our goal is to reveal and explore those places of undergraduate training that show problematic aspects, and at the same time to present proposals of novice teachers to support such undergraduate training that allows novice teachers to more smoothly influence and integrate with the school reality.
