Approach to competences, human development and higher education

Tendo como fundamento a psicologia do desenvolvimento humano, apresenta-se, neste artigo, uma ampliação conceitual à compreensão de competência. Esse é um termo polissêmico, com multiplicidade de concepções epistemológicas, éticas e ideológicas que imprimem complexidade aos processos formativos, especialmente em relação à formação pessoal e profissional na educação superior. Defende-se a noção de competência ancorada na mobilização intencional de diversos recursos próprios ao desenvolvimento humano: processos psicológicos, comportamentos, conhecimentos, afetos, crenças, habilidades, escolhas éticas e estéticas, que devem ser mobilizados pelo sujeito. Apresenta-se, a partir dessa ampliação, uma categorização de competências transversais e possibilidades para sua avaliação. A reflexão pode fundamentar uma atuação crítica de psicólogos e educadores para a mediação do desenvolvimento de competências dos atores do ensino superior.Grounded on human development psychology, this paper presents a conceptual expansion of the understanding about competence. This is a polysemic construct, with a wide range of epistemological, ethical and ideological concepts that reinforce the complexity of training processes, especially in relation to personal and professional training in the context of higher education. This paper defends the notion of competence rooted in intentional mobilization of various resources inherent to human development: psychological processes, behaviors, knowledge, emotions, beliefs, aptitudes, ethical and aesthetic choices that the subject must mobilize. From this conceptual expansion, a categorization of transversal competences and possibilities of assessment are presented. Analyses can support critical actions of psychologists and educators to mediate the development of competences of higher education actors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Development of competences while solving real industrial interdisciplinary problems: a successful cooperation with industry

The development of projects in industrial context constitutes an exceptional opportunity for engineering students to develop competences expected by the labour market. Therefore, the adoption of this type of interaction within engineering curricula is highly recommended, not only at the end of the degree, but also in the previous years. The main purpose of this paper is to present and analyse a Project-Based Learning (PBL) semester in which six teams of Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) students integrate different areas of knowledge, while solving real problems of five companies, emphasizing the technical solutions developed by the students and the feedback provided by the companies. Students' feedback will be also addressed. The main outcomes of this study reveal that most of the technical solutions lie in areas of Lean applications and ergonomic improvement of workplaces. Companies were very pleased with the results of this type of University-Business Cooperation (UBC).This work was funded by COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio