Changing an engineering curriculum through a co-construction process: A case study

The objective of this work is to present a co-construction process of an Engineering curriculum, which used different active learning approaches to motivate students by addressing realistic problems faced by engineers, right from the beginning of the program. Idealized by the rectory of the institution, in a top-down decision, the new curriculum established certain guidelines for these new approaches. In a bottom-up contribution to the curriculum, teachers had to devise, implement and conduct activities. At an early stage, these activities were classified into three types: Projects, Engineering Practices, and Workshops. To analyze the implementation of this new curriculum, a qualitative approach was used during and data were collected through interviews, focus groups, and questionnaires. The results indicate that teachers who devised the activities played an important role in determining several aspects aimed at formalizing the new curriculum in a co-construction process, increasing the accuracy of the ideas presented in the idealization phase. Despite the benefits of these experiences, the results suggest that the potential of the new curriculum was not entirely fulfilled at this initial phase, particularly regarding the development of soft skills. Therefore, adjustments are needed to take full advantage of the changes.The authors thank all teachers and students whokindly participated in this research.This work was partially supported by projects COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, from Portuga

The construction of the project evaluation concept in a team of teachers

The school is the setting where students seek knowledge. In turn, it is extremely important to measure the knowledge obtained, without that, there is no parameter to know the effectiveness of the work performed. It is necessary to overcome the traditional evaluation system, which is composed of tests, work, seminars, which but often is not aligned with all the dimensions of the desired learning. The inadequacy of the evaluation process is due to the fact that learning goes beyond the specific technical knowledge of the disciplines, which is not always well understood by teachers, so that the transversal skills students need to develop in school are not adequately assessed. The competences necessary to the modern professional require the restructuring of the evaluation process, aligned with strategies and new learning objectives. In particular, for transverse skills, it is necessary to identify indicators to measure student’s learning at the school process. In order to promote the improvement on the process and evaluation instruments, an engineering school have been organizing a work with a group of teachers, to analyze and reflect on objective and ways of evaluating the students. They are workshops in which teachers are too, encouraged to create rubrics for these assessments. The aim of this work is to identify the perception of the teachers about the evaluation process in projects, as well as to identify what instruments that they propose to evaluate the transversal skills in the engineering student’s qualification. To the school, there is the interest to develop rubrics that become the standard of evaluation of projects developed by students. The question is how to promote an assessment to measure and gives feedback to the student about the development of transversal competences?.Este trabalho foi parcialmente suportado pelos projetos COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 e FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, de Portuga

Class dissatisfaction and intelligibility of PBL

In the context of changing strategies, many teachers are challenged to leave their teaching models and switch to others that bring concepts and principles that often do not meet the previous model in teaching. This change is not trivial, because at the slightest sign of weakness in the new model, there is a tendency to return to the previous model experienced for a long time and even if it proves unsatisfactory, it is a safe haven for the teacher. In this work, data regarding satisfaction with previous teaching models and the intelligibility of teachers about new teaching models that provide for the use of projects will be presented. This is a complement to the work previously presented at PAEE. The teachers' previous conception of a model to structure the PBL will be raised based on data obtained in two stages from a questionnaire conducted with different groups of teachers. The results indicate that the basic principles of PBL are known and understood by teachers, though the same give it a peculiar structure, changing the order of the steps in relation to the standard models of PBL. Teachers also realize the advantage of using PBL, that is, there is the belief that the use of this strategy can contribute to learning. At the same time, there is resistance to the use of these strategies, which may be associated with the doubt that new models can be positive to promote learning.To the teachers that kindly responded to the research. This work was partially supported by CNPq - National Council for Scientific and Technological Development - as scientific initiation sponsorship, and partially supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - within the R&D Units Project Scope: UIDB/00319/2020

The perceptions of faculty engaged in a curricular change to project based learning in an engineering school at Brazil

The curricular change of an engineering school had as guideline the partial replacement of traditional school activities by Projects and Workshops, which put students as the main protagonists in the learning process, working actively. In this context, faculty were encouraged to propose activities that fulfil this request. Teachers from various specialties and even those who work in more advanced disciplines have submitted their proposals, which were offered to freshman students of an engineering course. The opening of the new curriculum began in 2015 when those activities were introduced in the course. The aim of this study is to know, analyze and evaluate the perception from teachers engaged in create these Projects and Workshops to this new curriculum. The survey was conducted from two focus groups, one with teachers’ proponents of Projects and other with teachers’ proponents of Workshops. The results show that the teachers attribute different meanings to the goals, strategies, evaluation and their own role in the process, though all the activities aim to ensure a common basis on engineering knowledge, which reflects the inductive character chosen in the curricular change.This work has been partially supported by projects COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER- 007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, from Portugalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Introdução à engenharia como disciplina estruturante do primeiro ano de um curso de engenharia / Introduction to engineering as a structuring subject of the first year of an engineering course

Este trabalho discute a disciplina Introdução à Engenharia (INTENG), oferecida a todos os alunos ingressantes nos nove cursos de engenharia do Centro Universitário do Instituto Mauá de Tecnologia – CEUN/IMT. Atualmente estruturada na forma de um PBL – Project Based Learning, a disciplina é aquiapresentada desde sua concepção até sua implantação e os primeiros resultados obtidos neste 1º semestre de 2017. No contexto do ciclo básico dos cursos de engenharia, a disciplina INTENG compõe um dos dois eixos de condução da 1ª série, a saber: Profissional e Formativo de Habilidades Específicas, que se completa com o eixo Motivacional e Formativo de Habilidades Transversais.

Making a project-based learning curriculum: the curriculum and the ideal formal curriculum

O objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar os resultados da análise das concepções de dois protagonistas de uma reforma curricular que está sendo implementada numa escola de engenharia. A principal característica do novo currículo é o uso de projetos e oficinas como atividades complementares a serem realizadas pelos estudantes. As atividades complementares acontecerão em paralelo ao trabalho realizado nas disciplinas sem que haja uma relação de interdisciplinaridade. O novo currículo está sendo implantado desde fevereiro de 2015. Segundo Pacheco (2005) há dois momentos, dentre outros, no processo de mudança curricular, o currículo “ideal”, determinado por dimensões epistemológica, política, econômica, ideológica, técnica, estética, e histórica e, que recebe influência direta daquele que idealiza e cria o novo currículo e, o currículo “formal” que se traduz na prática implementada na escola. São essas duas etapas estudadas nesta pesquisa. Para isso serão considerados como fontes de dados dois protagonistas, um mais ligado à concepção do currículo e outro da sua implementação, a partir dos quais se busca compreender as motivações, crenças e percepções que, por sua vez, determinam a reforma curricular. Entrevistas semiestruturadas foram utilizadas como técnica de pesquisa, com o propósito de se entender a gênese da proposta e as mudanças entre essas duas etapas. Os dados revelam que mudanças aconteceram desde a idealização até a formalização do currículo, motivadas por demandas do processo de implementação, revela ainda diferenças na visão de currículo e a motivação para romper com padrões na formação de engenheiros no Brasil.The aim of this paper is to present the results, from point of view of the two protagonists, of a curricular reform, which is being implemented in an engineering school, . The main feature of this new curriculum is the use of projects and workshops as complementary activities to be performed by students. These complementary activities will take place beside the work done in the disciplines of the course without an interdisciplinary relationship. The new curriculum is being implemented since February 2015. According to Pacheco (2005) there are two steps, among others, set in the curricular change process, the curriculum "ideal", given by epistemological dimensions, political, economic, ideological, technical, aesthetic, and historical and receiving direct influence of one who idealizes the new curriculum and, the 'formal' curriculum which translates in practice implemented in the school. These are the two steps studied in this research. For it shall be deemed as data sources, two main protagonists of the curricular change, one of them that brought the first ideas about the curriculum and other one, who has been responsible of its implementation. From these participants, it’s trying to understand the motivations, beliefs and perceptions that, in turn, determine the curricular reform. Semi-structured interviews were used as research technique in order to understand the genesis of the proposal and the changes between these two steps. The data shows that changes have taken place from ideation to the formalization of the curriculum, motivated by demands of the implementation process. It also shows differences on curricular point of view and the motivation to break with patterns in the training of engineers in Brazil

Active learning strategies to develop research competences in engineering education

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to implement and evaluate active learning strategies to support engineering students in the development of research competences, contributing to the growing need for a closer relationship between research and teaching.Design/methodology/approach - This study was developed using an action research approach. The data were collected through observations, questionnaire and focus group in order to evaluate the active learning strategies used in the context of the study, based on students' perceptions.Findings - The results show that the implementation of active learning strategies, such as research-based learning and think-pair-share enhance the development of research competences, namely critical thinking and written communication. Additionally, this approach enables students to develop further their capstone projects, using the standards demanded in research process.Research limitations/implications - The study was based mainly on teacher's observation and the participants are undergraduate engineering students enrolled in the course "Scientific Methodology" during 1 academic year.Practical implications - Two levels of implications can be identified in this study: (1) for teachers' practice, who can adapt the step-by-step descriptions of the implemented approaches and (2) for research, contributing to the discussion about how to explore the teaching-research relationship in undergraduate courses.Originality/value - The course of "Scientific Methodology" is part of the curricular structure of most undergraduate engineering programs offered by Brazilian Higher Education Institutions, and this study is a contribution for the improvement of knowledge on how this course may be conducted in an effective and engaging way.This work was partially supported by FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the R&D Units Project Scope UIDB/00319/2020