Engineering, a course of men: does the inversion of this trend remain?

Commonly, there are more men than women seeking engineering courses, even though, with some common exclusions as for health related engineering courses.Recently, Higher Education in Portugal has faced deep changes, particularly regarding the number of students, the growth of the educational network and the courses' curricular structure. There is an association with the increase in the number of women attending Portuguese Higher Education Institutions and the vast augmentation in the number of students.To investigate whether these changes have also changed the preferences of women/men in engineering courses, options and admissions, from 2010 to 2014, in fifteen engineering courses of a Portuguese University, were studied and the conclusions of that work published [1].In this paper we revisited that work and extended it with data from 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 and we studied, for each course, the number of applicants and the number of students placed (by gender), the application option and the average grades of the admitted applicants.As a result of this analysis we verify that in courses with male predominance, the female gender increased significantly, unlike what happens in the other two courses (female predominance), where the values remain almost constant.This work has been financed by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Academic success in 1st-year engineering students: key factors

This work-in-progress research to practice paper analyzes how previous personal, social and academic variables converge in the explanation of students' academic performance, during the 1st year of Engineering courses. A sample of 737 1st year students of Engineering courses in a Portuguese public university was considered. Students age ranging from 16 to 41 years old (M = 18.29, SD =2.01), having entered the university with a GPA ranging from 154.6 to 200.0 (M =154.60, SD=18.10). Two measures of academic achievement were taken into account in this study: the number of subjects/curricular units successfully completed at the end of the 1st semester, and the average of the marks obtained in the approved curricular units at the end of the 1st year. In terms of predictors, we considered sex, age, parentś academic education, course and university option and access GPA. The regression analysis shows that GPA and sex have a higher impact on academic achievement. These data deserve attention from institutions and professors since some students access their courses without the necessary level of academic competencies, motivation and vocational career definition which justifies the need for diagnosing and levelling students' background and personal characteristics. It is also important because several students are not in their first option institution/course, which also impacts their adjustment process to the University.This work is financed by Project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T – Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia Têxtil, and by CIEd–Research Centre on Education, project UID/CED/01661/2019, Institute of Education, University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT

Academic expectations for engineering freshmen: Gender differences

Faced with some massification, it becomes relevant to know what academic expectations the students present upon their entrance in the university. These expectations, reflecting aspirations and perceptions of self-efficacy in overcoming the difficulties inherent to the transition, are considered as a determinant variable of the degree of involvement, adaptation and academic success of students, throughout the first semester in higher education. We applied a questionnaire to the first-year students. The results obtained indicate that all students formulate high expectations regarding their university attendance. The expectations for a career or employment are those that reach higher scores, suggesting the strong association that students make between course attendance and future employment. Female students present better study methods, in secondary education, and anticipate less difficulties with their transition to university. They are better at fixing and completing study schedules, finishing their work within the fixed timeframes, and making prior plans.FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the projectPOCI-01-0145- FEDER-007136; FCOMP- 01-0124-FEDER-022674info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Specialization courses: new university target

The implementation of the Bologna Process in the Portuguese Higher Education system led to deep changes at this education level. In order to harmonize and to level the Portuguese higher education with other European countries several measures were determined, including access expansion, especially for new target groups. Among others the +23 year olds students and Technology Specialization Courses (CET) are considered new target groups. CET´s Students quota are new at this level of education, so a study was carried out to understand the evolution of these new target group courses in Engineering and Technology, at University of Minho. For such, a data survey of students that entered through this quota was used and their academic path analyzed. These students have expectations, motivations and different backgrounds in comparison with other students. Understand their performance in higher education may help to answer adequately to the needs of this new target group

Inferência das Propriedades de Algodão Através de Técnicas de Data Mining

Nos últimos anos, o desenvolvimento tecnológico tornou possível a medição das diferentes propriedades físicas das fibras de algodão, tais como, comprimento, micronaire, grau de uniformidade, alongamento, resistência, cor e grau de impureza. Estes dados são obtidos através da utilização de instrumentos HVI1, proporcionando resultados rápidos e fiáveis. No entanto, no que diz respeito ao estudo das propriedades químicas, os resultados são obtidos usando métodos laboratoriais mais demorados e dispendiosos. Este conhecimento é bastante importante, pois as propriedades químicas afetam fortemente o processo de transformação das referidas fibras. Neste estudo, são usadas várias técnicas de prospeção de dados (data mining) disponíveis na ferramenta Clementine. A prospeção de dados consiste num dos passos do processo de extração de conhecimento em bases de dados (DCBD), processo que tem como principal função a descoberta de relações e associações entre conjuntos de dados. A ferramenta inclui técnicas avançadas de modelação baseadas em inteligência artificial, extraindo dos dados possíveis relações complexas existentes, bem como regras de associação entre eles. Este artigo descreve o estudo efetuado utilizando o Clementine na análise de dados relativos a propriedades físicas e químicas da fibra de algodão. Os resultados atingidos apontam a forma como as técnicas de prospeção de dados podem ser usadas para assim estabelecer, de forma eficiente, relações que caracterizem as propriedades físicas e químicas das fibras

Implicações da supervisão de estágios no processo de (auto)formação dos professores cooperantes

O estudo visa perceber que implicações, ao nível dos processos de autoformação dos professores cooperantes, pode ter a presença de professores estagiários na sala de aula; verificar, por outro lado, no decurso da prática supervisiva, quais os aspectos do sistema de supervisão que têm mais implicações na atitude reflexiva dos professores cooperantes e que aspectos da organização dos estágios contribuem para a reflexão e mudança das suas práticas. Recorreuse a um vasto referencial teórico de autores que tratam do pensamento, da teoria e da prática reflexiva, da reflexão na acção e sobre a acção, da supervisão pedagógica e utilizou-se como suporte para a secção da análise e interpretação dos resultados a teoria de Dewey, Nóvoa, Perrenoud, entre outros. Na metodologia recorreu-se ao paradigma qualitativo, utilizando-se como estratégia a entrevista semi-estruturada aplicada numa primeira fase individualmente a cinco professores cooperantes e uma professora tutora e posteriormente uma entrevista colectiva de aprofundamento (“focus group”) a todos os professores cooperantes. Os dados apontam para o facto de a formação contínua de professores, a partir do exercício de supervisão, constituir um excelente momento para o treino da prática reflexiva. Esta prática reflexiva é baseada na revisão e no aprofundamento de conhecimentos resultante da introdução de novos elementos na sala de aula, reuniões, seminários, debate de ideias e práticas, atitudes e questionamento, visão crítica e mutabilidade dos processos e procedimentos de aprendizagem

Price Discrimination under Customer Recognition and Mergers

This paper studies the interaction between horizontal mergers and price discrimination by endogenizing the merger formation process in the context of a repeated purchase model with two periods and three firms wherein firms may engage in Behaviour-Based Price Discrimination (BBPD). From a merger policy perspective, this paper's main contribution is two-fold. First, it shows that when firms are allowed to price discriminate, the (unique) equilibrium merger gives rise to significant increases in profits for the merging firms (the ones with information to price-discriminate), but has no effect on the outsider firm's profitability, thereby eliminating the so called "free-riding problem". Second, this equilibrium merger is shown to increase industry profits at the expense of consumers' surplus, leaving total welfare unaffected and, therefore, suggesting that competition authorities should scrutinize with greater zeal mergers in industries where firms are expected to engage in BBPD.Behaviour-Based Price Discrimination, Customer Poaching, Horizontal Mergers

um processo de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento organizacional? Estudo de caso numa escola do 1º ciclo do Ensino Básico

O presente artigo incide sobre uma das dimensões de um estudo de caso, realizado no âmbito de uma tese de mestrado, sobre a prática pedagógica supervisionada numa escola do 1.º ciclo do ensino básico. Numa abordagem sistémica, procura-se percepcionar e compreender concepções e representações dos sujeitos da investigação com o objectivo de conhecer o impacto da supervisão da prática pedagógica de alunos da formação inicial na aprendizagem e desenvolvimento organizacional desta escola. O tratamento e interpretação dos dados do estudo empírico sugerem uma ténue potenciação deste dispositivo supervisivo no contexto organizacional, apesar de a instituição já acolher estagiários há mais de uma década. Ainda assim, manifesta-se abertura para recuperar esta oportunidade até ao momento desperdiçada e intencionalizar futuros dispositivos de supervisão da prática pedagógica no sentido do desenvolvimento ecológico da escola e da edificação de uma comunidade que aprende e constrói conhecimento sobre si própria

Perceived employability and career adaptability of engineering graduates

The new demands of the labor market have led to the emergence of more comprehensive and complexes employability models, including not only a set of skills determining employability but also a subjective dimension that integrates personal beliefs and attitudes. Besides that, there is also evidence that individuals' psychological resources, namely in terms of career adaptability, are significantly associated with further employability. In this paper, we present data on the perceptions of employability (four dimensions: my university, my study field, the labor market, and self-efficacy) and on the adaptability resources (concern, control, curiosity and confidence) of master's final-year students (n=362), comparing a group of engineering students with students from other study fields (Social Sciences and Humanities and Economics). Regarding the perceptions of employability, the obtained results demonstrate that engineering graduates present more positive perceptions in the dimensions of study field and of external labor market, comparing with their colleagues from other fields. Concerning career adaptability resources, the differences are reversed, with engineering students with scoring lower in the dimensions of concern and confidence.This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia [SFRH/BPD/92331/2013] and by CIEd – Research Centre on Education, projects UID/CED/1661/2013 , UID/CED/1661/2016, Institute of Education, and Project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T – Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia Têxtil , University of Minho, through national funds of FCT/MCTES-PT

A negative binomial model for student allocation to higher education in Portugal during the Post-Bologna process

The primary goal of this paper is to model the student allocation in the Portuguese public higher education system, namely in academic engineering programs for the Post-Bologna period. This work follows the results obtained for the Pre-Bologna period. The data used refer to the years 2007 to 2015 and most of them are available online, provided by the Portuguese Ministry of Education. By estimating student allocation through the negative binomial regression model, we have concluded that the results are similar to the results already obtained for the Pre-Bologna period. That is, the model had a satisfactory performance for the data in study.A. Manuela Goncalves and Raquel Oliveira were supported by the Research Centre of Mathematics of the University of Minho with the Portuguese Funds from the "FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia", through the Project PEstOE/MAT/UI0013/2014. This research was financed by Portuguese.Rosa M. Vasconcelos was supported by the Foundation through FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia, within the Project UID/MAT/00013/2013, by FEDER funds through the Compctitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPET and by national funds through FCT within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136