Universidade do Minho. Centro de Investigação em Educação (CIEd)
Abstract
This paper presents the students’ perceptions about the interdisciplinary project implemented in
the first year of the Integrated Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) at
the University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal. This project was supported by four curricular units
(UCs): General Chemistry (GC); Calculus (C); Introduction to Industrial Engineering (IIE) and
Computer Programming 1 (PC1). In order to collect data on the perceptions of students regarding
their participation and motivation on 2011/2012 edition, a questionnaire with 46 closed items and 3
open questions was developed and applied to 35 students and the results discussed on a final
workshop. Based on the results of the research, the final workshop shows that the students
recognize the benefits of Project Based Learning (PBL) as a learning methodology, its contribution
and motivation to development of competences and skills for future career and the importance of
teamwork. However, the findings showed that the roles of teachers and tutors must be reviewed as
well as the grade’s weight of project related with UCs. Furthermore, students also pointed out some
additional constraints during the project, namely: time required for the project; the integration of
UCs’ contents in the project and the effort put in the project and its impact in final grades
