“The diagnosis of the need for change is evident. People notice. What cannot be precisely defined yet is which path to take. Maybe there are several different paths. The important thing is that teachers, realizing the need, articulate and get involved. The institution's role is to provide guidelines for action, to provide the means, but the person who will understand the problem and propose the solution is the professor”, pointed out Carlos HC Ribeiro, vice-rector of Undergraduate Studies at the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA), in lecture this Tuesday (21), at EA2 at Unicamp. The event took place within the scope of the RenovaGRAD Program, of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies (PRG) at Unicamp, which offers support to undergraduate coordinators and promotes debate on teaching activities and curricular proposals.
When opening the event, rector Marcelo Knobel highlighted the importance of collaboration with ITA in reflections on engineering education. The partnership has been developing since 2012, when Knobel and Ribeiro formed a delegation that went to Boston to study the subject, with resources from Capes. “The enthusiasm produced by the course among teachers so that they paid attention to teaching was very great”, reported Ribeiro, observing the impacts felt at his institution.
“When you have a unanimous number of students with problems in a subject, or with a certain curricular structure, it becomes clear that there is a problem in the offering”, highlighted Ribeiro. According to him, this perception is the basis of the changes underway at ITA. “This does not mean that teachers should seek 'revolutionary' methodologies. Often simple modifications to the structuring of the discipline or the routing of the activity plan are sufficient,” he said.
The reforms carried out at ITA, according to the professor, included making the curricula more flexible, incorporating student projects, substantial changes in the functional progression model and mainly convincing the teaching staff about the need to rethink the teaching process- learning.
“The ITA experience shows how creating a culture of change makes people see the process as a necessity, not as an imposition from management. It doesn't happen from one day to the next. Like all institutional change, this one needs time. Our time is now ideal to bring experiences from various institutions, helping our teaching staff to reflect and realize the possibilities for change and improvement”, stated Eliana Amaral, dean of Undergraduate Studies at Unicamp.
According to her, there is a formal demand from PRG for all undergraduate courses at the University to review and improve their curricula and learning strategies by 2020. “Curriculums need to approach the application of knowledge, with teamwork and inter and transdisciplinary projects that allow us to reflect and propose paths to problems in the world around us, in the communities in which we operate”, he highlighted.
At ITA, one of the measures in this regard was the implementation of a laboratory, now linked to two disciplines, dedicated to engaging students in the development of projects with socioeconomically needy communities. According to Ribeiro, they are prepared in collaboration with communities and based on their demands. “As an engineering project for beginners, it is very interesting, because it does not require very in-depth theoretical knowledge, considering that it needs to be easy to implement and maintain. At the same time, it gives students the opportunity to live and communicate with a social and cultural stratum that may be very different from their own”, he highlighted.
The development of communicative and teamwork skills in students is also a concern here at Unicamp. According to the dean, it is essential to have a clear definition, for teachers and students, of the skills expected of graduates from each course, which should guide the curricular proposals and the development of the courses. “There is a curriculum defined by the Ministry of Education and, in some cases, such as engineering, there are regulations from the councils themselves. But we need to be clear about the profile of the engineer we want to train at Unicamp. An engineer who reflects, discusses, interacts and is capable of proposing solutions or improvements needs solid basic training and other skills that equip him to deal with knowledge and use it in a qualified and creative way. We are at this moment of rethinking, exchanging ideas between the different courses at Unicamp itself and with partner institutions, in Brazil and abroad”, she highlighted.
