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- The ethical assumptions in higher educationPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, Cristina; Durán-Sánchez, Amador; Coca, Juan R.Higher Education Institutions (HEI) have been challenged to rethink their action and to adequate their mission to new contemporary realities. These challenges have been posed by the characteristics of democratic societies which led to the expansion of compulsory schooling, increased cultural, ethnical and gender diversity of students, and also the volatility, internationalization of labour market, and by the ephemerality of knowledge caused by accelerated scientific and technological development. Considering this perspective, it is the responsibility of HEI to support the development of knowledge and skills that allows young people to make free and ethic choices, based on shared values, including respect and participation. Living in society, at the macro, meso or micro level, requires technical and scientific knowledge, enabling individuals to pursue a profession, contribute for their integration, independence and autonomy, and to contribute to the social and economic development. This requires complex competences that empowers them to take ethical decisions in their profession and in their lives, assume and share responsibilities, to respect diversity and differences of perspective, to negotiate, to build consensus and relations of reciprocity. HEIs should include these ethical assumptions in their actions and organizational practices, making visible the values of freedom, equality, equity and solidarity. The incorporation of these ethical principles becomes more challenging at micro level, in the context of the classroom. This chapter describes the ethical challenges that teacher/researcher faces during the teaching-learning process and his interaction with all the actors and how they can be applied in a teaching-learning activity. A case study is also presented, with two teachers and 40 students of an Informatics Engineering and 35 students of Basic Education programme. It highlights the importance of supporting pedagogical innovation in higher education, based on strong ethical foundations and on the development of collective learning goals and a shared vision.
- Active learning strategies for hei sustainability: a characterizationPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, CristinaHigher Education has been facing several challenges in the last decades. The increase in the number of students, the evolution of technology, globalization, budget restrictions, among others, have been influencing how Higher Education Institutions fulfil their mission and stressing the importance of sustainability. Sustainability is not restricted to resource consumption and use, including also the educational process. Adequate, active, learning strategies have the potential to contribute to the teaching-learning process sustainability, developing the sense of responsibility, the need to respect and be respected, the effort to discuss and get to the best collective decision and the development of the students’ agency. Based on a systematic literature review, this paper focuses on the analysis of the contribution of active learning strategies on the sustainability of organizations, on how active pedagogical approaches can benefit the development of the students’ knowledge. The objective of this work is to identify active pedagogical methodologies and to categorize their use in higher education. In addition, it also aims to recognize their benefits, application contexts and the factors for their effective implementation. Five main databases and index services were used, namely, Scopus, Web of Science, IEEExplore, ACM Digital Library, and Google Scholar, searching for the terms “higher education", “active methodologies” and “active strategies”, from the last 10 years. A total of 139 were retrieved in the initial search. After eliminating repeated, inacceptable and out of scope papers, a total of 48 remained, which were subjected to content analysis. The papers were categorized and analysed, with a final summarization and triangulation to extract the results. From content analysis, a set of categories and sub-categories emerged, including the description of the authors’ concept of the active strategy, the students’ assessment, learning technologies and tools, and the learning outcomes. Most papers are consensual mentioning that active learning stimulates the student to critically think about what he is learning or what he is doing. The most frequent pedagogical methodology reveals a trend around collaborative learning and problem-based learning, with significant mentions of game-based learning, storytelling, participatory action research and other techniques. However, most authors also mention that there is a set of significant challenges in the implementation of the active learning strategies in the organization. Institutional support, professional development, curricula design and the use of supporting technologies are frequently mentioned. Sustainability is a concern that is seldom explicitly mentioned, although the authors reveal that using active technologies contribute to organize the students’ study time and their attitude regarding their role in the learning process. Overall, the contribution of the pedagogical methodologies for the sustainability of HEI has to be carefully planned, in articulation with all the actors, and that can contribute to reimagine the organization as a whole.
- O impacto do ensino superior na construção do pensamento de ordem superiorPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, CristinaO desenvolvimento económico e social assenta, em grande medida, no conhecimento humano. A forma como as pessoas trabalham e se envolvem requer uma postura de aprendizagem ao longo da vida e de participação. O papel do ensino superior é fundamental, não apenas para estímulo ao desenvolvimento de competências cognitivas, mas também para o desenvolvimento de competências funcionais e sociais. Neste trabalho descreve-se a aplicação de Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) numa turma de Desenvolvimento de Software I num Curso Técnico Superior Profissional para a aprendizagem da programação, verificando-se como os alunos participam e colaboram na construção do seu conhecimento. Palavras-chave: pensamento de ordem superior; ensino da programação; ensino superior.
- Gender differences in higher education degree choicePublication . Mesquita, Cristina; Lopes, Rui PedroChoosing and enrolling in a higher education degree and, consequently, selecting a profession, is still conditioned by social and cultural factors characterized by gender stereotypes that continue to attract more men to technical and technological careers and more women to teacher training and social work. However, the nature of gender inequities changed over the recent decades, becoming more complex. This complexity can be observed in the men and women’s career preferences. Even considering that vocation influences the choices, the stability that some careers represent, regarding the immediate access to employment and to reasonable salaries also influences the options made by men and women. Besides that, literature has been highlighting that both the students’ self-perception and the perceptions about degrees and social encouragement also influences their choices. This study analyses the perception that higher education students have about themselves and the degrees they have enrolled. More specifically, it analyses the gender stereotypes that persist within themselves and their perception about the assumed affinity between gender and areas and professions. The study follows a quantitative methodology approach, using a questionnaire for data collection. The questionnaire was structured based on reference literature about gender stereotypes, gender differentiation in higher education and the values about professions. Students from 6 degrees in different areas participated in the study (social work, nursing, teacher training, engineering – informatics and mechanics and sports). Data were interpreted through a multivariate analysis with the independent variable gender and degree, to assess the differences in the questionnaire responses. There seems to exist an image of man and woman associated with some degrees and professions. Although all of the students assume a complete freedom of choice for enrolling higher education degrees, the options seem to be determined by social and gender stereotypes and also by professional stability.
- Developing sustainability awareness in higher educationPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, Cristina; Río-Rama, María de la Cruz del; Álvarez-García, JoséSustainable development is, currently, a major concern by most of the world’s nations. Since the report Our Future, by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, the pattern of resources usage has been driven by the concern of meeting the “needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. This definition established the basis for the holistic and joint preservation of the natural world, considering economic, social and environmental factors. According to the United Nations, education is fundamental for achieving sustainable development. Beyond education for environment protection, the consumers’ and the producers’ attitudes has to change towards social awareness in a long term. Higher education institutions have the responsibility, and even gain from it, to implement projects and practices that foster sustainable development as well as contribute to the development of sustainability thinking among their students. The development of these competences should also be part of the curriculum of higher education degrees, which describe the training intentionality in the curricular unit forms. These are rigorously focused around the scientific area of the program, but they also include transversal skills, that contribute to empower the student with a broader set of knowledge and abilities. This study analyses three dimensions of sustainability: the teaching curricula, the scientific production and the policies and attitudes regarding the infrastructures. The first, because of their large quantity, are analyzed through the textual content of the curricular unit forms, using text mining tools and techniques, to get an overall idea of the intentional development of sustainability thinking in a higher education institution. The second uses the same approach to assess the areas and orientation of the scientific production, available in the institutional repository. Finally, the infrastructures component, which includes energy efficiency and waste management, is analyzed through the assessment of the policies and projects implemented in this area. Although there are sustainability concerns in the institution, mainly associated to the scientific and specific component of each area, there is no holistic and transversal strategy, with a balance between the economic, social and environmental spheres of sustainability. There are still challenges that higher education institutions must face, to stimulate the sustainability awareness among their students.
- Holistic learning evidences in the supervised teaching practice reportsPublication . Río-Rama, María de la Cruz del; Mesquita, Cristina; Rodrigues, Maria José; Lopes, Rui PedroThe curricular unit of Supervised Teaching Practice (STP), of the Master programme in Pre-School Teacher Education and of the Master programme in Pre-school and Primary School Teacher Education, is organized in two main phases: the teaching practice in the adequate education levels, and the development of a final report. The final report is a document each student writes and that reflects the course of the training, the critical and reflexive attitude assumed in response to the challenges that were faced, and the processes and performance of the professional routine experiences. The document should also include a research component concerning the teaching action developed by the student. The final report is, thus, an instrument that allows multiple dimensions of analysis. The work described in this chapter resulted from the study of 62 reports, developed between 2012 and 2015, with the objective of analysing the type of teaching-learning experiences, the content areas and the pedagogical approach developed by students. A quantitative and qualitative approach was followed, using text mining to complement the analysis, due to the large quantity of text. This was complemented with content analysis to interpret the resulting data. The results reveal that students describe and analyse teachinglearning experiences in different content areas, valuing differentiated pedagogical strategies and that the reflective processes are centred in the description of the practicum, without revealing a substantial critical thinking. The final report, regardless of the weaknesses, is a valuable instrument in the training process, because it allows the development of reflection and research tools about the education practice, essential for the professional development of future teachers.
- Students` learning autonomy: a systematic literature reviewPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, Cristina; Góis, Lourival Aparecido de; Santos Júnior, GuataçaraHigher education finds a set of challenges covering several areas and sectors, resulting from the increasing number of students, their academic and cultural diversity, the demands of the labor market, among others. This massification of training, coupled with budgetary and infrastructural constraints, the uncertainty in the renewal of teaching and non-teaching staff within the requirements to maintain quality and high levels of success, requires creative pedagogical methodologies, especially in the first year, where students face the highest dropout and unsuccess ratio. In this context, Higher Education Institutions encourages teachers to reflect on these issues, providing pedagogical training opportunities and encouragement to implement alternative pedagogical practices, in order to diversify the methodologies so that they can be better adapted to different students’ profile. However, there is still no concern to help the student to organize their autonomous study time. Students have considerable difficulties organizing their personal study time. The fragmentation of the schedule, the distribution of theoretical classes, articulation with the practical learning experiences and the lack of planning of the non-classroom time aggravate the difficulties in time organization. A good organization and planning are fundamental for fostering students’ persistence, motivation and, consequently, provide the possibility for higher success ratios. This study seeks to survey the challenges faced by students and teachers in organizing autonomous study time. Based on a systematic literature review, the definition of concepts, impact of time organization in the students’ success, and the institutional concern with the autonomous learning time (non-presential hours) are researched. It is observed that the difficulty is considerable, although few initiatives are taken to help the students to achieve better organization and a better autonomous learning process.
- Evaluation of a gamification methodology in higher educationPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, CristinaThe gamification neologism is applied to using game-thinking and game mechanics to solve problems and to engage audiences. In the previous year we applied the concept in the context of the Higher Education, in the course of computer science. We used several game design mechanisms in several aspects of the learning process. A reward mechanism was central to the gamification approach, providing automatic classification of students and constant and up-to-date feedback of their progress within the course. Each chapter of the course’s content was mapped to a level, in a total of five. The student had to complete all the levels to be able to succeed in the course. Each level provided three difficult levels, which the student could choose and, according to this choice, adopt a classification grade.
- Intellectual disability in higher education: self-perceived training needs of university teachersPublication . Corbí, Miguel; Tombolato, Monica; Bueno-Sánchez, Lidia; Hermans, Katrien; Valenti, Antonella; Garcés-Ferrer, Jorge; Straniero, Alessandra M.; Brojčin, Branislav B.; Mesquita, Cristina; Bonifácio, Evangelina; Martini, Berta; Rodríguez-Cano, Sonia; Milants, Michelle; Glumbić, Nenad P.Given that only initial steps in the PSE of the students with ID have been taken in Europe, the objective of this research was to determine formative needs of the university teachers in the selected European countries with different tradition and practices of inclusive education. The sample was composed of 1009 university teachers. The instrument consisted of a questionnaire ad hoc on perceptions about the importance of different aspects of education for people with intellectual disability, and about the educational skills self-competence perception. We used a quasi-experimental cross-sectional design to administer the questionnaires by controlling as many strange variables as possible. To this end, an action protocol was developed that included solutions to the most common problems.
- Collaborative learning experiences for the development of higher-order thinkingPublication . Lopes, Rui Pedro; Mesquita, Cristina; Río-Rama, María de la Cruz del; Álvarez-García, JoséThe work presented in this article describe the conceptualization and methodological proposal for the development of two distinct pedagogical approaches. One, based on Inquiry Based Learning (IBL), is structured in phases, guiding the student through the learning process. The other is based on gamification, applied as an integrated teaching-learning strategy. It includes the definition of the formative assessment, student classification and learning experiences, which include traditional practical assignments and educational games. This study was conceptualized and applied in two curricular units of different areas, to identify the impact that these strategies have in the construction of higher-order skills, such as communication skills, critical thinking and collaboration. There are strong indicators that the intense and active role of students allows them to build strong connection to the issue in study and also to rely on team work for further in the knowledge building.