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

• Autores: Octavio Mattasoglio Neto, Rui Lima, Diana Mesquita
• Localización: The International journal of engineering education, ISSN-e 0949-149X, Vol. 35, no. 4, 2019, págs. 1129-1140
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The objective of this work is to present a co-construction process of an Engineering curriculum, which used different activelearning approaches to motivate students by addressing realistic problems faced by engineers, right from the beginning of theprogram. Idealized by the rectory of the institution, in a top-down decision, the new curriculum established certain guidelines forthese new approaches. In a bottom-up contribution to the curriculum, teachers had to devise, implement and conduct activities. Atan early stage, these activities were classified into three types: Projects, Engineering Practices, and Workshops. To analyze theimplementation of this new curriculum, a qualitative approach was used during and data were collected through interviews, focusgroups, and questionnaires. The results indicate that teachers who devised the activities played an important role in determiningseveral aspects aimed at formalizing the new curriculum in a co-construction process, increasing the accuracy of the ideas presentedin the idealization phase. Despite the benefits of these experiences, the results suggest that the potential of the new curriculum wasnot entirely fulfilled at this initial phase, particularly regarding the development of soft skills. Therefore, adjustments are needed totake full advantage of the changes.