SENA, Galeno Jose 1, AKAMATSU, Janio Itiro 1, BITTENCOURT, Rosa Maria 1, GONCALVES, Maria Auxiliadora Ribeiro Fortes 1, VELASCO, Angela Dias 1, OLIVEIRA, Pelopidas Cipriano 2 & TORRES, Germano Lambert 3
1 C.P.205 CEP.12500-000 Guaratingueta-SP-Brazil -
UNESP Univ. Est. Paulista - Faculdade de Engenharia, gsena@feg.unesp.br, akamatsu@feg.unesp.br, rmbitten@feg.unesp.br, cti@feg.unesp.br, avelasco@feg.unesp.br, http://www.feg.unesp.br
2 R. Dom Luiz Lazagna 400 - Sao Paulo - SP -
Brazil - UNESP - Univ. Est. Paulista - Instituto de Artes, altemar@ia.unesp.br, http://www.fca.unesp.br/ia
3 C.P. 50 CEP: 37500-000 Itajuba-MG-Brazil - EFEI
- Escola Fed. de Eng. de Itajuba - Dept. de Eletrotecnica,
germano@iee.efei.br, http://www.efei.br
Abstract: We have been working at UNESP - Brazil, on a project in which one aims to support new methodologies capable of satisfying the requirements of the modern world, as well as the objectives of the Brazilian Law of Guidelines and Basis for Education. The expected impact of the project is the improvement of the public technical education, the familiarization of the teachers with the new technologies, in special those ones related to the use of Multimedia, and the reformulation of the curriculum, with a view to improve the quality of the teaching-learning process. To accomplish an applied research on the real problems of the technological teaching, there are two public schools of the state of Sao Paulo - at the secondary level - involved in the project. In its development, three teams have been working together: (i) the research team, responsible for managing the investigations towards the improving of the quality of technical education; (ii) the teaching team, responsible for planning and applying the developed prototypes, and (iii) the support team, to help with the development and application of the didactic modules. The proposal of project consists on several phases, such as: diagnostic (evaluation) of the schools involved in the project, establishment of activities to achieve the project goals, training of the teaching and support teams, and development of prototypes using use the new technologies. Later, some of the developed products - prototypes, methodologies, etc - can be made available somehow. Up to now we have been working on the first steps of the project proposal. In this paper we intend to present a description of the project, commenting the training activities the teachers involved in the project have been submitted to, in order to get themselves prepared to the adoption of the new paradigm, as established in the project proposal.
Keywords: training, technological education, paradigm, teaching, learning
The University, as institution in the current days, has to search innovative solutions that allow to generate quality knowledge, with enough capacity to transfer them with efficiency to the society. Inside this position, the Engineering College of Guaratingueta, UNESP, considered to develop a research project aiming the technical schools and having as string master the improvement of the quality of the teaching-learning pedagogical process, through new methodologies and tools that take care of the biggest possible number of pupils and educators in a lesser space of time, considering the challenges of the new Law of Directing and Basis for National Education (LDB) in searching for changes and innovations in the educational models.
The choice of the subject of this research had its origin in the confluence of several factors: perception of its social relevance, academic, interest, inexistence of resembled design, chance of its boarding on account of the change of technical teaching, possibility of employment of the academic experiences and the waited impact in the productive system.
There is nowadays, in several educational institutions, a discussion about the exploration of new forms of providing teaching and learning, in flexible and efficient ways, having the technology each time more, as the central part of this discussion. Some examples of experiences that focus on the teaching-learning under this new vision are: University of Manchester [1], Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute [2]; The Western Governors University [3]; Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology [4]; Laboratory of Multimedia, FINEP/REENGE, Mathematics Department of the Campus of Guaratingueta - UNESP [5]; Future School of the University of Sao Paulo - USP; Long-distance education -Vanzolini Foundation [6]; Multimedia Applied to the Engineering Teaching, UNESP - Guaratingueta/Bauru/Ilha Solteira [7].
Although the last objective of the project is the generation of new methodologies for the improvement of technical education, it is not ignored and it is preponderant the continued formation of the educators as one of the strategic axles to reach the proposal goals.
The present article emphasizes the question of the continued formation of the educators as one of the phases of the project accomplished through training activities. The training is considered one of the main conditioning for the indispensable adequacy of the professional technique schools to the requirements of the end of the millenium. The introduction and propagation of new technologies provoke significant modifications in the way of executing the work, demanding, consequently new criteria and parameters for the professional qualification. Therefore, it directly conditions the way by which the professional formation is being structured.
With the implantation of the new LDB, approved in 1998, and in front of the necessary innovations for the improvement of the public education, in special the technical education, the project, that is financed by FAPESP (under grant 97/10855-9), has for purpose to form professionals not only to consume technologies and yes, learn to learn, contributing effectively to the progress and social technological development. The project, implanted in June 1998, has a challenge to search and develop new pedagogical methodologies, using innovative technologies, including in its development tools of the Quality, the search of efficient solutions that become this education of Quality, enabling the citizen-worker to face the world of the work and its mediations.
Using tools of Quality [8], the project has as objectives what follows:
To characterize an appropriate form of implantation of new pedagogical methodologies that lead to the operative and interactive knowledge, using technologies of computer science in general and, in special, resources of multimedia.
To reformulate the techniques applied in classroom and laboratories for the transmission of knowledge.
To capacitate teachers in the use of the available technologies: microcomputers, educational softwares, TV and video, camcorder, projectors, among others, taking advantage of these technologies in a form coherent with the pedagogical proposal.
To evaluate the impact of the use of new methodologies, tools and of the capacitating activities applied to the teachers in the improvement of the quality of the technical education.
Three teams are involved in the development of the project, to know; research team, partner schools team (teaching team) and support team. The research team is formed by 6 (six) researchers, who will participate in all stages of the project: diagnosis of the school partners, planning of the project, conception and production of the pedagogical-didactic material, application of the material, training of the teachers of the partner school, evaluation of and/or reflection about the learning process of pupils and teachers of the partner schools, analysis and future application of the project results. One should stress that the research team is formed by professionals from different Units (Campus) and Departments of the UNESP, coming from different areas of knowledge, such as: Education, Engineering, Architecture and Communication.
Two are the involved schools in the project, assigned of partner schools. The first one, The Industrial Technician College of Guaratingueta - UNESP (CTIG), has four technical courses of 2nd degree that function in integral period, forming technician in: Mechanics, Electronics, Electro-electronics and Industrial Informatics. The second one, The State Technique School "Prof. Alfredo de Barros Santos"-CEETEPS (ETE "Prof. Alfredo de Barros Santos") forms technicians with the following qualifications: Mechanics and Security in the Work; Assistant Technician in Mechanical Drawing; Modality of Supplementary Education - Professional Qualification I in Machines and Electric Controls; and, in Technician in Drawing of Mechanics Designs, Security of the work and in Mechanics.
The team of the partner schools is formed by two Coordinators, one for each one of the schools, and by scholarship holder teachers of these schools. In the total this team is composed of 16 (sixteen) members, being twelve from the CTIG and four, from the ETE "Prof. Alfredo de Barros Santos". The teachers will be able to participate in the project in one or more semesters. The foreseen devotion is of 10 hours/week The methodological proposals enclose the programmatic contents of the disciplines (subjects): Basic Electricity and Electronic, Digital Systems, Drawing, CAD, Design, Industrial Electronic, Industrial Electro-technique and Industrial Electro-electronics.
The support team is constituted by a Computer Science Technician and two scholarship holders (trainees) developing a technique training program. These will have to assist in the production of didactic material, and give support in the training and application of the developed material. Undergraduate students will also have the chance of participating in the project developing research-oriented activities .
With respect to the methodology to be followed, it was adopted in this project the method of management of the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Action) in the solution of Problems because of the high degree of involvement, commitment and cooperation of all. With its ideas, principles and practices, the method of PDCA considers an integrated, "globalized" and holistic vision.
One characterizes, in the sequel, how each one of the phases of the method will be implemented in the context of the project: PLAN: after the accomplishment of the diagnosis, the ways, disciplines, contents, prototypes that take to the improvement of the teaching-learning process will be chosen. DO: improvement proposals will be executed in experimental character, in differentiated topics of some disciplines (subjects) chosen during the previous phase. It will be collected information related to the settled goals. CHECK: information about the experimental execution will be collected, through questionnaires, interviews with teachers, pupils and, depending on the discipline content and the period of application, companies, analyzing and comparing the obtained results with the longed-for objectives. ACTION: actions will be accomplished in order to correct deviations detected in the previous phase.
The new methodologies of teaching to be generated by the project, using technologies that are different from those ones used in the traditional education, will constitute the prototypes of the project. Thus, a prototype is understood as being a preliminary model consisting of a set of computational tools, didactical practices that, in conjunction with the educator, must contribute to the improvement of the education quality. The prototypes are implemented using the PDCA cycle to manage this process. The prototypes will be constructed using:
Softwares of presentation,
Computerized didactic material that exists in the market, and
Proper didactic material.
Until the present moment two laboratories have been implanted, namely:
a Laboratory of Development/Support, used for the elaboration of didactic material, using the softwares, acquired for the development of the project, and
a Laboratory of Users, used for classes based on the prototypes under implementation, and also for training activities directed to the teachers of the partner schools. In reform and adequacy, the reserved area for the project will count with (beyond the Development and User Laboratories) a special classroom for classes with the use of videos, projections, slides, etc., a room for the support team, a room for Drawing/Design, and a small Laboratory of Instrumentation.
The project will be developed in two years, following several phases, in which the quality tools will be used when appropriate. The four first phases are summarized in the following:
Diagnosis and analysis of the current situation of the partner schools and of their necessities in front of the requirements of the work market and of the implantation of the new LDB.
Detailing of the project considering the results obtained in phase 1.
Training of the support team.
Training of the partner school teachers, development of the first prototypes using essentially softwares for presentations, application and analysis in a routine situation of education.
The first phase foreseen for the project had a greater involvement of the two coordinators of the partner school teams. As they had full knowledge of the reality of the respective schools, they had been responsible for the survey and systematization of the data for the composition of the diagnosis. This provided to the research team the knowledge of the reality of the involved schools and became possible the spreading of the project in the environment of these schools. Moreover the disciplines (subjects) that would have initially to be assisted, were identified, considering the context of University where the design is being developed, as well as the available resources and the formation of the scholarship holder teachers. The activities to be developed in phases 3 and 4 have then been detailed taking into account the results of the diagnosis.
With respect to the activities of training, these have been specially directed to the scholarship holder teachers and had initially the objective to level them with respect to basic knowledge of computation. Following, several training activities have been programmed and applied which will be presented more ahead in this article.
At the moment, didactic prototypes are being developed using authorship, presentation and specific (as of animations, video, etc) softwares, emphasizing differentiated topical of the considered disciplines (subjects), recognized as of difficult learning by the students. The application of these prototypes for the students was already initiated, and this will be followed by a process of evaluation in view of the objective of continuous improvement.
In the development of the project, four principles of the planning guide the actions executed by the group: quality (in relation to the PDCA), evaluation (process of continuous improvement), computer science (adoption of new technologies) and communication (spreading).
The deficiency in all levels of professional qualification, the exaggerated dependence of imported technologies, the acquired knowledge that day by day is becoming outdated, the time of duration of the professional formation many times extreme and for times insufficient demand from the Brazilian educational proposals a better and greater scientific-technique base when it is longed the social, political and economical development of the country. In this way, it is expected that the educator "stimulate the participation and the interest of the pupils, leading them to a new degree of understanding and knowledge in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor plan"[9]. In this sense, nowadays, the teacher has to develop in his pupils the capacity of reflection and critical analysis, creativity and self-improvement, for a greater understanding of the diversity of Brazilian reality. In this way, he has obligation to be the first one to put in practice these guidelines that allow a greater cognitive domain, associated with the capacity to identify and to solve problems when knowledge is intimately related to the professional practices (experiences) and to the manual and daily ability of the professionals.
To plan the activities of the project that are part of the phase of the training of the scholarship holder teachers it is necessary preliminarily a fast discussion and reflection about the requirements demanded for the performance of the instruction, as well as a greater understanding of the paradigms actually taking part in the process of teaching-learning of the traditional school.
Any project that works with the improvement of the quality of the education must have as one of its guidelines the question of the "teacher's qualification". The commitment to guarantee the qualification of the educators in what refers to the formal ability does not exclude the necessity of punctuate also the competence of the teacher about politics, with respect to the citizenship, quality of life and to the questions of the environment.
In relation to the formal ability, BRITTO [9] displays that it is essential to the teacher the good technique, pedagogical and relational performance. The technique ability encloses the theoretical and practical knowledge of the discipline (subject) which is demanded of the teacher who ministers it. In technical schools, this knowledge refers to the specific curriculum related to the peculiar formation of the educator. The pedagogical ability involves the questions of didactic communication, brought to the context of the contents of the disciplines and the understanding of the teaching roles and of the real abilities necessaries to the exercise of the profession. The mentioned author still displays that the relational ability is turned to qualification to the work in teams, participation in the decisions, resolution of the problems, elaboration of the interdisciplinary projects, diversification of the strategies, implementation of actions for curricular development, evaluation of processes and school results, as well as evaluation of educational projects and curriculums.
Considering these required abilities of the teachers, and being the teacher a professional who interacts with pupils and other professionals of education, in order to prioritize his functions of specialist in the creation of favorable conditions for the teaching-learning, one must have as reference some demanded resources of the educator, which are: to dominate the content of his specific area; to dominate the required abilities for the practice of his area; to apply, in his functions, the fundamentals of Pedagogy, Didactics, Communication and Psychology; to plan, to develop his course and to evaluate the results using always didactic resources; to identify the tendencies and necessities of new knowledge; and to improve his work through the self-development.
In the case of projects that aim at the improvement of quality of education it is necessary to make evident as one of its phases the management that aims at the preparation, improvement and updating of the work of the ones responsible for the formation of the educators - educators formative, as well as of activities that promote the self-development and self-evaluation of the pedagogical work.
It has been mentioned previously that the new technologies provoke significant alterations in the way of executing the work, demanding new lines of direction for the professional qualification, therefore imposing to the institutions, new guidelines in front of the modernity of the productive processes and the social relations. In this sense, the schools for technical education must rethink the qualification concept, as well as the didactic to accomplish the structural changes induced by the new technique-economical paradigms.
According to GONCALVES [10], the qualification in this context "must be assured in the formation process, in the process of development of the educative work; as well as the movement for the total quality privileges, significantly, the process of production in relation to the final control of the product."
The professional profile of the ones responsible for the formation of educators is modifying considering that the technical education and the professional formation are the first ones to suffer the direct action of the necessities and requirements for adapting to the social, technological and economical evolutions, due to the clientele that changes, to the abilities that evolves and to the demand of the work market which is transformed.
Nowadays, beyond careful selection for the composition of the team of educators, it is necessary that the institutions come to develop programs that prioritize a continuous process of formation, improvement and specialization, to answer the new demands of the work market. GONCALVES also points out that the changes in progress can be guided by the elements:
The verification that the transformations interfere in the content of the functions performed by the ones responsible for the formation of educators, starting to demand, among others, the diversification of the responses to the requirements of the users, widening of the occupations and professions, adjustment and approximation between the "place of production" and the institution of formation.
The diversification of the missions that are given to the educators. It is added to the function of the educator the activities related with advisement, animation of teams, elaboration of plans and programs, diagnosis, pedagogical engineering, conduction of projects, etc.
The same author still places that "to transform himself in formative" is essentially: to prepare himself, since the analysis of the necessities until the evaluation of the results; to develop diversified ways of formation, adapting them to the longed-for objectives; to insert himself in the works of the pedagogical teams to generate new forms of organization for the act of teaching; and, to engage in the continuous improvement of his technique and pedagogical capacities.
Before describing the training activities applied to the scholarship holder teachers of the project, it must be mentioned what have been the premises and the guide principles of this stage of the project.
It started form the basic premise that, to implement any project that aims at the improvement of education quality, mainly the technical education, taking care of the requirements of the new technologies and processes, it is necessary to rethink the educator formation, because he has a key and strategic role in the reformulation and adaptations of the institution structures.
The orienting principles for the elaboration of the training program are intimately associated with the search for the wide profile of the educator. From the survey of this profile, the requirements are found in relation to the technical, pedagogical and relational abilities. Therefore, when formulating the training program, one has had as first concern the identification of the profile of the scholarship holder teachers of the project. It was elaborated a questionnaire composed of two parts: the first one, for characterization of the teacher with respect to the aspects of previous formation and professional practice; the second one, with questions relating him (the teacher) with the other teachers, the school, the disciplines, the class and the pupil. The second part is composed of qualitative subjective questions and objective questions (quantitative and qualitative), formulated in a way to allow its tabulation and analysis through computational tools.
In short, the team of educators engaged in the design was composed, at the time of the research, by 13 (thirteen) teachers, all of them being of the male sex and having more than half of its components, 7 (seven), in the age band of the 40 (forty) years. Nine of these teachers had been placed for the disciplines from the Electro-electronics area, while four had been placed for disciplines of Drawing, Design and AutoCAD. The main formation of these teachers is related to the following areas: engineering (mechanics and electric-electronics) (4),basic sciences (physics, mathematics sciences) (4), administrator of companies (1) and technician (maintenance and mechanic) (4). It is observed that among them, eleven had made the course of complementation of the pedagogical disciplines (subjects), as required by the educational politics of the State of Sao Paulo to allow attendance at classes in the technical courses.
Although the majority of them owned essential pedagogical formation for the activities of teaching and learning, it was evidenced, during the development of the project, that the concepts and fundamentals of this area of knowledge had not been enough structured and applied in the professional practice. It is considered that this fact is related to the strong and rigid basic formation of these teachers in the area of exact sciences, what imposes to them a dichotomous dogmatism and objectivism in relation to the teaching activities. This question will deserve special attention on the part of the research team when analyzing the prototypes developed by these teachers and the didactic proposals incorporated to them.
However, it was observed that the continued formation in the specific area of the educator formation was neglected by practically all the teachers. It is supposed that this fact elapses from the conditions of the teaching work in Brazil, that most of the times compels the teacher to fulfill the day's journey in different scholar institutions or to diversify his activities to provide a better quality of life for himself and his familiar ones. The accumulation of work and deviation from teaching activities bring negative consequences to the pedagogical process; it can be cited, among others, the improvisation of classes, the stress, making difficult the relationship teacher-pupil, the absenteeism, the lack of both time and chances for continuous improvement.
The detailed analysis of the second part of the applied questionnaire is subject of specific work to be presented and rescued in the discussions of the teams of the project. Thus, with preliminary clarification about the profile of the scholarship holder teachers, one seeks to emphasize that these, although possessing a strong and specific technical formation, due to the time they had formed, do not dominate computer science enough to apply it to the contents of their disciplines. Also, the didactics does not make generalized part of the collective and individual conscientious of the teacher, either, because he, most of the time, practices his activities conditioned to standards defined from models that are experienced and judged as ideals, frequently reproducing them limitlessly, without having them questioned by other agents of the process. The reproduction of these models leads to a relational position refractory to the formation of teams, that is to say that, although apparently accessible and interested in these new methods, inside of the walls of the classroom he takes advantage of the pragmatic individualism, as owner of the local power.
In this context, where much has to be done for the improvement of the education quality, the elaboration of the training program was idealized looking for adjusting the conditions and resources available by the project to the necessities inherent to the boarded areas of knowledge, and also to the necessities and claims of the teachers, in this way, aiming at assuring a greater self-confidence to them, for the creation of the prototypes.
The research team tried, in this phase of the project, to diversify the training activities in each one of the three mentioned areas of ability. The team recognizes, however, that the technique ability - the domain of the training in computer science subjects - has received a greater emphasis up to now. In the sequel, it is detailed the methodological boarding for the applied training activities.
The methodological approach of the developed activities in the training phase goes from the presupposed that the way to construct a critical vision of the use of this new instrument applied to the teaching-learning process, must pass, necessarily, by offering to the teachers the chance of analyzing/evaluating the existing programs and of constructing their own materials, integrating the knowledge of their specialties to these resources.
Moreover, it is considered essential that they try the process of construction and use of the resources of educational technology in all stages: from the planning to the implementation and evaluation.
Once established the objectives of the Training Phase - which will be constantly related to the ones of the improvement of the technological education quality - one has started to assemble training mechanisms that objectified to create the new behaviors that made it possible the introduction of substantial changes and the improvement of the pedagogical work, directed to teachers giving classes in technical schools, because, in front of the technological changes and innovations, this "system of education must assume the mission to guide the individual careers and to contribute for the recognition of the set of capacities of the individuals, including the ones which are not academics [11]."
It was adopted the technique of Training for Objectives, that is understood to be, without doubt, a fuller boarding, which will bring better results during the implantation of the project. This type of Training uses the concepts and methodology expressed in [12], where two aspects are displayed: first, the expression Training for Objectives is used in grand part because the action of this training is deeply tied as contributory element to reach the objectives that are systematically established for the established proposal. About this point, there is no doubt, the training is changed into an important subsidiary force that assists its implantation and management, and also receives important elements of orientation. In [12], one stands out that the Training for Objectives establishes goals to be reached by the proper training.
The Training for Objectives is not considered valid in the measure that its action has not reached its proper objectives. Of course, the objective of the training program is directly related to the objectives of behavioral changes. If it is desired that the performance of a determined team of professionals has a greater quality level, it is initiated first by the location of the problem, and then, it is transferred to define which is the type of the new behavior that is expected from this team, and finally, after that, it is instrumented a methodology to reach this objective. After the execution of the training, the results are evaluated to see if the pre-determined objectives had been reached.
The concept of training as an action that looks for changing behaviors is a determinative one, specially in methodology terms, is that. All action of training, reduced to its simpler and objective expression, searches for changing from an inappropriate behavior to an appropriate one in the context of the development of proposal of work.
A program is structured using the most convenient techniques of courses and visual aids, and one must have as result the team starting to give greater importance to aspects that take to the planning and evaluations of these new absorbed methodologies, objectifying a continuous improvement of the process, as well as (the team) receiving tools to execute this work. If this professional team, after finished the training, include in its daily behavior methodological actions beyond the other actions, then, we will have obtained the intended change of behavior.
One should notice that it was not had as objective to increase the professional culture of this team in techniques and abilities in these innovative tools, because this increase of knowledge is a subsidiary element, it is a way to obtain the true objective: the change in behavior. It is evident that the addition of adjusted behaviors will reflect in medium and long term in the general formation of this team, formation that will be beneficial to its professional development considered in general terms. One does not have as the starting point the development of its capacities in general, to guide the training program. Instead, one has considered the types of behaviors that should be changed, taking into account the necessary objectives in the context of the proposal of improvement of the teaching-learning process.
Therefore, when structuring a mechanism composed of courses, seminaries, practical demonstrations, movies, etc., to reach the objective of changing behavior, it is perceived that any instrument used is a way to reach the result. Therefore, a way of obtaining the general objective of the project, having been reached or not the training objectives. However, this last alternative does not eliminate the possibility of having been unchained an effective change in the individual behavior and in the team. The confirmation that a change, in positive terms, has been identified in the behavior of the team, could only be detected when one obtains return from the proposals inside the classroom, in the daily action of the project and/or in the reorganization of the scholar curriculum
The applied training activities have been planned taking into account the three areas of abilities mentioned previously, as shown in the sequel.
Training for the Elaboration of Technical Reports, the objective of which was to standardize the elaboration of technical reports among the project participants.
Basic course on Computer science, having as objective to propitiate some familiarization with the computational resources.
Basic course of AutoCADTM;, to develop abilities in both drawing and graphical representation.
Training in software for preparation of "electronic" classes, Visual Class 4.1TM, providing the teacher with ways of creating several types of classes using multimedia resources.
Training in the application of the computer science and communication (presentation) equipment in activities of education, for a better understanding of the contribution of the multimedia resources for the development and construction of the knowledge in education.
Training with respect to the use of the multimedia equipment available by the project, allowing the familiarization with resources such as: scanner, digital and video camera, CD recorder, and projectors, with a view to developing the didactic prototypes.
Training on the methodology "story board" for software development, with a view to the design of the screens for the didactic prototypes, creating conditions for the development of the didactic materials considered in the project.
Training on Management of New Paradigms in Education and Scholar Planning, objectifying to propitiate methods of planning, analysis and evaluation of the education processes, as well as presenting information about current tendencies/changes.
Training in System of Evaluation of the Teaching-Learning Process, to allow the improvement of the conditions for the analysis, and the application of the theoretical/methodological aspects involved in the process of evaluation, not only in relation to the developed prototypes but also in relation to the verified impact as a result of this application.
Course on development of work in teams, given by a firm of Consultants in Human Resources, presented by a psycho-pedagogue, having as objectives:
to provide the understanding of the meaning of the work in teams, recognizing and exercising the basic requirements for an efficient work in teams;
to establish the commitments, to define the mission, goals and plan of work for the team, in front of a proposal of development of an inter and multidisciplinary work.
Training about the PDCA Cycle for Solution of Problems and about the Tools of the Quality Control: to provide the best management of the planning, development of the didactic modules, continuous evaluation of the prototypes, through specific tools of the quality.
The training activities can also be grouped, in function of their natures, in the following mode:
Thirty-two (32) hours of training had been developed with the intention of providing the understanding of the concepts and culture of Quality, Team Work, Interpersonal Relations, Strategic Planning and Elaboration of Technical Reports. One should notice that these ones had the objective of improving the pedagogical and relational abilities.
Eighty (80) hours of activities had been developed aiming at the technical preparation for an Education of Quality with the use of multimedia resources. One should notice that these ones had the objective of improving the technical ability.
In the course of the application of the training, taking into account the objective of improvement of the quality of the technical education, it was adopted the establishment of a constant evaluation, directly related with the observable result. That is to say, a system of evaluation synchronized with the action of the training allowing that this action be always in effective levels.
Some preliminary conclusions could be observed during the development of the training activities, but it is necessary to observe that in the proposal, the training process cannot be understood as a defined stage in time, instead, it should be taken as a continuous dynamic process being guided by guidelines defined from the profile of the teacher and the quality of education. Thus, new training activities can be applied to the teams of the project in the measure that the necessity of some training activity be identified.
With respect to the accomplished training activities, one could observe a significant improvement in what the domain and manipulation of technological tools are of concern, since the prototypes elaborated so far demonstrate the acquisition of abilities relative to the contents of these new technologies. It was also noticed that the training relative to the relational ability had been absorbed and incorporated into the teachers' attitudes, what can be inferred from the systematic adopted by them when developing their tasks, optimizing stages with the work in teams. On the other hand, it was observed the necessity to focus on the didactic-pedagogical aspects related to the methodologies and techniques of teaching, what can be detected from the difficulty of these teachers to justify their proposals under this point of view.
Although the proposal of training as a whole had had the objective of considering the development of abilities in the three competencies mentioned in the article, one has tried to guarantee at first the updating of the knowledge related to the domain of the computational and communication resources, to make possible to the agents of this process - the teachers - greater security and dexterity to conceive, implement and apply their prototypes.
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