Abstract:

Unesp, in São Paulo State (Brazil), is responsible for training nearly 7,000 professionals/year, which are introduced on the labor market with the engagement and competence to deal with the several activities inherent in the various careers in higher education. Aware of the changing and complex world of today's society that requires personal skills, attitudes and knowledge of large-scale and applicability, the Dean of Undergraduate Pro-Rector (Prograd) has invested in a series of actions aimed at improving their courses, these actions explained in Institutional Development Project - PDI. Aiming to contribute to the goals established for this university’s expertise area, this project proposes to investigate methodologies present in undergraduate courses to subsidize actions related to improving of educational practices for higher education in all areas of knowledge. Therefore, some professors who represent the Unesp’s 33 university units were invited, in order to initiate dialogue and propose a Program of Innovative Methodologies to Unesp Undergraduate Teaching. So, 85 teachers of different areas of knowledge participated in that discussion, in a meeting of 8 hours. They presented four investigative questions related to innovative actions in the process of teaching and learning at university, teaching methods in undergraduate courses and their specificities on knowledge areas, teaching and pedagogical potentialities of digital technologies for information and communication, and necessary conditions for the incorporation of new technologies in political-pedagogical projects of undergraduate teaching. First of all, the questions were answered and registered individually, then discussed in small groups. A summary of the group discussions was presented to all participants in the final session of the meeting. As results, we can highlight: the broad participation of teachers, who assessed methodologies and innovative actions in public higher education, as well as the richness of the dialogue between teachers from different knowledge areas. From investigative questions presented, we obtained the following guidelines for the program preparation: inclusion of all university segments in that discussion (faculty, alumni and staff); need for a common definition for the participants about the innovative methodologies and actions in higher education, targeting actions that may converge to a common goal, evaluation of the innovative actions, especially those related to digital technologies for information and communication (TDIC), are designed as educational tools and not as a solution to higher education’s structural, curricular and pedagogical problems; wide dissemination and training of faculty, alumni and staff in the management of digital technology tools and equipment available, the institutional spaces within the university, such as class councils, course councils, advisory teaching, research and extension committees, local and central collegiate bodies should constitute permanent forums for dialogue between professors, students and staff in order to evaluate the teaching methods used and the incorporation of new technologies. The systematized data will be sent to teachers and guide the next steps of Prograd on professional training of excellence, based on scientific, social and ethical assumptions which accompany the teaching, research and extension activities at university.

Keywords:

Undergraduate education, teaching methodologies, pedagogical training.