Higher Education Pedagogy

“The title chosen for this journal requires a brief explanation. Human beings are the only beings in the universe constantly

searching to get more knowledge about it, which is inherent to their survival and to the affirmation of their human condition. As inquisitive beings, they are condemned to learning and self-interrogation, which is a permanent and

never ending task, since it implies questioning the results obtained and always beginning again. On the

other hand, knowledge production takes different forms, including scientific knowledge. This kind of knowledge is distinct from other kinds of knowledge because it is systematic and because of a conscious and explicit use of a method,

which is permanently subjected to meta-analysis, both individually and collectively. Scientific work is, therefore, a

constant search for truth through a kind of knowledge which is always provisional and conjectural and empirically

refutable. Besides, the recognition of the need for this constant recommencement is

historically illustrated by the rediscovery of theories which had been ignored in their time and were later brought to light (as in the case of the heliocentric theory of Aristarchus), or by the rediscovery of visionaries who anticipated today’s problems (Ivan Illich is one example). It is from these characteristics of scientific work that it is possible to compare

the human

adventure in the search for knowledge with Sisyphus fate of incessantly restarting the same task.”

Sísifo

educational sciences journal

Educational Sciences R&D Unit of the University of Lisbon

Edited by Rui Canário and Jorge Ramos do Ó

no.

07 · Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec · 2008

> Higher Education Pedagogy

responsible editors: Ana Margarida Veiga Simão and Ângela Rodrigues

issn 1646‑6500

http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

Contents Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Presentation note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1‑6 7‑8

DOSSIER Intellectual and ethical development in higher education students Helena Marchand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

SÍSIFO

EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES JOUR NAL

No. 07

Higher Education Pedagogy 9‑16 Editors

From dropout to continuation in a higher education course Teresa Albuquerque . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

17‑26

Transition and adaptation to art higher education Isabel Duarte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Responsible editors of the current number: Ana Margarida Veiga Simão and Ângela Rodrigues

27‑36

Managing Editor: Rui Canário Assistant Editor: Jorge Ramos do Ó

E-learning and approaches to learning in higher education António M. Duarte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

37‑48

Do creativity and university intertwine? Sara Bahia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49‑60

Collaborative methodologies, education in and towards responsibility in nurse training Maria Aurora Rodríguez Borrego, Julia Boronat Mundina, Isabel Freire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

61‑72

Tutoring in higher education Ana Margarida Veiga Simão, Maria Assunção Flores, Sandra Fernandes, Célia Figueira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

73‑86

Ethical-deontological education need of higher education teachers Maria Teresa Estrela, Joana Marques, Francisco Cordeiro Alves, Mariana Feio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

87‑98

Towards the pedagogical excellence of higher education Manuela Esteves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

99‑106

Editorial Board: Rui Canário, Luís Miguel Carvalho, Fernando Albuquerque Costa, Helena Peralta, Jorge Ramos do Ó Contributors to the current number:

Teacher training in higher education Patrícia Rosado Pinto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107‑120 Professional development of the university teacher Sandra Graça . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121‑132 BOOK REVIEWS Review of Professional Development. Lifelong learning sector: mentoring, from Susan Wallace & Jonathan Gravells Célia Figueira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133‑136 CONFERENCES The crisis of modernity and curricular innovations Conference given at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon, 1 February 2008 Alfredo Veiga-Neto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137‑146 OTHER ARTICLES Hypotheses in Human Sciences José d’Assunção Barros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147-155 Sísifo, revista de ciências de educação: Instruções para os Autores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156‑157

Authors: Teresa Albuquerque, Francisco Cordeiro Alves, Sara Bahia, José d’Assunção Barros, Julia Boronat Mundina, António M. Duarte, Isabel Duarte, Manuela Esteves, Maria Teresa Estrela, Mariana Feio, Sandra Fernandes, Célia Figueira, Assunção Flores, Isabel Freire, Sandra Graça, Helena Marchand, Joana Marques, Maria Aurora Rodríguez Borrego, Patrícia Rosado Pinto, Alfredo VeigaNeto, Ana Margarida Veiga Simão. Translators: Mark Ayton, Thomas Kundert, Filomena Matos and Tânia Lopes da Silva Editorial Assistants: Gabriela Lourenço and Mónica Raleiras Illustr ation by Pedro Proença Layout Pedro Serpa Institutional Information Property: Educational Sciences R&D Unit of the University of Lisbon issn: 1646-6500 Support: Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia Contacts Adress: Alameda da Universidade, 1649-013 Lisboa.  Telephone: 21 794 36 51  Fax: 21 793 34 08 e-mail: [email protected]

sí si f o / e duc at iona l s c i e nc e s jou r na l · no. 7 · se p/de c 08

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Editorial Governments and the language of government. Brief archaeological notes for intense times such as the untried assessment bureaucracy

I like to define myself as a historian of the present, a position in which, thanks to some colleagues of mine, I feel I am in the best of company. My analyti‑ cal observations focus on the historical‑educational landscapes that for many are definitively surpassed ‑buried but which in my view, to the contrary, seem entirely familiar today. The finer points and details of bygone times lend me, in their primordial en‑ tirety, a technology of government – a talking‑doing – whose structural strength seems to explain and mould more appropriately to our personal and col‑ lective identity than revolutions, different politi‑ cal solutions, continuous educational reforms and other innovations which the omnipotent clamour for change of our agendas brings about. Present‑ ism, commonly tied in with an automatic desire for change, leads us however to an almost childish lack of knowledge of the rules and mechanisms that make any form of power exist. It is precisely because we know nothing of its nature that we are swiftly led to imagine that it could be something completely different. One only underestimates what one does not know. My first hypothesis is that the construction of the nation‑State is characterised by the permanent intention to govern without governing, in other words, to amplify government to its most distant limits, to the choices of the autonomous subjects in its decisions. In these terms, power should not be viewed as property, something which is owned, but essentially as a perpetually re‑worked composi‑ tion. With regard to its functioning, we should value

circulation, dissemination, networks, consumption, and never ever, possession. Since the 18th century the domain of government has been increasingly less about universal systems of injunction or pro‑ hibition, and more about a framework of regulated liberty. To put it another way, each singularity, each one of us, is now seen and constructed as a point of passage subjected to principles and forces of power. Another central issue when tackling power is linked to the regimes of intelligibility, of an action that is carried out in accordance with a certain description. My second hypothesis is, hence, that it is always a problem of language that is at the origin and at the constitution of the social world. The zones of government are increasingly intertwined with intel‑ lectual operations and circulation of scientific dis‑ courses liable to reflect a mass of phenomena. The population as a whole is now the object of knowl‑ edge, clamouring for the presence of new special‑ ists. The State can be seen producing and sophis‑ ticating legislation, statistics, indices, charts, tables, etc, aimed at, simultaneously, explaining and shap‑ ing the functioning of the economy and society. I am talking about the entire regime of announcement which, in the name of a rational knowledge, has ena‑ bled the different authorities, public and private, to claim the possibility of their government of men and things. I consider therefore that any social practice does not exist outside the words that are used in each epoch to describe it. It is as if reality and repre‑ sentation are undistinguishable, and the destination of the collectives and individuals is entirely played 1

out in the circulation, appropriation and manipula‑ tion of common vocabulary. As a historian of education I have worked on a historical phase that coincides with the institu‑ tionalisation of the model of secondary education with modern characteristics and which was, as had to be the case, matched by an authentic explosion in documents, a time curve that runs from the last quarter of the 19th century to the mid 20th century. I shall briefly explain. At the end of the eighteen hundreds a positive body of knowledge began to take shape about school culture that brought to‑ gether a very wide‑ranging set of actors: representa‑ tives from central administration, headmasters, politicians, pedagogues, psychologists, doctors, hygienists. This conglomerate of practitioners and experts managed, bit by bit, and in a campaign of universalisation of their vision about the problems and solutions, to impose themselves throughout the first quarter of the nineteen hundreds both socially and within the political power: several went to pub‑ lic institutions which welcomed them or were even created to enable the studies and experimental re‑ search carried out on teaching and education for all. Thus, somewhat naturally, they also made inroads into the secondary school and conditions were for‑ mally created for them to work alongside the school administrators and teachers. The secondary school landscape from the dawn of the 1930s is, in effect, made up of headmasters, teachers, doctors, school nurses and psychologists. It was in this background that an integrated policy of government began to be structured, rationalis‑ ing the movement and distribution of the school population in the national territory, also making in‑ dividualised teaching and therapeutic work geared towards the body and the soul of each adolescent feasible. This complex task only took place because all these educators put the process into writing on a regular basis. Each one of them, now with the status of a public sector employee, had to communicate to their superiors, and often several times a year, the work they were carrying out and the results they had consequently obtained in the Portuguese secondary schools. Furthermore, the map of day‑to‑day rela‑ tions was established based on the official circular, for which the central authorities demanded specific data about the guidance and execution of educational 2

sísifo 7 | editorial

policies. They all, therefore, became speakers of a common pedagogical language, using compatible indicators, supplied by the political power, which in turn had incorporated and were universalising the models of analysis that those same social scientists had constituted for themselves in their laboratories of origin. Also here a story of powers made compat‑ ible unfolds: instead of a linear domination, what we have are networks of actors, translating and adapting common concepts. The archives underwent, there‑ fore, exponential growth, with thousands of reports and quantitative and qualitative information of all kinds. In relation to earlier decades, one could say there was a different school reality: the questions, statistical headings and indicators used to make education‑learning intelligible – the teacher’s work and the pupil’s universe – did not cease to increase, completely exceeding any situation previously pre‑ sented. The ambition to map the educational reality did not appear to have restrictions or limits. Succes‑ sive educational authorities, every time they thought about modes of objectivation of the policies they pursued, ordered their public employees to draw up an informative report in which their action was described as entirely in compliance. This had been the case earlier in the time of the Marquis de Pombal and would continue to be so for decades. Notwith‑ standing, with the administrative sophistication and growth of secondary schooling, from 1895 onwards there would be an authentic inflation in the forms of consultation and requests for information from the local educational agents about both the means and the situation of teaching as regards the idiosyncratic traits of each student. All these texts seem to me less products from authors, and rather a certain unity of writings; it was this writing, indeed, which enabled the con‑ tradictions to be overcome and various texts to be connected to one another in series. All these actors ‑creators found themselves in a transdiscursive po‑ sition, linked to certain forms of announcement. Their reports cannot therefore be interpreted to the letter, as if the sum of the multiple indicators used to describe the secondary school and the respective pupils constituted a faithful portrait of these reali‑ ties. These texts are actually something different: a tool of production of educational policies and an exercise of construction of identical bonds in the

whole of the national territory. I shall refer concisely herein, for reasons of space, only to headmasters and teachers. The headmaster was submitted to a disciplinary routine that demanded a huge amount of initiative. He was responsible for describing what went on in the secondary school. Having to write more and more. The head of the teaching establish‑ ment was also associated with a discursive regime, with its own rules of functioning. Of course, the historian is obliged, before presenting the territo‑ ries that are also configured here, to try and iden‑ tify what this function of reporting corresponded to. João Barroso felt the need to draw up an annual report on the situation of education and the various teaching activities as a way of showing how second‑ ary schools had taken on board the rules and guide‑ lines in force. This conclusion derived from the fact that the document had been written in accordance with the increasingly more detailed and wide‑ranging indi‑ cators. This means that the head of the secondary school also strove for a kind of power that forced the common actors to narrate, precisely and truthfully, the realities that the hierarchy wished to see actually oc‑ curring. In this case, the headmaster described crea‑ tively the ways through which the institution he man‑ aged had been able to comply with the programmes and aims established by the central administration in each academic year. Once this conformity had been presented, he could then move on to his own ideas, proposals, criticisms and even complaints. The very important fact that this discursive text, as we will see below, was not addressed to any one person in particular – it was sent to the General Management but could also be printed and circulat‑ ed as a simple periodic publication – lent the head‑ master an area of ambivalence: his discourse would have an internal and external visibility, and it was up to him to decide which descriptions, opinions and oppositions should be highlighted and which should be downplayed. In the midst of the New State, the director‑general of Secondary Education, António Augusto Pires de Lima, in a circular and a notice, respectively in 1935 and 1938, outlined the guidelines governing the writing of the new models of reports by the headmasters. The vision was a map whose regions would supply a complete picture of the state of the secondary school and its population.

It was, in the first place, to take further the intention expressed in 1918 to associate the writing of the re‑ port to other figures of the secondary school. In the 1930s it was again advocated that the headmaster, in order to draw up the annual report, should base it not only on his “own observation” but also on other reports produced by the class directors, caretakers, school doctors, presidents of exam panels; as well as these, there were “services” (“school, cinema, can‑ teen, assistance associations, etc”) which produced their “special reports”. The headmaster’s task would consist of, therefore, “a comparative study and summary”, enclosing all the documents that the institution had produced. The political effect of this entire discursive scenario was clear: the necessity to record a wide ‑ranging set of practices involving all the parties meant that they existed to be registered. As if the very reality of each secondary school found its own framework in the indicators defined at a higher hi‑ erarchical level. Secondly it was argued that the de‑ scriptive part of the report – outlining, for example, the breakdown of the teaching service, timetables or test and exam statistics – must not dispense with the “respective tables” and charts which should be num‑ bered and cited in the text. All the information would have a second quantitative reading systematised into graphs making for immediate understanding. Finally, there was the argument of unification. The whole of this huge documental body should be organised and presented so that its items could be “compared among one another and studied in conjunction by the headmaster”. In these terms, the gathering of data and the plan to write the reports should “strictly comply with the rules of the Minis‑ try, with regard to the content and respective order‑ ing”. The justification given at the time was that, with standardised information the central services could make the “necessary comparative study among the various establishments”, and draw up what would be the “overall report of the secondary schools”. Of course, this never came to be produced. In the 1930s the report written showed above all that it was a micro‑physical action instrument. Furthermore, a growing set of official circulars called for the head‑ masters to gather and systematise wide‑ranging information both about the school population and about the teaching situation. sísifo 7 | editorial

3

Between 19 January 1935 and 22 September 1955 the General Management of Secondary Schooling sent exactly 2000 circulars to the headmasters, with a significant proportion of them made up of requests for clarifications and information. The function of narrator became confused with the very composi‑ tion of the role of the headmaster. The same kind of thinking has characterised the teachers’ situation from the very beginning. The oldest demand of this nature is contained in the Na‑ tional Secondary Schools Regulation of 1873, signed by Rodrigues Sampaio. Among the “duties” that were assigned is the drawing up of “one report each year” about “the method that was implemented in the teaching, the application of the programme, dif‑ ficulties that were found in this application, progress of the study teachers are accountable for”, as well as other information about the “advance and instruc‑ tion of the pupils” (Decree no. 31/3/1873). This very same year, the advisor, Jaime Moniz, then exercising the role of director‑general of Public Instruction, dispatched a circular to the secondary schools in which he noted the “omission” of many teachers in complying with the aforementioned reg‑ ulatory stipulation. He believed that the “methods” and “results”, reported by those who were endowed with the “intelligence versed in the practice of les‑ sons [and] used to working with the different apti‑ tudes of the pupils”, indeed constituted “precious and always indispensable data” for the senior staff who made decisions about public instruction. The Government, “demanding the information request‑ ed” from the teachers, also expected natural “solici‑ tude” and could not tolerate any non‑compliance. The director‑general went on to analyse the sparse collection he had managed to bring together. His analyses revealed an understanding that this discur‑ sive text could be a tool for comparison and stand‑ ardisation of the teaching practices. The rest of the Circular, which actually comprised most of the text, was taken advantage of by the director‑general to lay down the indispensable aspects of the teachers’ work. In teaching the subjects it was crucial that the programmes were “faithfully complied with”, apart from “any fully justified exception which had been authorised by the Government”. But this was not a “blind and rash obedience that was identical in all cases”. What was at stake was to really translate and 4


process an execution that was adapted to the “pu‑ pils” and to the “duration of the lesson”. Jaime Moniz demanded intelligence in measure while combining several components – between “science”, the “legal stipulations” and the “teachers’ practice” itself – to arrive at “establishment of the maximum and mini‑ mum of teaching for each matter”. Alongside the economy of the programmed ma‑ terials, the management of the classroom activities appeared: half the teaching time would have to be spent “giving the explanations needed to under‑ stand the following lesson”. With regard to this par‑ ticular aspect, the director‑general points out that he could not “allow each teacher to modify practice in line with his own free will”, as seemed to have been addressed through a legal stipulation. A third kind of recommendation was linked to the exercises or “best practices”, as Jaime Moniz called them. He reminded the teachers that exercis‑ es were the most “powerful and effective” of teach‑ ing tools. And he went on to explain: “this proposi‑ tion, which explained in words what only the high‑ est intelligence could reach, becomes obvious and evident for all, lasts longer in the memory, obtains a deeper understanding, if through practical exercises it is developed or clarified; afterwards, it is not suf‑ ficient just to know the rule – one must carry it out, acquire the habit of applying it, and this can only be achieved by undertaking practical exercises”. This same principle is applied in the teaching of living languages, which should be done “through the spo‑ ken word”. Finally, there was the issue of pupil discipline. “Good order” and “obedience of laws and school regulations” would be strictly maintained by the teachers. The school authorities would soon start to imagine the teachers as a guarantee, in the first in‑ stance, of the cohesion and uniformity of the popu‑ lation as a whole. It was important that everything possible was done so that in the assessment of the performance of their pupils there were no sharp divergences or variations. All the grades would be “agreed after conferring” among the teachers of the class. And each one of the teachers who had a man‑ agement role in the secondary school should “take note”, case by case, of all the pupils who revealed “unequal application in the different subjects”, so that they could “take greater advantage” of the

lessons in subjects they were “behind” in. But this responsibility went beyond the teacher in question, and encompassed all the teaching staff. It is a stand‑ ardising language in its pure expression that here again came to the fore, this time in the midst of the Republican regime. It was the teacher’s obligation to see that the class progressed “compact and homogeneous in the teaching, without leaving failing pupils behind”. As soon as such a pupil was “noted”, the task was to “investigate the nature of the failing” that dominat‑ ed in this pupil, so that the process to fight against it could be “usefully applied”. It is on this point, at the exact instant of discovery of a distancing from the standard, that new forms of documental register arose, implying all the hierarchical chains of the in‑ stitution. It was not permitted to apply a grade lower than “poor to sufficient”, without the teacher of the subject having “informed in writing” the teacher nominated to supervise the class of the reasons – “not in undefined and vague terms, but specifically outlining the cause, i.e. lack of attention and appli‑ cation, poor understanding and application” – for the weak performance. In turn, this second figure should transmit the information “in a bulletin” to the headmaster. This document would report all the means and methods that had been implemented to fight the “failing”, as well as an evaluation of their “effective‑ ness or non‑effectiveness”. In this last situation the headmaster would inform the family of the pupil, “whereby this communication is registered”. The same process would be implemented when a stu‑ dent received a “grade lower than good regarding behaviour”. In order that the information referring to this problem‑pupil was absolutely “complete”, the teacher would have to “also confer with the class teachers”, seeking “the opinion” they had of this same pupil “to complete their own concept”. All this because in the “modern teaching guidelines” simple isolated endeavours were

“deficient” (Decree 230, of 21/9/1914). Once again disciplinary considerations led to the de‑ velopment of increasingly complex and sophis‑ ticated techniques of registering the individual. The file was fed by deviance and conflict, seeming to grow solely to come up with an effective response. The entire modern power was based on the devel‑ opment of forms of control at distance. There was no chance of building a network of agencies among one another and the same programme without the circulation of documents. The central State organ‑ ised the table – with the respective inputs – and would share it among all the parties involved. This obviously was not a question of organising a single vision of men and things, but of generat‑ ing compatible reports. There was no standardised pattern of answers; there were only descriptions depending on the educational programmes and projects in question. The State’s power was materi‑ alised therefore in a taxonomy about what each ac‑ tor should invest, highlighting his creative capacity, pushing forward what was believed to be the mis‑ sion he was charged with. In each secondary school the mastery over people and things would depend on the ability of the headmaster, the teacher, the doctor, the secretary, etc, to discover, combine, cal‑ culate, mobilise and constantly design new realities based on the fields of discourse supplied. In a word, the power of the State was to exercise an action at distance, but it gave each actor the pos‑ sibility to transform himself into a new centre able to act on the various points of the chain. That is where we came from; that is where we are.

Jorge Ramos do Ó (Lisbon, November 2008)

Translated by Thomas Kundert


5

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Presentation note

Higher Education Pedagogy Ana Margarida Veiga Simão Ângela Rodrigues

This seventh edition of the Sísifo journal dedicates its dossier to Higher Education Pedagogy in a way to share some of the works carried out in this field by the Education Sciences R&D Unit of the Uni‑ versity of Lisbon. Pedagogy is herein regarded as one of the Educa‑ tion Sciences claiming the study of the educational phenomenon in its intrinsic singularity as its speci‑ fic object, which can not be mistaken with common perspectives on Pedagogy as restricted to the field of professional expertise or merely associated to for‑ mal teaching and learning processes. During the 20th century, Education became the study object of several human and social sciences, mainly Psychology and Sociology, which has blur‑ red the specificty of the educational phenomenon and delayed the construction of “Education” as the scientific object of Pedagogy, therefore postponing its emancipation as a science and keeping it too close‑ ly connoted to intuition and philosophic reflection, to art or even policy. As it is well known there is no abundance of research works dealing with the speci‑ ficity of the educational phenomenon, envisaged as a specific object liable to be described with precision. In this edition, our purpose is to highlight the scientific legitimacy of the pedagogic perspective. Nowadays, scientific studies on education must in‑ clude an approach which analyses the intrinsic pro‑ blems of educational practice through specific len‑ ses, describing it from the inside to the outside, avoi‑ ding parcelisation into knowledge domains and res‑ pecting its complexity and globality. By emphacizing

the need to open up to the emergence of specific issues, we are not meaning that other approaches should be abandoned or depreciated. The educa‑ tional phenomenon is multi‑referential, allowing for different and complementary frameworks: it is his‑ torical, it is social, it is psychological, it is antropolo‑ gical... The complexity of such a phenomenon can neither be restricted to any of these dimensions nor even to the whole of the parcelar systems of referen‑ ce one can rely upon to get elucidation. Since the last decades of the 20th century there has been a remarkable growth of research on higher education. Significant changes have been calling the attention of the scientific community to specific issues related to this educational level with special reference to the governance of Universities, to the University “new student” and to pedagogic con‑ cerns mainly direct to the first grades of higher edu‑ cation cycles and to the pedagogic development of its teaching staff. As regards research approaches of pedagogic nature, promising research networks and specialized scientific reviews have recently emerged. A mere search in the ERIC database using the des‑ criptor higher education pedagogy shows an increa‑ se in published articles, from 32 in the period 1971 ‑1980 to 179 and 801, respectively, in the following two decades and to 1023 in the period 2001‑2008, which means there are 32 times more publications in the last 37 years than in the preceding period. In Europe, a context swept by reform intents de‑ rived from the Bologna Declaration, there is a steady growth in the publication of dissertations and 7

theses dealing with higher education. This same trend is also visible in Portugal. Recenseable works focusing on pedagogic issues are increasingly numerous and take different points of view: either the student (his/her motivations, con‑ cerns and interests, failure and dropout rates, and learning styles, among other issues); or the teaching practice (pedagogic preparation and professional development of the teaching staff), or even the teach‑ ing and learning process (groundbases, conception and design, coaching and tutoring, pedagogic rela‑ tion required by new teaching and learning patterns, learning strategies and evaluation). The articles included in this dossier belong on this agenda of higher education pedagogy as a research field and stem from the work carried out within one of the research lines with history in the FPCE‑UL which grounded the creation in 2003 of a Master’s programme in Higher Education Pedagogy. The first four texts focus on student‑centered issues. Helena Marchand deals with the intellec‑ tual and ethical development of higher education students, provides research outcomes, identifies their impact on the attainment of higher education objectives and proposes some strategies targeted to the activation of students’ intellectual development. Students’ adaptation to the course and to working patterns in the University is the core interest of the studies carried out by Teresa Albuquerque and Isa‑ bel Duarte. Finally, António Duarte’s text focuses on student approaches to learning and their expres‑ sion in learning situations involving e‑learning. The following three articles deal with themes related to the teaching and learning process. Sara Bahia describes a study on the analysis of creativ‑ ity indicators in higher education students, which leads her to formulate recommendations concern‑ ing the stimulation of students’ creative potential. The collective text penned by Mª Aurora Rodríguez Borrego, Julia Boronat Mundina, and Isabel Freire comprises three experiences implemented in Uni‑ versity nursing courses, which have been studied through action research procedures based on the

8

sísifo 7 | presentation note

use of learning strategies aimed at promoting re‑ sponsibility. Tutoring as a major element of the aca‑ demic model supposed to configure the Bologna Process is the core object of the third article insert‑ ed in this category and authored by Ana Margarida Veiga Simão, Assunção Flores, Sandra Fernandes and Célia Figueira. The teacher‑focused pedagogic perspective is here analysed in four studies. The first is also col‑ lective and it is authored by Maria Teresa Estrela, Joana Marques, Francisco Cordeiro Alves, and Mariana Feio. It questions the need to improve ethi‑ cal and deontological awareness among higher edu‑ cation staff. Manuela Esteves characterizes higher education pedagogy in terms of aims, policies, and social requirements imposed on this educational level, paying special attention to the role of higher education in the construction of the knowledge so‑ ciety and to learner‑centred teaching as a condition for pedagogical excelence. The pedagogical prepa‑ ration of higher education staff involved in medical education is the central theme of an article penned by Patrícia Rosado Pinto where she highlights emerging issues like lidership, teacher commitment to their own continuous development, creation of professional development programmes and the ex‑ istence of training structures in the institutions. At last, Sandra Graça broaches the theme of profes‑ sional development of higher education staf for the first time in Portugal. Extra dossier, Célia Figueira provides a critical review of the work Professional Development. Life‑ long Learning Sector: Mentoring by Susan Wallace and Jonathan Gravells [2005, Exeter: Learning Mat‑ ters], reminding us the need to value and credibi‑ lize mentoring programmes meant to promote the autonomy and personal/professional development of those who “learn” an activity requiring frequent adjustments to new challeges.

Translated by Filomena Matos


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Intellectual and ethical development in higher education students — pedagogical implications Helena Marchand [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: This article analyses some pedagogical implications of studies on the intellectual and ethi‑ cal development of adults in general, and higher education students in particular. In an initial phase two studies are described (those of Perry and Kitchener and collaborators), with samples of higher education students in which one can see that their thinking devel‑ oped, throughout their studies, from a radical absolutism to a progressive relativization of knowledge. Subsequently (1) the results are analysed of the research that shows that few higher education students reach the most advanced stages of intellectual and ethical development, and (2) the main implications of these results are identified in pursuit of the goals of higher education. Finally some strategies are proposed with a view to triggering the intellectual development of the students. Key words: Intellectual development, Higher education students, Higher education aims, Triggering intellectual development.

Marchand, Helena (2008). Intellectual and ethical development in higher education students — ped‑ agogical implications. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 9-16. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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WILLIAM PERRY’S STUDY ON THE INTELLECTUAL AND ETHICAL DEVEL‑ OPMENT OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS When in 1953, upon request from the Bureau of Study Counsel of Harvard University, William Per‑ ry began a research project, published in 1970 under the title Forms of Intellectual and ethical develop‑ ment in the college years: a scheme, he could never have imagined the repercussions it would have on subsequent studies concerning the cognitive and ethical development of adults in general, and higher education students in particular. The main issue that the members of the Bureau of Study Counsel asked him to analyse consisted of finding out why some students, many of whom used his services, seemed to show a certain disorienta‑ tion when faced with the multiplicity of conceptual frameworks and a relative conception of knowledge, while others were at ease in a scientific universe that took into account the contextual and idiosyncratic dimensions of knowledge. Aimed at clarifying this question, Perry ana‑ lysed through questionnaires and interviews, the answers from a sample of approximately 500 stu‑ dents, 84 of whom were monitored over time. The findings enabled him to identify 9 positions, forms or structures (Perry, 1970, pp. 1‑2) which succeed‑ ed one another in a logical and integrative order, going from absolute bipolarity to the understand‑ ing that the knowledge and values can be contin‑ gent and relative. 10

In position 1 Basic Duality, the students (usu‑ ally freshers) view knowledge and values in bipolar terms (true/false; good/bad) and argue for abso‑ lute answers to all questions; in the next positions (Early Multiplicity and Late Multiplicity), thanks to the interaction with different teachers and their peers, they become progressively aware of the mul‑ tiplicity of conceptual frameworks and the uncer‑ tainty inherent in any knowledge, although they attribute this to the incompetence of teachers or mere intellectual exercises, and as such do not as‑ sign it epistemological legitimacy. Only in the next two positions (Correlative Multiplicity or Subordi‑ nate Relativism and Diffused Relativism) do the students adopt a relative conception of reality, at‑ tributing epistemological legitimacy to the uncer‑ tainty and diversity of opinions. From the 5th position onwards, according to Per‑ ry, there are no longer major evolutions, either of a conceptual nature or an ethical nature, as the chief concerns of the students now shift to starting, and later assessing and deepening Commitments, in a relative world in accordance with the epistemologi‑ cal conceptions and values that have been built.

sísifo 7 | helena marchand | intellectual and ethical development in higher education students…

THE STUDIES OF KITCHENER AND COLLABORATORS ON THE DEVELOP‑ MENT OF REFLECTIVE JUDGEMENT Following on from William Perry’s study, Kitchener and collaborators, based on the assumption that (see Kitchener & Brenner, 1990; Kitchener & King, 1981, 1990a, 1990b) the epistemological conceptions affect the way problems are understood and solved, namely loosely structured problems¹, analysed changes in conceptions of higher education students as regards knowledge and its sources, trying to ascertain wheth‑ er the decisions they took were justified in the light of these conceptions (Kitchener & King, 1981, 1990a, 1990b). To do so they built a structured paper and pencil interview — the Reflective Judgement Inter‑ view — in which the subjects are invited to reflect on dilemmas concerning historical, scientific or every‑ day knowledge, explained according to different per‑ spectives which were generally conflicting. The results obtained in the sample of 900 sub‑ jects, 200 of which were studied over time, led to the identification of 7 stages which the students went through, like in Perry’s study, from total ob‑ jectivism to progressive relativism. In the two first stages (for more detailed analysis see Marchand, 2001a/2005, 2001b, 2002a, 2002b, 2004), the stu‑ dents advocated that knowledge was an absolute certainty, although not always immediately avail‑ able. From the third stage they progressively be‑ came aware that knowledge was contextual and id‑ iosyncratic and argued that different justifications or arguments should be assessed as to their sus‑ tainability, evidence and coherence, among other criteria, although they also showed great difficulty in doing so in a systematic manner. According to Kitchener and King (1990a), many higher edu‑ cation students who are nearing the end of their studies showed this kind of reasoning. From the sixth stage onwards the students un‑ derstood the contextualised, relative and uncertain nature of knowledge, becoming aware that some knowledge was deeper than other knowledge and they were able to assess it better, taking into account the aforementioned criteria. According to the au‑ thors, this kind of reasoning would be specific to post‑graduate students. In the seventh and last stage of Reflective Judgement, the subjects advocated that

knowledge derived from a complex set of evidence and opinions, constantly assessed and critically re‑ assessed. According to Kitchener and King (1990a), this kind of reasoning was specific to some middle ‑aged highly educated adults. Simultaneously to the studies of Kitchener and collaborators several other research projects on cognitive development in adult life were carried out (see Commons et al., 1982; Kramer; 1983, 1989; Ri‑ chards & Commons, 1984, among others) in which the findings were extremely similar to those of Perry, and the above authors. The consistency of the results of these studies made it possible to identify the following specific features (see Kramer, 1983, 1989) of an adult’s think‑ ing: (1) the awareness and understanding of the relativist and not absolutist nature of knowledge; (2) acceptance of contradiction, as part of reality (3) integration of the contradiction in all‑encompassing systems, i.e. in the entire dialect (Kramer, 1989).

SOME RESULTS OF RESEARCH INTO INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS Taking the models of the aforementioned authors as the framework, other studies were carried out that clearly showed that few adults in general, and higher education students in particular reached the high‑ est levels of intellectual development. Kitchener and collaborators (see Kitchener & King, 1990a, 1990b; Kitchener et al., 1989), for example, ascertained that: (1) most university students under 24 years old did not reason at a higher stage than stage 4 of the Reflective Judgement Model, (2) most students who carried out post‑graduate studies were in stage 5, and (3) that only 50% of students over 25 years old reasoned in line with the last stage of the afore‑ mentioned model. In the words of the authors com‑ menting on these results, “educators should not think that young university students can understand or use what Dewey described as reflective think‑ ing” (Kitchener & King, 1990a, p. 167). Research carried out at Denver University (see Lynch & Kitchener, 1989, cited by Kitchener & King, 1990a) showed that students not only did not use the spe‑ cific reasoning of the highest stages of the Reflective


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Judgement Model, but that they also had difficulty in understanding the arguments of one or two stages above where they were currently situated. The results of the studies of Kramer and Wood‑ ruff (1986) showed, on the one hand, that dialectical thinking (thinking that, as mentioned earlier, takes into consideration the interactive and interdepend‑ ent nature of events) manifested itself above all from middle age onwards, with most adolescents and young adults at absolutist and relativist levels. These results are important insofar as they help to explain how students fulfil the chief goals of high‑ er education and how they perceive and live their university career.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE RESEARCH RESULTS ON THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS IN PURSUING THE GOALS OF THIS TEACHING LEVEL In order to strive to achieve the main aims of high‑ er education (see Stevens‑Long & Barner, 2003) which are on the one hand, to develop scientific, human, cultural, moral and ethical knowledge², and on the other hand to endow students with the capacity to research, the main tasks of the students, especially those who attend post‑graduate studies, should comprise essentially: (i) assimilating knowl‑ edge of a different nature, (ii) identifying prob‑ lems, reflecting on their nature and on the proc‑ esses through which they can be solved (see Arlin, 1975); (iii) analysing conceptual models that are in constant transformation (see Basseches, 1984; Sin‑ nott, 1981, 1984, 1993); (iv) becoming aware that knowledge has multiple and wide‑ranging sources (see Commons & Richards, 2003); (v) comparing, transforming and summarising systems of rela‑ tions, creating new fields of knowledge (see Com‑ mons & Richards, 2003; Richards & Commons, 1984) and (vi) understanding how to use critical reasoning, evidence and opinions to justify argu‑ ments in favour of the best or better solutions, especially regarding loosely structured problems (see Kitchener & King, 1990a, 1990b). To do so more complex and integrated levels of thinking should be implemented. 12

Given that most higher education students, as shown above, are not at these levels, the way to trig‑ ger their development should be searched for.

TRIGGERING THE INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS Few authors, after carrying out studies on the intel‑ lectual and ethical development of the adult, go on to explicitly analyse the issue of the educational im‑ plications of their models in general and how to trig‑ ger this development in particular. William Perry and Karen Kitchener and collaborators are among the few authors who have tackled this question. Starting by outlining the socio‑cognitive skills required by society in the 1970s, a graduate, Perry (1970, p. 214) wrote: “fifty years ago our research suggested that a university graduate should have a conception of the world that is characteristic of po‑ sition 3 or 4 (i.e. essentially characterised by abso‑ lutist thinking)³, thus showing himself to be a ma‑ ture man. We now have to go beyond the assertion of individualism in certainty, affirming your individ‑ ualism in doubt. This assumes a new attitude of the community in general, and teachers in particular” Although aware of the indirect nature of the ed‑ ucational implications, Perry analysed some exten‑ sions of his study: (1) on the teaching/learning proc‑ ess (2) on triggering intellectual and ethical develop‑ ment, and (3) on the support that should be given to university students, namely when they make their first commitments. According to Perry, the most difficult intellec‑ tual and ethical development moment occurs in the transition from the conception of absolutist and atomistic knowledge to the conception of relative knowledge. Such a transition is generally fraught with a degree of suffering, and can even lead to cri‑ ses of a greater of lesser intensity. In order to sup‑ port the students, the teacher should, in the words of Perry (1970, p. 211), “be less atomistic insofar as the students become able to carry out integration. A good teacher is one who develops the students’ abil‑ ity to explore, research and draw grounded deduc‑ tions. The assessment should go beyond the true/ false (or wrong) dichotomy and stretch over time,


in step with the capacity to carry out discrimination between frameworks of complex interpretation.” Therefore, intellectual and ethical development, namely development of the meta‑thinking capaci‑ ties, is, according to Perry, triggered by using teach‑ ing methods that encourage risk‑taking, research and analysis of complex problems, likely to engen‑ der cognitive conflicts that make it easier to become aware of incongruent reasoning. Commitment in active life is another difficult moment that may lead to instability and discomfort and could trigger crisis situations. In the words of Perry (1970, p. 215), “at this advanced stage of ma‑ turity the students should not have less support but more, and specially focused help. They need not only role models that stimulate them, but also the experience of mixing with them” William Perry also advocates that it is up to the teachers to help the students “build their character” (1970, p. 212), whereby the teacher cannot adopt an attitude that what the students do with their skills is a personal and moral problem, rather than an intel‑ lectual one, and as such is outside their scope of re‑ sponsibility. Perry says (p. 212), “epistemologically knowing the subject and what he knows are insepa‑ rable” While William Perry only touches on the issue of triggering intellectual and ethical development sug‑ gesting, as mentioned earlier, that confrontational strategies should be implemented, and giving us lit‑ tle information about the moments of university life in which the students are at given stages or positions (ending up with the idea that there are big individ‑ ual variations in how the sequence of stages is ex‑ perienced), Karen Kitchener and collaborators give us precise indications about the moments at which most of the university students are in the stages of Reflective Judgement⁴ and describe the studies that aim to trigger its development in detail. Like Perry, the strategy that they consider most efficient to trigger the development of Reflective Judgement is the deliberate use of cognitive conflict. According to these authors, given that university students in their initial years find it difficult to un‑ derstand that there are problems which do not have definitive answers, neither now nor ever, a difficulty often accentuated by traditional teaching based on truths that are transmitted in an absolute manner

(Finster, 1991, cited Kitchener & King, 1990a), what is important is that throughout their university ca‑ reers they are faced with loosely structured prob‑ lems in several fields (for more details on the meth‑ odology used see Marchand, 2001a/2005, 2004). Given that this kind of teaching generally causes a degree of discomfort, teachers should provide emotional support. In the words of the authors “as teachers, when we accept the task of deliberately ed‑ ucating to produce development, we are also accept‑ ing the responsibility of providing students with an environment that supports them both intellectually and emotionally” (Kitchener & King, 1990a, p. 168). Confirming the discomfort highlighted by Perry and later by Kitchener are the findings of several recent research projects (see Nyquist & Woodford, 2000; Schoenholz‑Read, 2000, cited by Stevens ‑Long & Barner, 2003) that show that university students and post‑graduate studies very often go hand in hand with “an intense period of discomfort, destabilisation and cognitive struggle and transfor‑ mation” (Stevens‑Long & Barner, 2003, p. 3). This discomfort derives from the evolution of the cognitive dimension, especially in understand‑ ing that the personal perspective is only one per‑ spective in a multitude of possibilities and generally has consequences of an emotional nature, whereby the questioning of knowledge and perspectives with meaning for the subject (meaning perspectives) is experienced as a loss of the self (see Kegan, 1982). Several studies also show that the cognitive evolutions throughout one’s university career are not only accompanied by important emotional experiences but, in certain cases, by successive re‑ constructions of the self. In a study carried out by Schoenholz‑Read (2000, cited in Stevens‑Long & Barner, 2003) higher education students describe this cycle of studies as a phase: (1) of intellectual ten‑ sion, “broadening” and understanding of multiple perspectives, (2) of emotional change (progressive increase in patience, kindness and self‑confidence) and (3) behavioural changes (less emotional re‑ activity; greater capacity to listen to others and respect and appreciation of different points of view). Stevens‑Long (2000) quotes a post‑graduate student who states that “experiencing mystery and uncertainty when writing a dissertation are essential aspects in a process of transforming the


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self.” According to this author, the transformation of the self does not come about only during the process of writing the dissertation; such a transfor‑ mation starts in the transition from “problem solv‑ ing” to “problem discovering” and reinforces itself upon understanding that any perspective is just one more in a universe of possibilities. As well as the deliberate use of cognitive con‑ frontation, according to Stevens‑Long and Barner (2003), there are three other ways of triggering the development of students: (1) belonging to a learning community; (2) the progressive understanding of the role of the self in the learning process, and (3) the progressive awareness of the influence of the cultural and social contexts in elaborating knowledge. When students enter into a learning commu‑ nity (e.g. when they start their university or post ‑graduate studies), they generally accept a peripher‑ al role in an asymmetric power relation in which the teacher is the possessor, to a greater or lesser degree of absoluteness, of the knowledge (the authorities) and the student is the receiver of this knowledge (see Perry, 1970). The prevailing relational model in higher education (Bartlett & Mercer, 2001, cited by Stevens‑Long & Barner, 2003) is one of hierarchi‑ cal power, in which the teachers transmit the knowl‑ edge to “ignorant” students, thus nurturing in them a dependent and conformist attitude. In Magolda’s study (1992), 68% of freshers stated they were very dependent on their teachers. When the students shift from the periphery to the centre of the learning community the listeners in the teaching/learning process start playing more collegiate roles; students are expected to accept greater responsibility in directing their studies, with the teacher playing the role of a guide or men‑ tor. The relationship becomes more equal and the parties in this process are viewed as co‑creators of knowledge. This kind of relation, which is based on mutual loyalty and confidence, requires adjust‑ ments from both parties — the mentor must allow the students to develop their identity; the stu‑ dents must become less dependant on the mentor. Being at the centre of the learning, according to

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Stevens‑Long and Barner (2003), induces cogni‑ tive and emotional development. In the words of the authors, “when the students start post ‑graduate studies and begin a dialogue, involve‑ ment in the community and personal discovery in a more intensive manner, they start a learning and development phase in which emotion and cognition are integrated” (p. 27). In a study car‑ ried out by Stevens‑Long and McClintock (2003), a student who moved from the periphery to the centre of learning said that he felt more confident and theoretically more rounded to carry out tasks, more aware of the conditions inherent to the situ‑ ations and relations, and more reflective. Another one said he felt more integrated, cognitively and emotionally speaking. Another one said he was becoming more “human be‑ing rather than human do‑ing” (p. 28).

AS FOR A CONCLUSION As for a conclusion, in order to successfully un‑ dertake the specific tasks of higher education the students should access, naturally or in a more de‑ liberate manner, complex levels in which the intel‑ lectual dimensions and the self are integrated. To do so, higher education has to be structured so as to create conditions that allow the triggering of the cognitive development and the self of the students. As such, Stevens‑Long and Barner (2003) proposes that university teachers: (1) stimulate more self ‑directed learning than they usually do (i.e. encour‑ age the students to accept more responsibility in or‑ ganising their study curriculum; stimulate them to identify innovative projects and work with loosely structured problems), (2) try to bring the student to the centre of the learning community as quickly as possible; (3) recognise the emotional implications (namely anxiety and changes in self‑esteem) that go hand in hand with this process, and whenever pos‑ sible, analyse these feelings with the students, and (4) encourage the students to think in more reflec‑ tive, more dialectic and more dialoguing ways.


Endnotes 1. i.e. complex problems to which there is no sin‑ gle solution. 2. In higher education it is above all intellectual and cognitive performance that is evaluated. Moral, ethical and even behavioural aspects are generally not subject to assessment (see Stevens‑Long & Barner, 2003). According to these authors, many employ‑ ers complain that graduates do not possess the social and emotional skills needed in the workplace. 3. The brackets were inserted by the author of this text. 4. It is important to point out, however, that according to Kitchener and collaborators (Kitch‑ ener & King, 1990a, 1990b), the educational level is a more important variable than chronological age in the development of reflective judgement.

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General Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Educa‑ tion, 68, pp. 752‑756. Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. Kitchener, K. S. & Brenner, H. (1990). Wisdom and Reflective Judgment: knowing in the face of uncertainty. In R. Sternberg (ed.), Wisdom: its nature, origins and development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 212‑229. Kitchener, K. S. & King, P. M. (1981). Reflective Judgement: concepts of justification and their relationship to age and education. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2, pp. 89‑116. Kitchener, K. S. & King, P. M. (1990a). The Reflec‑ tive Judgement Model: transforming assump‑ tions about knowing. In J. Mezirow (ed.), Fos‑ tering critical reflection in adulthood: A guide to transformative and emancipatory learning. San Franscisco: Jossey Bass, pp. 159‑176. Kitchener, K. S. & King, P. M. (1990b). The Reflec‑ tive judgement Model: ten years of research. In M. L. Commons; C. Armon; L. Kohlberg; F. A. Richards; T. A. Grozer & J. D. Sinnott (eds.), Adult Development: Vol 2. Models and methods in the study of adolescent and adult thought. New York: Praeger, pp. 63‑78. Kitchener, K. S.; King, P. M.; Wood, P. K. & Davi‑ son, M. L. (1989). Sequentiality and consistency in the development of reflective judgment: a six ‑year longitudinal study. Journal of Applied De‑ velopmental Psychology, 10, pp. 73‑95. Kramer, D. A. (1983). Post‑formal operations? A need for further conceptualization. Human Development, 26, pp. 91‑105. Kramer, D. A. (1989). Development of an aware‑ ness of contradiction across the life span and the question of postformal operations. In M. L. Commons; J. D. Sinnott; F. Richards & C. Armon (eds.), Adult development: Vol.1: Com‑ parisons and applications of adolescent and adult development models. Westport: Praeger, pp. 133‑159. Kramer, D. & Woodruff, D. (1986). Relativistic and dialectical thought in three adult age group. Hu‑ man Development, 29, pp. 280‑290. Lynch, G. & Kitchener, K. (1989). Environmental conditions for optimal performance in reflective judgment. Paper presented in the annual con‑


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gress of the American Educational Research As‑ sociation, San Francisco. Magolda, M. B. (1992). Knowing and reasoning in college: gender‑related patterns in students’ intel‑ lectual development. San Francisco: Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series. Marchand, H. (2001a/2005). Temas de desenvolvi‑ mento psicológico do adulto e do idoso. Coimbra: Quarteto (2nd edition published, in 2005, under the title Psicologia do Adulto e do Idoso. Coimbra: Quarteto). Marchand, H. (2001b). Some reflections on post ‑formal thought. The Genetic Epistemologist, 29, pp. 2‑9. Marchand, H. (2002a). Some reflections on post ‑formal stage. Behavioral Development Bulletin, 1, pp. 39‑46. Marchand, H. (2002b). Em torno do pensamento pós‑formal. Análise Psicológica, 2, pp. 191‑202. Marchand, H. (2004). O desenvolvimento da re‑ flexividade na vida adulta: teoria, dados e impli‑ cações na formação. Revista da Educação, XII, 1, pp. 91‑101. Nyquist, J. & Woodford, B. (2000). Re‑envisioning the Ph.D.: what concerns do we have? Seattle: Uni‑ versity of Washington, Center for Instruction De‑ velopment and Research. Retrieved January 2008 from http://depts.washington.edu/envision. Perry, W. G., Jr. (1970). Forms of intellectual and ethical development in the college years. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson. Richards, F. & Commons, M. (1984). Systematic, metasystematic, and cross‑paradigmatic reason‑ ing: a case for stages of reasoning beyond formal operations. In M. Commons; F. Richards & C. Armon (eds.), Beyond formal operations. New York: Praeger, pp. 92‑120. Schoenholz‑Read, J. (2000). Interim report on stu‑ dent Development and diversity study. Fielding Graduate Institute, Santa Barbara, CA (Unpub‑ lished manuscript).

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Sinnott, J. (1981). The theory of relativity: a me‑ tatheory for development. Human Development, 24, pp. 293‑311. Sinnott, J. (1984). Postformal reasonning: the rela‑ tivistic stage. In M. Commons; F. Richards & C. Armon (eds.), Beyond formal operations. New York: Praeger, pp. 298‑325. Sinnott, J. (1993). Yes, it’s worth the trouble! Unique contributions from everyday cognition studies. In J. Puckett & H. Reese (eds.), Mecha‑ nisms of everyday cognition. N.J.: Lawrence Erl‑ baum Associates, pp. 73‑95. Stevens‑Long, J. (2000). The prism self: Multiplic‑ ity on the road to transcendence. In M. Miller & P. Eisendrath‑Young (eds.), The psychology of mature spirituality: integrity, wisdom and tran‑ scendence. Philadelphia: Routledge, pp. 160‑174. Stevens‑Long, J. & Barner, R. (2003). Advanced avenues in adult development and learning: the role of doctoral study. In C. Hoare (ed.), Hand‑ book of adult development and learning. Oxford University Press, pp. 455‑476. Stevens‑Long, J. & McClintock, C. (2003). Ineffa‑ ble changes: cognitive, personal and professional development in graduate education. Santa Bar‑ bara, CA: Fielding Graduate Institute (Manu‑ script in preparation).




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From dropout to continuation in a higher education course

Teresa Albuquerque [email protected] Faculty of dentistry of the University of Lisbon (FMD‑UL)

Abstract: The study¹ set out to ascertain how students, who begin a Higher Education course which is not their first option, adapt to the Faculty and why they do not drop out. Data was obtained by means of questionnaires and semi‑structured interviews given to students who had entered Higher Education for the first time in 2004/2005. The findings indicated that students began to understand the profession, the type of population they are likely to work with and the type of work they may perform through the practical academic activities carried out during the course. Student involvement in the course and their pedagogical relationship were seen to be the most important factors in their decision to stay on the course. Key words: Higher Education, Dropout, Continuation.

Albuquerque, Teresa (2008). From dropout to continuation in a higher education course. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 17-26. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION The first year of Higher Education is problematic for many teachers and students at the University. Academic failure, dropout and the apparent lack of student motivation in many cases are cause of concern for the country and its institutions, and not only worrying, but also frustrating for teach‑ ers and students. In addition to the extremely high failure rate², universities are confronted with a progressive reduction of students owing to socio ‑demographic factors. In an attempt to find the root of some of these problems — the fact that students mainly get into low priority courses has been considered, where the 1st year at university is used to “bide time” just to get a course transfer — which also justifies dropout to a certain extent. Failure is frequently explained as a result of disinterest, lack of motivation, students’ difficulties in fitting into the Faculty and even their difficulties in managing learning and study methods (Tavares et al., 2000). Measures taken by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Education have proved the im‑ portance of dropout on requesting studies that will make it possible to typify the causes of failure/drop‑ out in Higher Education, by means of decree law no. 6659/99 — 2nd series, so as to implement pre‑ ventive measures and ways of promoting academic success in order to tackle school dropout. This study is part of a research project which is concerned with the factors of success/failure among 18

1st year students in Higher Education and focuses on the issue of academic dropout. Academic drop‑ out has been defined as ceasing to frequent a course in which one is enrolled before its conclusion, ob‑ taining a transfer to another course or dropping out of the faculty and/or university. This situation is one of the problems in the Oral Hygiene course of the FMD‑UL, as the annual av‑ erage of 1st year dropouts from this course since 2001 has been 8.3%. This course has been chosen as the field study and an in‑depth study has been conducted with a view to offering a contribution to the identification of strategies, be they prevention or intervention, in order to minimize the number of students who prematurely drop out of their courses. A number of authors defend that student experi‑ ences during their 1st academic semester may alter their initial expectations and intentions (Pinheiro, 2003; Santos, 2000; Schlossberg et al., 1989; Tavares et al., 2000). The complexity of situations and en‑ vironments in which students are immersed during their transition and adaptation phase in Higher Edu‑ cation has been found to have implications on their decision to remain in or drop out of their courses (Ferreira et al., 2001; Nico, 2000; Pinheiro, 2003; Schlossberg et al., 1995; Soares, 1999). In the analysis of higher education course drop‑ out/continuation, dropout was found to be more frequent and probably more voluntary in the early months after entry. Tinto (1975, 1989b) found that more than half the dropout cases are among stu‑ dents enrolled in the 1st year.

sísifo 7 | teresa albuquerque | from dropout to continuation in a higher education course

The dropout phenomenon may be understood from both an individual and institutional perspec‑ tive. On an individual level, dropping out of a course may represent failure to accomplish an aim, a lack of interest or ability to satisfy the academic work. On an institutional level, the same phenomenon may affect the organization, academic programming and, in many cases, institutional prestige (Tinto, 1989a, 1993). By conjugating these perspectives, some studies point to a need for early intervention which is based on the assumption of identifying the problems associated with this phenomenon (Du‑ ran & Diaz, 1999; Mendes et al., 2001). These lat‑ ter authors have identified some of the problems: unsuitable choice of course — through decisions influenced by friends, relatives or trends and not through vocation; very low entry qualifications; inadequate student integration in intellectual and social faculty environments; poor teacher‑student relationship. Others, (Pascarella, 1982; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1980; Pascarella et al., 1986; Tinto, 1975, 1987, s/d), on the other hand, highlight the fact that a student’s decision to continue in courses increases when there is: good student adaptation to the new reality; when the teacher‑student relationship is positive, when there is academic and social support of teachers and peers; when students believe in their own success and when they feel involved and valued by the institutions where they attend courses. Having found an increase in the number of stu‑ dents who drop out of the Oral Hygiene course be‑ fore concluding it (out of the total number of stu‑ dents who entered the course from 2001 onwards, 23.8% requested a course transfer at the end of the 1st year and 9.5% failed in the 1st year and dropped out), it became important to try to understand the reason for a considerably high school dropout rate. In 2001, the Oral Hygiene professional course (OH) became a baccalaureate, having doubled its student intake. Absenteeism, failure and dropout increased. For the first time worker‑students, pre ‑requisites and student entry, in the context of ap‑ plication to Higher Education, increased, where stu‑ dents chose the course as their 5th or 6th option. Also, for the first time, there ceased to be specific vocational tests for access to the course and a large percentage of the new students have no idea about what the course involves and what its professional outlets are.

When considering the applications for the aca‑ demic years 2001/2002, 2002/2003 and 2003/2004, only 19% of the students who entered the OH course chose it as a 1st option, 22% chose it as a 2nd option; 22% as a 3rd option; 16% as a 4th op‑ tion; 6% as a 5th option and 14% as a 6th option. In other words, most vacancies have been occupied by students who do not choose the course as their 1st option. This discrepancy between the course they wish to frequent and the course they manage to get on may be one of the dropout factors in this course, as well as in others. The research, which is partly presented here, focused primarily on the study of the “Non School Dropout” factors of students placed in courses rep‑ resenting low priority in their choice. Studies that have already been carried out (Tavares et al., 2000; Tinto, 1975) point to the multifactoriality of reasons for adaptation and school success. From the per‑ spective of justifying a possible prevention/interven‑ tion program for this new population, it also became necessary to characterize it, recognize its needs, dif‑ ficulties, expectations and motivations. So, the aim was to identify the data of 1st year student reality in the OH course which may then be considered in re‑ flection and debate on how the FMD‑UL can work towards the permanence and success of its students, by raising two main issues: 1. What favors the continuation of students on a course that is not their 1st option? 2. What are the effects of the first semester on the change of attitudes in the student towards the course and Faculty attended?

METHOD The study was carried out with students who had enrolled for the first time in the first year of the OH course of the FMD‑UL, among a total number of 30 students, whereby the following data collection in‑ struments were used: ∙ Questionnaire for the characterization of all stu‑ dents. ∙ Semi‑structured interviews with ten students who offered to be volunteers.


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∙ Adapted questionnaire to identify factors that contribute to the successful adaptation of 1st year students at the Faculty (Questionário de Adaptação ao Ensino Superior — QAES [Ques‑ tionnaire on Adaptation to Higher Education], Lemos et al., 1999). This triangulation of information has rendered the results more trustworthy, while fully understanding that the limitations of an instrument may have been obscured by the use of another. The questionnaire for the characterization of students was filled in during the first lesson on the first day of classes in the 1st semester of the OH course, covering a total of 30 students. With closed ‑response questions (Likert scale) and open‑ended responses, the questionnaire was made up of 32 questions grouped into four dimensions: 1. Demographic and school characterization, cov‑ ering items related to gender, age, residence, means of income and channel for entry into Higher Education.; 2. Student decisions and intentions on entry into Higher Education, with questions related to the factors that influenced their choice of 1st option course and the course they are currently attend‑ ing, satisfaction with entry into Higher Educa‑ tion and intention to change course; 3. Difficulties and expectations foreseen by stu‑ dents; 4. Expectations of academic performance as uni‑ versity students. At the end of the 1st semester, semi‑structured in‑ terviews were given to ten voluntary students so as to further the information already collected from the characterization questionnaires, identification of expectations and factors leading them to give the course up or continue. The QAES was applied during the first week of classes in the 2nd semester of the OH course, cov‑ ering the students from the 1st year who had not yet given up the course, among a total of 26 stu‑ dents. The items of the questionnaire were related to: socio‑demographic characteristics; secondary school performance and access to Higher Educa‑ tion; study skills; appreciation of method content 20

in 1st semester subjects; opportunities for integra‑ tion in a university context; satisfaction with re‑ lational and social environment; problems expe‑ rienced and subsequent degree of concern; over‑ all life satisfaction; perception of secondary and higher education performance; self‑assessment of study skills; satisfaction with performance in the 1st semester; perception of adaptation to the Uni‑ versity and course motivation. The data collected from the characterization questionnaire by means of Likert scale questions were subject to statistical processing of a descrip‑ tive nature, given the reduced number of subjects under study. As far as the open‑ended questions of this questionnaire and the interview content are concerned, all the information was subject to a content analysis technique (Bardin, 2004). The data collected through the QAES was also analyzed through descriptive statistical processes, and some comparative, relational and frequency analyses were also carried out.

RESULTS Out of the 30 students covered by this study, who had entered the 1st year of the OH course for the 1st time, 86.67% were female and 13.3% male. The av‑ erage age was 20 years, the minimum being 18 years and the maximum 25 years. Only 63.3% of these students had applied to Higher Education for the first time, the other 36.7% had applied more often, 81.82% of whom having frequented other Higher Education courses without finishing them. It is worth mentioning that 26% of all participants had dropped out of other Higher Education courses. The decision to frequent Higher Education had been strongly influenced by parents and friends (60%) and peers and friends (22%), while 10% were of the opinion they had not been influ‑ enced by anyone; the rest (8%) had been advised by health professionals. The factors that influenced the choice of 1st op‑ tion courses were mainly vocation (27.1%), the value of the course in the labor market (25.9%) and the potential interest of the course (20%). The rest of the responses were spread out over factors such as: family or friends with the same qualification (7.1%),


family or friends taking the same course (7.1%), pres‑ tige of the course (7.1%) and ease of entry (5.9%). However, it was also found that the OH course was only a first choice for 35.7% students. In other words, the majority (64.3%) of students were taking a course that had not been their first choice. Other first choices favored a number of courses in the area of Health Sciences, the most popular of which were Nursing (17.9%) and Dentistry (10.7%). The main concerns anticipated by the students were related to the social environment, the fear of “not getting along with peers” being the biggest worry displayed, followed by fear of establishing re‑ lationships with teachers. The difficulties referred to by the students with the academic environment showed their “fear of not adapting to the environ‑ ment”; “not being able to integrate in academic life”; “limited availability for extra‑curricular activi‑ ties” and “a lack of union among courses from the same faculty”. As far as the Oral Hygiene course itself is con‑ cerned, the type of difficulties students expected to encounter were related to “ the time for requesting a course transfer”; the fact of “not liking the course”; “lack of motivation due to taking the course” and the “desire to change”. Perhaps the desire to change was at the root of the fact that 62.1% of the total number of students who responded to the question‑ naire (at the beginning of the 1st semester) displayed the intention to change course. Nevertheless, experiences during the 1st semes‑ ter and involvement in course activities seem to have brought about a change in student attitudes, inten‑ tions and expectations in relation to peers, teachers and faculty course. This was inferred through the percentage differences in the intentions to change course registered between the beginning of the 1st and 2nd semesters. At this time only 30.8% of stu‑ dents maintained the intention to change course. Students were surprised by some facts encoun‑ tered during the course of the 1st semester: i) Regarding the faculty, students were positively surprised by its small size, the fact that it had few courses and few students per class, thus, mak‑ ing the academic environment more familiar; the ideas that classes would be held in large amphi‑ theatres with many students, that the people in

the institutions were older and that the freshman introduction activities might not be very pleas‑ ant emerged positively as thwarted expectations at the end of this first semester; ii) The course was a pleasant surprise for the students who had not had any initial expecta‑ tions, particularly the clinical and community components. The fact that the course involved hard work with a series of mid‑term evaluations pleased the students, since while on the one hand it seemed like a prolongment of second‑ ary school to them, on the other it obliged them “positively” to study and keep up with the sub‑ jects, not only studying for the exams; iii) Contrary to the expectations they had had in relation to the teachers being old, distant and “pouring out” subject matter, the students dem‑ onstrated appreciation for the good working relations they established with them, their avail‑ ability, informality and ways of teaching; iv) The constant and unexpected support of stu‑ dents at a more advanced stage in the course and the good relationships among class peers were, equally, very positive factors; v) The main factors referred to for dropping out of the course were, primarily, low self‑esteem, fam‑ ily influence, the idea of having low manual skills and fear of practical lessons. As regards students’ perception of the degree of adaptation to the University, at the beginning of the 2nd semester students, in general, considered them‑ selves to be well adapted. Students who consider themselves to be “very well adapted or well adapted to the institution” were found to be among those for whom the course had not been a first choice (93.3% versus 81.8%). When the students were divided on the basis of their intention to continue or not on the course, those intending to leave seemed to be less satisfied with the 1st semester (37.5% reported to be satisfied or very satisfied versus 52,5% of those with no intention of leaving) and less satisfied with life (87.5% reported to be satisfied or highly satisfied versus 88.9% of those with no intention of leaving); nevertheless, it is worth mentioning that more than 50% of these students felt “very satisfied” or “satis‑ fied” with life and considered themselves to be “very well adapted or well adapted to the institution”.


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As far as the problems experienced by the stu‑ dents are concerned, attention and concentration were the most mentioned, followed by anxiety, dif‑ ficulty with studies and poor physical health. Curi‑ ously, there are more 1st choice students with bio ‑psychological problems, with the exception of poor physical health with a slightly higher percentage in students who entered the course through other op‑ tions. On the other hand, there are more depressed and anxious students displaying attention and con‑ centration problems among those intending to drop out of the course, in comparison with those who wish to continue. The students intending to drop out of the course point more frequently to experi‑ encing problems in their relationships with boy/ girlfriends, financial difficulties, as well as difficulties related to their studies, adaptation to the institution and to being away from their family environment. Analysis of the data collected through the in‑ terviews enables us to understand how student in‑ volvement in the course is central to the decision to continue. They come to understand more clearly what the course and profession is about, the type of population with which they will work and the type of work they will perform professionally, such as Mercuri, Silveira and Polydoro also observed (1998, quoted by Mercuri & Polydoro, 2004) through the activities carried out. The factors referred to by the participants for continuing with the course focused, primarily, on the course itself, the relationship with teachers and peers, as also referred to by Pascarella and Teren‑ zini (1980). The students spoke favorably of the practical lessons, the diversity of the population with whom they worked throughout the course and their anticipation of performing clinical con‑ sultations during the course. The importance of support and good informal relationships estab‑ lished with class peers and older peers was also strongly mentioned. Among the positive factors they attributed to the course, they showed particu‑ lar appreciation for the practical clinical and com‑ munity lessons at the beginning of the 1st semester. The fact that attending theory classes and study‑ ing was indispensable, owing to consecutive con‑ tinuous assessment throughout the course, they felt obliged to spend longer periods at the institu‑ tion and to keep up to date, which gave them the 22

pleasant feeling that the experience had become a prolongment of their secondary education.

DISCUSSION As far as choice priority of the course is concerned, the findings obtained in this study of students enter‑ ing the first year of the Oral Hygiene course at the FMD‑UL reinforce what has been found in terms of the difficulties in access to Higher Education often beginning with the actual course choice, frequently made not on the basis of choice but elimination and the occupancy of vacancies by students with better marks for entering Higher Education. These facts lead many students to take courses for which they have no particular vocation and with which they are often unfamiliar. The analysis of Tinto (1993) was taken into account, especially when he states that there are young adults who enroll on courses which are low in their choice priority, since they have higher marks than those who opt for them as a first choice, thus, those who do enter are potential dropouts who will leave the vacancies unoccupied, hence, reducing the number of students who take these courses. As regards the “Oral Hygiene Course”, the dif‑ ficulties these students anticipate show the pro‑ visional nature of their intention to continue with the course, thus, revealing à priori their fear of dif‑ ficulties associated with a lack of motivation and desire for change in relation to the course and even the point of requesting a transfer to another course. These results are apparently in keeping with what Silveira and Polydoro (1998, quoted by Mercuri & Polydoro, 2004) suggest when they point out that primarily the belief they are in a temporary condi‑ tion that will be overcome by an internal reorganiza‑ tion of the institution (transfer or change of course) or the accumulation of credits on entry to another course (outside the institution) is what leads stu‑ dents to enroll on non‑preferential courses. In the case of the students covered by this study, the alteration of expectations throughout the first academic semester of the course and faculty was quite positive. The course favorably surprised the students who had no initial expectations at the outset, particularly the practical component of the


course. The data collected in this study ties in with that from the study carried out by Soares and Alme‑ ida (2001) where the students who were favorably surprised and realistic in their expectations regard‑ ing peer relations and investment in course‑related activities, stood out from those whose expectations were moderate or completely thwarted by their university experience. The former presented bet‑ ter indicators in terms of study methods and time management, also in vocational development, ad‑ aptation to the institution and involvement in extra ‑curricular activities. As far as the OH students are concerned, they were favorably surprised by the fact that the faculty was small, had few courses and few students per class, thus, making the academic space more famil‑ iar. Anticipation that classes would be held in large amphitheatres with many students, that the people in the institutions were older and that the freshman introduction activities might not be very pleasant emerged as thwarted expectations at the end of this first semester. The findings suggest that, to a certain extent, the quality of the university context encouraged these student opinions and, as mentioned by Chickering (1969), the role played by the size of the organization contributed to this through its institutional aims, the interactions established between students and mem‑ bers of the university community, teacher practices and services and programs made available to stu‑ dents. Furthermore, the findings in the case of the OH course suggest that academic experiences often exceeded initial expectations and the emergence of “surprised students” is just as defined by Baker and Schultz (1992, quoted by Soares & Almeida, 2001). These findings enable us to verify that practical lessons, the professionalizing aspects of the course, the teacher/student ratio, the size of classes and the faculty are positive factors which are able to change the more negative initial experiences. Students dem‑ onstrated their appreciation for the good working relations established with the teachers on account of their availability, informality and ways of teaching. The information gathered on the possible factors that lead students to remain on a course which was not their 1st choice supports those previously men‑ tioned. Greater emphasis is given to the importance of good relations established between teachers and

peers, a good faculty atmosphere and the profession‑ al activities to be developed after the course has been concluded. Such data ties in with the component of Astin’s model (1993, quoted by Santos, 2001), which suggests that continuation in school is strongly as‑ sociated with student and peer relations and interac‑ tions between students and the institution. The main causes referred to as being at the root of course dropout were mainly personal factors relat‑ ed to the low self esteem of students, such as fear of practices, fear of hurting peers, fear of hurting peo‑ ple, fear of not being capable. A number of research studies corroborate such data, in that such personal perceptions of a lack of ability and performance dif‑ ficulties are seen to be important in the academic ad‑ justment and accomplishment of students (Barros & Almeida, 1991), and the experience of these problems has negative implications on academic performance, often leading to an increase in rates of school drop‑ out (Rickinson & Rutherford, quoted by Santos, 2000). Such evidence points to a need for the crea‑ tion of special support structures for students who cyclically display apprehension, insecurity and shy‑ ness in practical lessons, since such difficulties may potentially favor dropout and failure. Family influence also proved to be important in the decision to change course, as well as the fear of not being able to work in the professional area after finishing the course. It is worth mentioning that some of the reasons that motivate the dropout situations referred to in the literature (Mendes et al., 2001) were not verified with the students in this research study, since the absence of professional outlets and financial costs, inherent to higher education attendance, were not referred to as factors leading students to drop out of this course. Although the population of this research study only presents data representative of itself, it does, however, present an identical proportion and se‑ quence in the distribution of its problems in com‑ parison with the study developed with 14 under‑ graduate courses at the Faculty of Science of the University of Porto by Lemos et al. (1999), applied to a sample of 494 1st year students. Through the collected data, one may observe that there are more students with problems of a psy‑ chological nature among those intending to leave,


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whereas those who entered the course in “other” op‑ tions, rather than the first, do not present the same problems. Once again, this supports the need for an identification of students’ intentions on entering a course so that, preventively, social and academic support may be given to those who will potentially present more problems. Throughout this study, there were no major differences found in the degrees of satisfaction and dissatisfaction, in the various di‑ mensions evaluated in adaptation to Higher Edu‑ cation, among the students of 1st choice and other options. The differences were found between those wishing to leave and those wishing to continue. Therefore, all the students may be regarded as potential “deserters”, since some of those who chose the course as a first option consider the pos‑ sibility of leaving, while students who entered with

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lower options consider continuing, which was not observed in the study by Mendes, Lourenço and Pile (2001), where dropout was seen to be a typi‑ cal characteristic of students whose course had not been their first choice. The ability and effort of courses and institu‑ tions to accomplish student involvement so as to reinforce in them the desire to continue should be geared towards all students. However, for fuller appreciation of the issue under study, we recommend the carrying out of longitudinal studies to investigate alterations in university student attitudes and reasons for their ex‑ istence over several years of course and post‑course duration, so as to define interest focuses and crucial points requiring potential need of support on the part of institutions, peers and teachers.


Endnotes 1. This article is based on research developed by the author within the scope of a Master degree in Higher Education Pedagogy at the Faculty of Psy‑ chology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Albuquerque, 2006). 2. Universidade de Lisboa em Números. Retrieved 20/12/06 from http://www.ul.pt/dow‑ loads/universidade_em_Numeros_2005.pdf

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e Intervenção Psicológica no Ensino Superior, Aveiro. Mendes, R.; Lourenço, L. & Pile, M. (2001). Aban‑ dono Universitário: Estudo de caso no IST. Re‑ trieved October 2005 from http://gep.ist.utl.pt/ files/comunica/artigo_comunicacao10PAG.PDF Mercuri, E. & Polydoro, S. A. J. (orgs.) (2004). Es‑ tudante Universitário: Características e Exper‑ iências de Formação. Taubaté: Cabral Editora e Livraria Universitária. Nico, J. B. (2000). A adaptação do(a) estudante à Universidade: porque não também o con‑ trário? In R. Sousa; B. Sousa; E. Lemos & F. C. Januário (orgs.). III Simpósio — Pedagogia na Universidade. Lisboa: Reitoria da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, pp. 55‑63. Pascarella, E. T. (ed.) (1982). Studying Student Attrition. New Directions for Institutional Re‑ search, 36. San Francisco: Jossey‑Bass. Pascarella, E. T. & Terenzini, P. T. (1980). Predict‑ ing freshman persistence and voluntary dropout decisions from a theoretical model. Journal of Higher Education, 51, pp. 60‑75. Pascarella, E. T.; Smart, J. C. & Ethington, D. A. (1986). Long‑term persistence of two‑year col‑ lege students. Research in Higher Education, 24, 1, pp. 47‑71. Pinheiro, M. R. M. (2003). Uma época especial: suporte social e vivências académicas na tran‑ sição e adaptação ao Ensino Superior. Unpub‑ lished PhD thesis. Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação. Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra. Santos, L. (2000). Adaptação Académica e Rendi‑ mento Escolar: Estudo com Alunos Universitári‑ os do 1º ano. Braga: Universidade do Minho. Santos, L. (2001). Adaptação Académica e Rendimen‑ to Escolar: estudo com alunos universitários do 1º ano. Braga: Grupo de Missão para a Qualidade do Ensino Aprendizagem, Universidade do Minho. Schlossberg, N. K.; Lynch, A. Q. & Chickering, A. W. (1989). Improving Higher Education for Adults: Response Programs and Services from Entry to Departure. San Francisco: Jossey‑Bass. Schlossberg, N. K.; Watters, E. B. & Goodman, J. (1995). Counseling Adults in Transition. New York: Springer. Soares, A. P. (1999). Desenvolvimento vocacional de


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jovens adultos: A exploração, a indecisão e o ajusta mento vocacional em estudantes universitários. Mas‑ ter dissertation. Braga: Universidade do Minho. Soares, A. P. & Almeida, L. S. (2001). Transição para a Universidade: Apresentação e validação do Ques‑ tionário de Expectativas Académicas (QEA). In B. D. Silva & L. S. Almeida (orgs.), Actas do VI Congresso Galaico‑Português de Psicopedagogia. Braga: Universidade do Minho, pp. 899‑909. Tavares, J.; Santiago, R.; Taveira, M. C.; Len‑ castre, L. & Gonçalves, F. (2000). Factores de sucesso/insucesso no 1º ano dos cursos de licen‑ ciatura em ciências e engenharia do Ensino Supe‑ rior. In A. P. Soares; A. Osório; J. V. Capela; L. S. Almeida; R. M. Vasconcelos & S. M. Caires (eds.), Transição para o Ensino Superior. Braga: Universidade do Minho/Conselho Académico, pp. 967‑973. Tinto, V. (1975). Dropouts from higher education: A theoretical synthesis of the recent literature. A Review of Educational Research, 45, pp. 89‑125. Tinto, V. (1987). Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Student Attrition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Tinto, V. (1989a). Definir la deserción: Una cuestión de perspectiva. Revista de la Educación Superior, 71. ANUIES, México, pp. 33‑51.

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Tinto, V. (1989b). Una reconsideración de las te‑ orías de deserción estudiantil. Handbook of theory and research. New York: Agathon Press, pp. 359‑384. Tinto, V. (1993). Taking Learner Retention Seri‑ ously: Rethinking the First Year of College. San Francisco: Jossey‑Bass. Retrieved June 2005 from http://soeweb.syr.edu/Faculty/Vtinto/Files/ AACRAOSpeech.pdfpublications/magazine/ v4n2/bunderson.asp Tinto, V. (s/d). Taking Student Retention Seriously. Retrieved January 2006 from http://soeweb.syr. edu/faculty/vtinto/files/takinhgretentionseri‑ ously.pdf Veiga Simão, A. M. & Flores, M. A (2006). O aluno universitário: aprender a auto‑regular a aprendi‑ zagem sustentada por dispositivos participativos. Ciências & Letras, 40 (Jul/Dec), pp. 229‑251.

Translated by Tânia Lopes da Silva



i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Transition and adaptation to art higher education Isabel Duarte [email protected] Lisbon Polytechnic Dance College

Abstract: The main purpose of this article is to contribute to the understanding of the phenomena of adaptation to Art Higher Education, as experienced by the students and perceived by the teachers, and to reflect on the mechanisms supporting this adaptation that the institu‑ tion can adopt. The data collection tools used were two questionnaires for first‑year students (a char‑ acterisation questionnaire and the Adaptation to Higher Education Questionnaire as drawn up by Lencastre et al., 2000) and semi‑directive interviews with four teachers from the Lisbon Polytechnic Dance College. The results showed that in general, the difficulties in adapting to Higher Education found in other studies carried out in Portugal, as regards the academic, bio‑psychological and socio‑relational aspects, are also felt by the students of the Dance College. Some par‑ ticularities were however found as regards the specific knowledge, such as the heterogene‑ ity of the previous training of the students, the poor physical preparation for a course of this kind and the low level of artistic and expressive maturity. The large number of students (57.5%) who had moved away from their homes to study and were subject to a heavy hourly workload also led to the socio‑relational aspects taking on added importance, and it was confirmed that both the Dance College and its Students’ Association can play an important role to lessen the social and relational adaptation dif‑ ficulties shown. Key words: Adaptation, Academic success, Bio‑psychological success, Socio‑relational success.

Duarte, Isabel (2008). Transition and adaptation to art higher education. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 27-36. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION The first year of Higher Education has been viewed as a critical period, potentially generating crises and/or developmental challenges, and is crucial to attain the established standards. Therefore, the way the students are welcomed by the institutions in this new phase of their lives is crucially important. In Portugal, over the last ten to fifteen years, in‑ terest has been aroused in researching into teaching ‑learning processes in Higher Education (Tavares et al., 2004). According to these authors, this fact may be down to the creation of the New Universities and the incentive given by Dispatch 6659/99 of 5/4/99, which requests Higher Education Institutions to “strive to identify all situations liable to be consid‑ ered as ongoing educational failure”. As such, the Universities of Aveiro, Minho, Porto, Algarve, Nova de Lisboa and Lisbon have played a significant role, following on, to a certain degree, from previous en‑ deavours in this area by Lisbon Technical Univer‑ sity and in particular the Instituto Superior Técnico (Tavares et al., 2004). As an exploratory venture and with a view to laying the groundwork for possible future work, we have reviewed the studies and research that explore or justify, in the light of recent psychology move‑ ments in development and education, the problem of transition and adaptation to Higher Education in Portugal, seeking to contextualise this study on the challenges faced by the academic community, in particular at the start of the third millennium, in the 28

background of the implementation of the so‑called “Bologna Process”. In reviewing some of the studies carried out by the aforementioned institutions and analysing the data collection tools, we identified some similari‑ ties between the adaptation dimensions included in them and the way they were grouped together. Lencastre, Guerra, Serra Lemos and Costa Pereira (2000) drew up a Higher Education Adap‑ tation Questionnaire. Based on a consensual defini‑ tion of “success”, and accentuating its multifaceted and subjective nature, they argue that not only the academic aspect should be assessed, but also factors in the socio‑relational and bio‑psychological fields. Other authors have used one or more of these domains in their studies. With regard to the variables more related to academic aspects, Lencastre et al. (2000) focus on the students’ perceptions about their performance in Secondary Education and in gaining access to Higher Education, their study skills and the course curriculum. Likewise Almeida and Ferreira (1997), in the Academic Experiences Questionnaire, Azevedo and Faria (2001), in the Academic Transition Experience Questionnaire (QETA), Soares and Almeida (2001), in the Academic Satisfaction Questionnaire, Al‑ meida, Soares and Ferreira (2000), in the Academic Expectations Questionnaire and Gonçalves and Cruz (1988, cited by Bessa Oliveira, 2000) and Nico (1995, 2000) refer to a group of variables linked to the academic domain, such as academic learning

sísifo 7 | isabel duarte | transition and adaptation to art higher education

and performance, the curriculum, institutional sat‑ isfaction and adaptation, expectations, problems or difficulties deriving from the academic tasks and demands. With regard to the variables more related to bio‑psychological aspects, Lencastre, Guerra, Serra Lemos and Costa Pereira (2000) list variables that are linked to the students’ perception of their physi‑ cal and psychological health, quality of life/well ‑being and their overall level of satisfaction with life. This aspect is also included by other authors in their studies. Hence, in the Academic Experiences Questionnaire Almeida and Ferreira (1997) integrate variables such as independence, self‑confidence, personal perception of skills, career development, psychological well‑being and physical well‑being. Gonçalves and Cruz (1988, cited by Bessa Oliveira, 2000) consider a group of variables linked to prob‑ lems or difficulties deriving from having to make vo‑ cational decisions and Nico (2000) refers to the per‑ sonal dimension as one of the five dimensions that contribute to “academic comfort”. It is pointed out that among the studies mentioned, neither Azevedo and Faria (2001), in compiling the Academic Tran‑ sition Experiences Questionnaires, nor Soares and Almeida (2001) in the Academic Satisfaction Ques‑ tionnaire, include personal development or bio ‑psychological variables. Finally, we can mention, in the work by Lencas‑ tre et al. (2000), who drew up a group of variables more related to the socio‑relational aspects, which encompass aspects such as lifestyle at University, adaptation to the role of a University student, inser‑ tion into the university context, opportunities avail‑ able and satisfaction with the relational and social environment. Almeida and Ferreira (1997), in spite of not cre‑ ating a group of variables linked to socio‑relational aspects, include some aspects of a relational nature linked to leaving home, separation from friends and important people in their lives, development of more mature interpersonal relations with peers, teachers and family, and exploration of social and sexual roles. Azevedo and Faria (2001) also assess the contribution of social support networks, espe‑ cially teachers, family and peers and Soares and Al‑ meida (2001) include the students’ satisfaction with the quality of the relations established with others

inside and outside the academic context and the expectations of students in relation to their social development. Gonçalves and Cruz (1988, cited by Bessa Oliveira, 2000) focus on problems or difficul‑ ties deriving from undertaking social tasks in rela‑ tion to others, peers, teachers etc, and Nico (1995, 2000) talks about relational adaptation and peri ‑school adaptation. Seeking a better understanding of the “real‑ ity” of the Dance College and the adaptation and adjustment difficulties felt by first‑year students, we opted as our data collection tool the Higher Education Adaptation Questionnaire (Lencastre et al., 2000), accepting its intention to capture the perceptions on the success in the three above ‑mentioned dimensions. As we also intended to obtain the view of the teachers, we decided to identify the representations that the teachers have not only regarding their stu‑ dents and their adaptation difficulties when starting at the Dance College, but also the means of support provided during this transition, contributing to suc‑ cess in all aspects. As such, the aim was to contribute to the under‑ standing of the phenomena of transition and adap‑ tation to Higher Education, and more specifically to ascertaining the possible mechanisms to make it easier for young students to adapt to the new edu‑ cational context of Art Higher Education in general and the Dance College in particular. Hence, the re‑ search aims were to study and diagnose: ∙ the difficulties students felt in starting at the Dance College, as regards “breaking away” and changes in their lives and the strategies used to face up to these aspects; ∙ the difficulties perceived by the 1st‑year teachers in relation to the new students, and the strate‑ gies used to help them integrate, as well as their proposals concerning how the College should intervene in this area; ∙ the background of these issues in studies of a similar nature carried out by other institutions, trying to identify new aspects to take into ac‑ count when we are planning for Art Teaching, in particular in the dance area.


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METHODOLOGY The sample was made up of students who attended the first year of the Dance College and four teachers who taught 1st‑year modules. To collect data the following tools were used: ∙ Questionnaire characterising the population, specifically compiled for the purpose and given to students in the first month of lessons, which included demographic, schooling, family, moti‑ vational and expectation aspects. ∙ Higher Education Adaptation Questionnaire (Lencastre, Guerra, Serra Lemos and Costa Perei‑ ra, 2000), given at the start of the 2nd Semester. ∙ Semi‑directive interviews to four of the ten teachers who were teaching 1st‑year modules at the time. The items included in the Higher Education Ad‑ aptation Questionnaire are wide‑ranging and rela‑ tive: socio‑demographic characteristics; perform‑ ance in Secondary Education, access to University and Higher Education; study skills; assessment of the content and teaching methods of the 1st semes‑ ter modules; opportunities to blend into univer‑ sity life; satisfaction with the relational and social environment; problems felt and degree of concern experienced; satisfaction with life in general; per‑ ception of performance in Secondary Education; self‑assessment of the study skills; satisfaction with performance in the 1st semester; perception of adap‑ tation to university and motivation towards the de‑ gree. The questionnaire is based above all on vari‑ ables related to the student, lightly touching on the curriculum and the institution. The answers to the items are generally presented in manner similar to a Likert format, on a scale from 1 to 5 (where 1 means less quantity of the characteristic measured). To be applied in the Dance College, only two changes were made, namely with regard to the name of the institution and changing the reference from “classroom” to “studio”, as this is the students’ study location. The script for the semi‑directive interview to the teachers encompasses three essential topics: i) representations of the 1st‑year students at the Dance College and the difficulties they face in their 30

adaptation to the new educational background; ii) strategies used to help the students overcome these difficulties; iii) identification of what can be done as regards the institution to improve the students’ abil‑ ity to adapt. Out of a total of 44 students, the characterisation questionnaire was answered by 31 students and the Higher Education Adaptation Questionnaire by 40, the latter representing all the students who attended the 1st year: 33 were female (82.5%) and 7 were male (17.5%). The average age of the sample was 20 years, with students aged between 18 and 29 years, which shows the diversity in the age group of the students that enrolled into the Dance College. In relation to the place of residence, only 17.5% live in Lisbon outside the academic period; 25% said they live in the re‑ gion of Greater Lisbon and Setúbal (this is the seg‑ ment that that spends most time on commuting and transport every day); 52.5% live in other regions of Portugal and 5% live abroad. These last two groups (57.5% in total) correspond to students who have left home to come and live in Lisbon during the aca‑ demic year — clearly the majority. In order that the teachers interviewed translated the diversity of the 1st‑year modules, an attempt was made to select teachers with wide‑ranging charac‑ teristics (age, professional category, training, func‑ tions carried out, years of service in the institution), so as to embrace as wide a range of opinions on the issues raised as possible. Outside the College, all the interviewees car‑ ried out several tasks linked to culture and teaching and some had worked for the Ministry of Culture or Ministry of Education. They have also written dance reviews for different publications and held cultural programming functions in this area. To analyse the quantitative data we used the Sta‑ tistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for MS Windows, version 12.0, which processed the answers obtained by the questionnaires. As we were working with a sample of only 40 respondents in the Higher Education Adaptation Questionnaire and 31 respondents in the Population Characterisation Survey, clearly insufficient to carry out statistical tests that enable the significance of the relations among the variables to be ascertained, we processed the data considering a frequency count


for each variable, and subsequently carried out a de‑ scriptive analysis of the answers. The Population Characterisation Survey, con‑ tained, as well as the closed questions, two open ‑ended questions that were submitted to the content analysis method (Bardin, 1997), a method also used to process the answers to the semi‑directive inter‑ views with the four teachers. The main constraints of the work are linked to the difficulty in finding specific literature about Art Teaching and the absence of data collection tools specifically designed and validated for the target population, to cater for its particularities.

RESULTS The content analysis process of the interviews ena‑ bled the identification and definition of three major topics: art higher education: specificities and needs; the students of Dance Higher Education; and the Strategies used and proposed by the teachers. Some aspects emerged that affected the students and re‑ quired redoubled attention, such as: ∙ the poor technical and physical preparation when enrolling into the College; ∙ the problem of the excessive physical injuries in‑ curred, the urgent need to find answers to solve this situation and the conviction that these in‑ juries lead to heavy psychological pressure and drain motivation; ∙ the poor academic and art preparation, which is shown in the low levels of reflexivity, critical thinking and “artistic culture” shown; ∙ the lack of knowledge as regards what choosing a degree and a career in arts in the dance area im‑ plies, and what this means not only from a techni‑ cal and physical point of view, but also at the artis‑ tic level and the ability to expose oneself, which tends to translate, in practice, to a low level of mo‑ tivation when it comes to meeting the demands of the teachers, and a worrying drop‑out rate; ∙ the need of the College to adapt to the students it has, finding forms and strategies to empower the adaptation and development (technical, aca‑ demic and artistic) of its entire student body.

In the light of the conceptual framework that served as the basis for compiling the Higher Education Ad‑ aptation Questionnaire (Lencastre et al., 2000), and aware that it was drawn up to collect the perceptions of students about their success in three domains (academic, bio‑psychological and socio‑relational), we can observe that the students’ views are also in‑ cluded in the teachers’ perceptions about the adap‑ tation difficulties shown by 1st‑year students at the Dance College. In effect, if we consider what the authors of the aforementioned questionnaire (Lencastre et al., 2000) define as the variable more related to the aca‑ demic success dimension, we see that in this domain, according to the opinions expressed by the teach‑ ers interviewed, the lack of preparation that the stu‑ dents “bring” from Secondary Education, not only with regard to physical and technical development in dance, but also in terms of development of criti‑ cal thinking and reflexivity, constitute “obstacles” to good adaptation and academic success throughout their time at the College and especially throughout the 1st year of the course. In the variables more related to the dimension of bio‑psychological success, we can observe that, in the opinion of the teachers interviewed the physical health of the students is the biggest concern, given the high number of physical injuries suffered by all, but which are especially evident in the 1st‑year stu‑ dents. The teachers interviewed state these injuries are caused solely by lack of physical preparation, the poor state of repair of the College and its stu‑ dios (without proper heating and sometimes with unsuitable flooring for these lessons) and the lack of specialised medical help. However, several stud‑ ies, such as those carried out by Kielcolt‑Glaser and Glaser (1988) and Glaser et al. (1986) (cited by Lencastre et al., 2000), related the immunological function to specific events in the students’ lives such as taking exams and other factors that cause stress and competitiveness and which they are subject to. According to these studies, when the students are exposed to high pressure during exam periods, there is a lower immunological response in several ways, which means in these phases they are more likely to fall ill as their biological defences are dimin‑ ished. Another point to consider with regard to the


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1st‑year students is the high hourly workload they are submitted to, which leaves them little time to themselves to organise their personal life, added to the fact that over 50% of them have left home to come to Lisbon to attend the College. These are all pressure factors and physical injury can arise as a way of “drawing attention” to them or saying that they are unable to deal with the situation. Without scientific studies that document the origin of the students’ injuries we cannot state that they are solely down to lack of physical preparation, the poor condition of the College, or the stress and pressure the students are subject to on a daily basis. But, as mentioned by the teachers, there is an urgent need to carry out a study that allows diagnosis of the true causes behind the high number of injuries suf‑ fered and plan the best way to prevent them. As for the socio‑relational success dimension, whose variables are the least mentioned by the teach‑ ers interviewed, there is at least a definite sense that they are aware that students experience problems of personal and social adaptation and that the College has a role to play in this domain. Hence, the nomi‑ nation of a Tutor Teacher for first‑year students is just one of the responses that the College has come up with to help with the socio‑relational adaptation. But we also think, as mentioned in the interviews, that the Students’ Association has an important role to play in this domain, and based not only on the teachers’ opinions but also on our observation of the various strategies and activities that have been implemented at the College, we believe all the Col‑ lege’s actors — management, teachers, students’ as‑ sociation and the whole college population in gen‑ eral — have made an effort to improve the way new students are welcomed and the facilities created for different activities (bar, study room, lounge, etc). The teachers interviewed were aware not only of these adaptation problems, but also knew a lot about what can be done to lessen them, and showed a willingness to carry out the actions needed within their scope to, little by little, improve the context of the Dance College in all its aspects. As in the analysis of the interviews carried out on the teachers, in a first reading of the results of the Characterisation Survey and the Academic Ad‑ aptation Questionnaire, what stands out most are the students’ physical adaptation problems, the 32

difficulties in adjusting to the heavy hourly work‑ load and the physical effort of the course and their worries about feeling physically weak. However, when delving deeper and more objectively into the results, we assess them in line with the three domains of success¹ (academic, bio‑psychological and socio‑relational) considered by the authors of the Higher Education Adaptation Questionnaire (Lencastre et al., 2000). Therefore, in the academic success dimension, we can conclude that most of the students enrolled in the 1st year of the Dance College (71%) are attending Higher Education for the first time, with the average final grades at Secondary School of 14.1². Although the level of failure in the 1st‑year modules is low, the average of the final grades in the 1st year (12.3) is be‑ low the Secondary School average³. Most of those surveyed (53.8%) consider themselves “a reasonable student”, but only 2.2% assess themselves as “very good”, while 7.7% situate themselves in the “very weak” category. These data correspond to the level of performance and average grades obtained both at the end of the 1st semester and at the end of the 1st year. The average final 1st‑year grade is 12.3, with a standard deviation of 1.62, which suggests that most of the students have a “realistic” perception of their performance as a student at the Dance College. If we consider the difficulties experienced in academic terms and the degree of worry associated, we can observe that academic concerns are not at the top of the list (only 22.6% of the respondents state they had difficulties in academic terms, although they did not show great concern regarding this situation). In the bio‑psychological success dimension, we can conclude that the average age of the 1st‑year stu‑ dents at the Dance College (20.52), although not deviating from the average age of 1st‑year Higher Ed‑ ucation students at national level (20.3), is not the most usual age for students who finish Secondary School, given that in line with Portugal’s education system, a student’s normal school career, if never failing a year, will lead to entering Higher Educa‑ tion at 18 years of age. At 20 the student is nearer the stage of a Young Adult than the end of adolescence, and should show a “degree of maturity” greater than an 18‑year‑old, which can contribute to a more developed identity and clarification of oneself. In effect, when questioned about the factors consid‑


ered most important for the choice of course, 36% of the respondents declared that the “vocation” was the most crucial factor, and 23% said that the op‑ tion was made owing to the interest of the curricular programme. These answers show a certain degree of independence in relation to the opinions of third parties (family and friends) and a certain aware‑ ness of one’s own identity. On the other hand, only 3.8% of those surveyed point to the fact that they have family or friends on the same course and 3.8% also stated that the fact it was easier to gain access to the course was a determining factor. Therefore, in the light of Chickering’s theory (1969), in general the 1st‑year students at the Dance College showed very high levels of independence and establishment of identity. When surveyed at the end of the first month of lessons about the quality of their adapta‑ tion to the Dance College, it is interesting to note that while 26% said they felt no difficulty in adapting to the Dance College, 30% did not answer the ques‑ tion. Nevertheless, at the end of the 1st six months, 47.2% showed difficulties in adapting to the items mentioned in the bio‑psychological domain. We can therefore deduce that, once the “initial enthusiasm” of the first month of lessons has sub‑ sided, the students start to feel some difficulties. The results show, as mentioned earlier, that the dif‑ ficulties are linked chiefly to injuries and physical discomfort. There is a general consensus through‑ out the college community (teachers and students) that these injuries hinder the proper undertaking of the college activities and affect the performance and adaptation of the students. A final point to make in the bio‑psychological domain is that most of the surveyed students, at the end of the first semester, consider that they adapted well to the Dance Col‑ lege (57.5%) and are very satisfied or reasonably satisfied with their life (10% and 40% respectively). However, we do not want to talk merely in percent‑ age terms but rather about the students themselves. Behind every one is a person and a future, and one cannot ignore that 20% said they were not very sat‑ isfied with their life and 2.5% stated they were plain‑ ly unsatisfied. It is therefore important to continue to study and understand what resources the Dance College has at its disposal to help and support these students who, although in the minority, clearly show they require support.

In the socio‑relational success dimension, we can conclude that one of the aspects that most contrib‑ utes to success is the students’ ability to adapt to the new background and from there develop new friendships. In the case of the Dance College, this is especially relevant owing to the fact, as we saw earlier, that 57.5% of the students are living away from home and enrolling into the College also rep‑ resents a change of residence and a “severing”, at least during the week, of previous relations (family and friends). At the end of the 1st month of lessons 8.7% of the respondents said they felt difficulties in adapting to the city of Lisbon, which is the same percentage who revealed they missed their home, family and friends, and 4.3% stated they felt “alone and lost”. On the other hand, one factor that we believe can‑ not be neglected is that the students who live in the Lisbon suburbs continue to live with their family, but have to commute every day, often spending sev‑ eral hours on public transport. These students also find it difficult to maintain old friendships, because of the “scarcity of time” left after spending so long on commuting and the course workload. In effect, if we consider that the socio‑relational domain is influenced by the students’ perceptions regarding social rejection, difficulties in romantic, family and friendship relations, we can observe: 2.3% state they encounter difficulties because they are away from home; 8.4% say the difficulties are linked to romantic, family or friendship relations; 3.2% feel “social rejection”. In total, 24.9% of the surveyed students expressed difficulties in the socio‑relational domain. When questioned about their degree of satisfaction at the end of the 1st se‑ mester, no student said they are unsatisfied, either with their colleagues, the working environment or the social environment, although very few said they are overjoyed. We believe it is therefore clear that although there are positive points to emphasise in the College and the way it welcomes the students (especially no‑ ticeable in the way the students praise the quality of the teachers, the curriculum and the diversity of material), there is a lot to do to enable and support a better adaptation of the students, thus contribut‑ ing to their academic, bio‑psychological and socio ‑relational success.


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CONCLUSION In reviewing the study carried out in 2004/2006 in the light of the reality at the Dance College at the end of 2007, we are pleased to see that steps continue to be taken to make it easier for the 1st‑year students to adapt and to help all Students taking the Degree, in the various dimensions included in this study. In effect, in October 2006 a pilot project got un‑ derway run by the Student Support Office which, lit‑ tle by little, has helped to tackle some of the problems identified here. Hence, while one of the adaptation problems most commonly mentioned by the stu‑ dents and teachers was the problem of physical inju‑ ries, it is important to point out that the Dance Col‑ lege’s physiotherapy/massotherapy department has been improving its working methods and technical facilities. Nevertheless, we believe it would be useful to carry out an in‑depth study of the kind of injuries that appear, as indeed suggested by the teachers to understand the true reasons causing them (whether they derive from excess physical work, the poor stu‑ dio and college facilities, the general discomfort of the students, or any other factors), so that the best ways to overcome the problem can be devised. Another of the adaptation problems was linked to the number of students who were away from their family and the difficulty they had in dealing with the new challenges entailed in moving to an “un‑ known” city and environment, in which they had to “put their independence to the test”, not only as regards the day‑to‑day tasks, but also their emo‑ tional autonomy. But the Student Support Office, in collaboration with the Cognitive‑Behavioural Nu‑ cleus, through a protocol with the Faculty of Psy‑ chology and Educational Sciences of the University

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of Lisbon, has provided all the Dance College stu‑ dents with individual psychological support free of charge, as well as holding group sessions related to personal development strategies at all levels and will start, in the academic year of 2007/2008, also as part of the protocol, another project to implement stage performance optimisation strategies. For the immediate future the Student Support Office is also working closely with the physiothera‑ py/massotherapy department to diagnose, as quick‑ ly as possible, the “real” reasons behind the injuries, acting as a prevention tool, also carrying out “so‑ cialisation” initiatives in close collaboration with the Students’ Association aimed at first‑year students, especially those who are far from their usual social and family environment. Finally, while emotional and artistic immaturity was, in the teachers’ opinion, a blockage towards the students’ development, by taking advantage of the restructuring of the curriculum in the light of the so‑called “Bologna Process”, a curricular mod‑ ule was introduced into the 1st academic semester called “Dance Appreciation”, which aims precisely to develop the students’ critical and reflexive think‑ ing and their artistic maturity. We conclude by saying that it is still worth re‑ searching into strategies that aid a smooth adapta‑ tion to Higher Education, especially when the In‑ stitutions in question, as is the case of the Lisbon Polytechnic Dance College, are willing to receive information gleaned from the studies carried out and act on it (in a timely fashion), in line with the findings. It is now up to the Student Support Of‑ fice, created as a result of this research, to continue to grow and meet the needs of the College and the Students.


Endnotes 1. The number of respondents did not enable us to carry out a more complete statistical analysis, namely pointing out the correlations between the objective levels of academic success (percentage of modules passed) and the subjective levels of success (representations of the personal success and satis‑ faction levels shown) (Lencastre et al., 2000, p. 88) which in our view would enrich the scientific vali‑ dity of the research. 2. Translator’s note: In Portugal academic grades are given out of 20 (twenty). 3. These data are, however, not very represen‑ tative, given the completely different nature of the Dance College modules and the subjects studied at Secondary School.

Bibliographical references Almeida, L. S. & Ferreira, J. A. (1997). Questionário de Vivências Académicas (QVA). Braga: Universida‑ de do Minho/Instituto de Educação e Psicologia. Almeida, L. S.; Soares, A. P. & Ferreira, J. A. (2000). Transição e adaptação à universidade: apresenta‑ ção de um questionário de Vivências Académicas (QVA). Psicologia, XIV, 2, pp. 189‑208. Azevedo, A. S. & Faria, L. (2001) Transição para o ensino superior: estudo preliminar de um Ques‑ tionário de Experiências de Transição Académi‑ ca. Porto: Universidade do Porto/Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação. Bardin, Laurence (1997). Análise de conteúdo. Lis‑ boa: Edições 70.

Bessa Oliveira, J. (2000). Níveis de ajustamento e auto‑regulação académica em estudantes univer‑ sitários. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro (Master dissertation). Chickering, A.W. (1969). Education and identity. San Francisco: Jossey‑Bass Publishers. Lencastre, L.;Guerra, M. P.; Serra Lemos, M. & Costa Pereira, D. (2000). Adaptação dos alu‑ nos do 1º ano das licenciaturas da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto. In J. Tava‑ res & R. Santiago, Ensino Superior, (in)sucesso académico. Porto: Porto Editora, pp. 73‑106. Nico, J. B. (1995). A relação pedagógica na univer‑ sidade: ser‑se caloiro. Lisboa: Faculdade de Psi‑ cologia e de Ciências da Educação (Master dis‑ sertation). Nico, J. B. (2000). Tornar‑se estudante universitário (a): contributo do conforto académico na defini‑ ção de uma estratégia curricular de sucesso. Lis‑ boa: Universidade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação (PhD thesis). Soares, A. P. & Almeida, L. S. (2001). Transição para a universidade: apresentação e validação do Questionário de Expectativas Académicas (QEA). In B. D. Silva & L. S. Almeida (orgs.), Actas do IV Congresso Galaico‑Português de Psi‑ copedagogia. Braga: Universidade do Minho, pp. 899‑909. Tavares, J.; Brzezinsky, I.; Pereira, A.; Cabral, A.P.; Fernandes, C.; Huet e Silva, I.; Bessa Oliveira, J. & Carvalho, R. (2004). Docência e aprendizagem no ensino superior. Investigar em Educação, 3, pp. 15‑53. Translated by Thomas Kundert


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i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

E-learning and approaches to learning in higher education António M. Duarte [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: This paper addresses three specific areas in the relationship between e‑learning and the approaches to learning used by higher education students. It starts by examining how the‑ se approaches find expression in learning situations which involve e‑learning. It then goes on to assess the extent to which e‑learning is a factor in the learning approaches adopted by students. Finally, it discusses ways in which active and in‑depth learning skills can be directly developed via e‑learning. Key words: Approaches to learning, E‑learning, ICT, Higher education.

Duarte, António M. (2008). E-learning and approaches to learning in higher education. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 37-48. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION A growing body of research in the field of Educa‑ tional Psychology is drawing attention to the fact that learning in higher education can occur on dif‑ ferent levels — each of which results in a learning product of different quality. From this perspective, an academic education of higher quality might be defined as “in‑depth learn‑ ing”, in contrast to what we could call “superficial learning” (Biggs & Collis, 1982). “In‑depth learn‑ ing” involves the construction of a more comprehen‑ sive, personalized, lasting and transferable knowl‑ edge of the subject matter; “superficial learning”, on the other hand, requires merely the temporary retention of the subject matter in snapshot form, which can be primarily put to use in situations of evaluation. As research increasingly demonstrates, each of these learning results is closely related to the type of learning process employed. The “learning approach” concept seeks to represent these proc‑ esses in terms of the way students relate to their learning tasks (Marton & Ramsden, 1988). Accord‑ ing to this concept, how students address learning is fundamentally determined by the interaction of two variables: motivation, and learning strategy. Within this theoretical framework, two princi‑ pal types of motivation (instrumental and intrinsic) and two principal types of learning strategy (su‑ perficial and in‑depth) have been identified within the context of higher education (e.g. Biggs, 1987). A superficial approach combines instrumental 38

motivation with superficial strategy (the aim being to meet the minimum requirements by memorizing and regurgitating information). As we might expect, this approach tends to be found in superficial learn‑ ing, as defined above. An in‑depth approach, on the other hand, combines intrinsic motivation with an in‑depth strategy (deriving pleasure from learn‑ ing by understanding its content). This approach tends to be found in a context of in‑depth learning, as described above. Research has also revealed the existence of a third approach to academic learning, characterized by a combination of a motivation to achieve (i.e. get the best marks possible) and an or‑ ganizational strategy (i.e. systematic organization of study) (e.g. Entwistle, 1987). The tendentially higher academic performance achieved is consist‑ ent with this approach. In parallel with general research into learning in higher education, another area of research has fo‑ cussed on how higher education students use ICT (Information and Communication Technology) in their learning: what we conventionally call e‑learn‑ ing (e.g. Laurillard, 2006). Depending on the op‑ portunities offered by ICT we might at first glance expect approaches to e‑learning to be characterized in terms of organization and the superficial/in‑depth dichotomy. Perhaps, though, as with any other task, ICT admits of approaches of a completely differ‑ ent character. Might the nature of ICT in some way determine the probability that one approach is fa‑ voured over another? And might it be possible to use it to promote more active approaches to learning?

sísifo 7 | antónio m. duarte | e-learning and approaches to learning in higher education

Whether or not we accept the notion that new tech‑ nology significantly influences the type of learning which occurs in higher education, we cannot deny that ICT is used more and more by teachers and stu‑ dents in higher education, and this fact alone means it merits special attention.

PRACTICAL APPROACHES TO E‑ LEARNING Although the literature on the approaches adopted to different learning tasks is extensive, research into how these approaches apply to ICT‑assisted learn‑ ing is limited. Evidence does however suggest that the learning approach concept can be generally ap‑ plied to distance learning, which is one of the typical components of e‑learning (Richardson et al., 1999). Given the “hypermedia” format of most learning environments based on ICT¹, we might entertain the hypothesis that a superficial approach to e‑learning would manifest itself as a tendency to interact more passively with the learning environment, to involve oneself with less enthusiasm in the task at hand, to stick to linear or predefined learning itineraries when navigating through the learning environment, to avoid hyperlinks, and so on. Again hypothetically, an in‑depth approach to e‑learning may take the form of a more dynamic and idiosyncratic interaction with the learning environment, the will to learn something from each new task, more adventurous navigation, extensive use of hyperlinks, and so on. We might also expect the two approaches to be used consecutively (i.e. by starting to explore the learning environment and then following the itinerary it suggests, or vice versa). And in fact, in a survey of university students working in an online conferencing learning environ‑ ment, Cuneo and Harnish (2002) found that the in ‑depth approach resulted in a more active use of the environment (i.e. more e‑mails and files exchanged and read), greater valorization and less anxiety about revealing personal knowledge or ignorance of the technicalities and conventions of online communica‑ tion. In the same learning context, the superficial ap‑ proach resulted in a significantly reduced use of al‑ most every aspect of the e‑learning environment (i.e. fewer e‑mails and files exchanged and read), greater anxiety about revealing personal knowledge / igno‑

rance and a greater reluctance to express personal opinions. Similarly, Ford (1995, quoted in Entwistle, 2000) detected two opposing styles in the consulta‑ tion of computer databases. The “global style” was characterized by the use of a wider range of terms per query, with more results returned as a conse‑ quence but less satisfaction with these results. The “analytical style”, on the other hand, involved greater precision in the way queries were constructed. The same author also discovered the existence of a third approach, the “versatile style”, which combined the characteristics of the two aforementioned styles and obtained the best levels of efficiency. We can reason‑ ably draw a parallel between this “versatile style” and an in‑depth approach to database consultation. Other research into learning approaches in ICT environments has yielded findings which seem to confirm the idea of different levels of learning as introduced by the “learning approaches” perspec‑ tive. An exploratory survey of the variables in‑ volved in computer‑based learning (van den Brink et al., 2000) detected indications that primary and secondary school students can conceive this type of learning in terms which are: a) quantitative (i.e. the use of computers as a way of acquiring, and in some cases applying, further knowledge of school subjects); b) qualitative (i.e. the use of computers as a way of facilitating comprehension of subjects); and c) institutional (i.e. the use of computers to obtain grades). This suggests that computers may basically be viewed by students as a resource which they can use as a complement to a previously‑structured conception of learning. In other words, a resource which may improve the efficiency of this type of learning (by “increasing motivation”, “accelerating learning” and “reduc‑ ing the information load”). Similar findings were obtained in a qualitative survey which sought to map conceptions of computer‑based learning among university students (Rebelo & Duarte, n. d.). These findings emerged from an analysis of replies collated in semi‑structured interviews and revealed a degree of correspondence between con‑ ceptions of e‑learning and conceptions of learning in general, as phenomenographic research has pre‑ viously observed (i.e. learning as accumulation of information, as comprehension or a means to ob‑ taining grades). There additionally emerged a new


39

conception in which the efficiency and organiza‑ tion involved in e‑learning are key points. From an intervention perspective, research has shown that an in‑depth, organization‑intensive ap‑ proach to e‑learning can be promoted in two com‑ plementary ways. The first involves ensuring certain conditions for learning, basically via organization. The second consists in helping students develop a “meta‑learning” capacity, i.e. “(...) students’ con‑ sciousness of and control over their own learning processes (...)” (Biggs, 1987, p. 2). So how can ICT be used to help promote an in‑depth, organization‑intensive approach to learn‑ ing? The answer to this question can perhaps be expressed in terms of how e‑learning can be used in the two ways mentioned above. In the first place, it can help empower these approaches as a tool for instruction in curricular content — in other words, by the use of learning situations based on ICT and designed according to certain criteria. In the second place, e‑learning can serve the same purpose as a means of developing the “learning how to learn” ca‑ pacity: in terms both of specialized applications for the teaching of learning strategies and of utilitarian applications that can be used for the same purpose. We shall now examine in more detail how computer‑based learning and meta‑learning assist‑ ed by e‑learning can be used to modify the learning approaches used by higher education students.

THE E‑ LEARNING FACTOR IN APPROACHES TO LEARNING From the analysis of many of the learning tasks re‑ lated with ICT we might expect them to constitute a supreme incentive to the adoption of an in‑depth approach to learning. And in fact, many of today’s e‑learning environments organize learning experi‑ ences which seem to contain some of the ingredi‑ ents associated with this type of approach (Biggs & Moore, 1993). In the first place, students are known to take to ICT with enthusiasm (Laurillard, 1993), a fact which may translate into high intrinsic motiva‑ tion for the tasks in which such a resource is used. And then, given that e‑learning environments tend to be “interactive”, they seem to be an excellent way of promoting an active posture among students². 40

Considering, too, that such environments are typically organized according to a “hypermedia” format, they seem to be the ideal platform for the development of a well structured knowledge base³. Finally, given the uses to which communications networks are typically put (i.e. Internet and intranets), they represent an excel‑ lent platform for social interaction within the learning context, in a spirit of collaborative learning. From another perspective, the possibilities of‑ fered by ICT in terms of simulations seem to con‑ stitute an excellent way of helping students address the consequences of their intuitive notions and to promote conceptual changes (Sparkes, 1993)⁴. And in fact these positive expectations with re‑ gard to ICT‑based learning are partly confirmed by research. A study of an initiative in a polytechnic col‑ lege which involved, among other things, the use of a management tool in the form of a computer game (designed to increase motivation and organ‑ ize learning) revealed that the initiative seemed to mitigate the negative effects of the educational con‑ text on approaches to learning (i.e. the superficial approach increases and in‑depth and organization ‑intensive approaches decrease, but not as much as in a control group) (Davies et al., 1994). Another study, which also involved the use of a computer game but was set in a context of International Poli‑ tics (involving cooperative learning and the appli‑ cation and testing of learned content), also revealed beneficial effects for motivation and comprehension (Ramsden, 1992). A study on the use of interactive video demonstrated that this medium can stimu‑ late discussion and promote a “problematizing ap‑ proach” to content (Laurillard, 1993). Comparative studies on education with and without a conferenc‑ ing system (CSILE) revealed that the use of this sys‑ tem is associated with significantly better results in reading comprehension and reflection by students on their own and others’ work (Lamon et al., 1993). One study which compared seminar‑based teach‑ ing with teaching which also incorporated a con‑ ferencing system (which requires critical thinking, comprehension and the ability to articulate knowl‑ edge) revealed that such a system is more efficient in encouraging students to explore, integrate and apply their ideas⁵ (Newman et al., 1998). Finally, a comparative study of the teaching of mathematics


in which the conventional method was compared against an interactive method using the hyperme‑ dia format (involving computing science students) revealed the second method to be more closely as‑ sociated with the in‑depth approach (Hambleton et al., 1998). Then again, some research has revealed that ICT does not automatically guarantee an in‑depth approach to learning, and may even work in the op‑ posite direction, as a factor in the adoption of a su‑ perficial approach. A study into the effects of computer simulation of laboratory work revealed that when under pres‑ sure to complete a task on time there is a tendency, similar to that observed in the “natural” environ‑ ment, to use an “unreflective approach” (Lauril‑ lard, 1993). A descriptive study of the reactions of students to a computer‑based learning task (and which can be used in an active, idiosyncratic man‑ ner) revealed that even students who normally used an in‑depth approach and had a highly‑developed conception of learning were prone to approaching the task superficially (i.e. consulting information in linear fashion, as automatically controlled by the program, and avoiding parts where their opinion is solicited) — as if their habitual approach did not ex‑ tend to the new context in a self‑regulated manner (DeJong, 1994). A comparative study involving one group of stu‑ dents confronted with a computer simulation of a problem and another group faced with the same problem in pencil‑and‑paper format revealed that the former group tended to adopt a trial‑and‑error ap‑ proach to solving the problem, while the latter pre‑ ferred to test hypotheses (Laurillard, 1993). Another comparative study of mathematics teaching by con‑ ventional methods versus teaching in a “hypermedia” environment revealed an association between the lat‑ ter method and a reduction in the use of the in‑depth approach — perhaps because students may have ap‑ proached the task with preconceptions as to their re‑ sponsibility in learning (Hambleton et al., 1998). One possible interpretation of these findings is that the level of involvement and intentionality of students in many e‑learning environments does not necessarily require significant processing of content. Until very recently, most educational use of ICT consisted of systems designed to facilitate

the acquisition of a greater amount of knowledge in a lesser amount of time and, in many cases, to test how well this knowledge had been memorized (Ramsden, 1992). In other words, systems which did not provide “(…) the type of challenge which in‑depth learning requires” (Sparkes, 1993, p. 147), encouraging instead a superficial approach which lessened the quality of learning (Ramsden, 1992). More specifically, this has been attributed to the fact that much of the software produced for ICT learn‑ ing purposes is based on the ingenuous notions held by programmers with regard to the learning process (Newman et al., 1998), or on the failure to articulate design principles (Ramsden, 1992). The identification of such problems has formed the basis for the enunciation of proposals for the eval‑ uation and design of e‑learning environments which incorporate the need to contribute to in‑depth learn‑ ing (e.g. Duarte, 2000; Laurillard, 2002). Similarly, the fact that ICT does not automati‑ cally encourage an in‑depth approach can be inter‑ preted in the light of the thesis of Laurillard (1993), who argues that it is not the educational resource which determines the type of learning but rather the context in which it is used. In fact, as Ramsden (1992) points out: “No educational resource, no matter how useful, can solve the fundamental prob‑ lems of education (…)” (p. 161). In the light of this, various contextual conditions have been proposed for the use of ICT in a manner conducive to an in ‑depth approach to learning (see DeJong, 1994 and Laurillard, 1993, 2002). We should also remember that just as different approaches to learning were detected in different study tasks, e‑learning tasks also admit of differ‑ ent approaches. This might lead us to consider the need, in parallel with intervention in the environ‑ ment in which ICT is used, to act on the level of the personal characteristics of the users. Summing up, everything indicates that ICT ‑assisted learning does not automatically lead to the adoption of an in‑depth approach (DeJong, 1994). If we are to make the in‑depth approach automatic, a number of variables would seem to be decisive, such as the specific design of the learning environments based on ICT, and the context in which it is used (i.e. the skills of the user and the surrounding envi‑ ronment).


41

From the authors’ perspective, it is therefore nec‑ essary to clarify the degree to which e‑learning can really contribute to the development of an in‑depth and more organized approach to learning, and which components of this type of learning are responsible for the adoption of the desired approach. More spe‑ cifically, it seems on the one hand that the evalua‑ tion of e‑learning should incorporate criteria capa‑ ble of measuring the degree to which it encourages the adoption of an organized, in‑depth approach to learning by users; and on the other that the design of e‑learning environments should be based on the findings of such an evaluation and on the principles which govern such approaches to learning.

META‑ LEARNING ASSISTED BY E‑ LEARNING AND APPROACHES TO LEARNING As in other areas of Educational Psychology, ICT features strongly in intervention in the learning skills of students. At the turn of the last century Entwis‑ tle et al. (1998) argued that “technology based on computers can be used not only to produce efficient learning materials and teaching, but also to support efficient learning by students” (p. 1). Studies such as Entwistle’s heralded a new wave in intervention and research in ICT‑assisted meta‑learning (Duarte, 1999). More specifically, this research focuses on the use of specialized e‑learning environments in the de‑ velopment of learning skills (e.g. applications which teach and enable the use of the strategy for the re‑ alization of conceptual maps). Meanwhile, the use of ICT for this purpose may also take the form of non ‑specialized applications. Jonassen (1996) for exam‑ ple proposes the use of programs for the construc‑ tion of databases as a way of developing strategies for organizing information. Finally, even applications designed for teaching curricular content can consti‑ tute a form of intervention in this area, as noted by Marincovich (1995, p. 2): “(...) because students are actively involved in the construction of knowledge rather than passively taking in information, they be‑ come conscious of how to improve their learning skills while they navigate through new problems”. At first glance, meta‑learning via e‑learning would seem to possess some significant advantages. 42

Firstly, students are known to be motivated by new technology (Laurillard, 1993). ICT can therefore constitute one way of encouraging students to enter the arena of global intervention in learning skills, as well as an incentive for them to ask for help in this regard (Solomonides & Swanell, 1995). Secondly, ICT can help to compensate for the impracticality of providing, for everyone at all times, training in learning skills (Tait & Entwistle, 1996). Thirdly, the media typically involved in an ICT environment en‑ able easier evaluation of personal learning patterns — which in turn enables intervention to be geared to the characteristics of each learner (e.g. Entwistle et al., 1998). Fourthly, the possibility of using informa‑ tion technology to construct excellent simulations provides students with a foretaste of new learning experiences (see Entwistle et al., 1987). Fifthly, since programming is no longer confined to a specialist few, educational actors and students are now able to take the initiative to produce their own applications for meta‑learning and e‑learning (e.g. Goldberg & Salari, 1997). Finally, since in certain circumstances ICT can facilitate an in‑depth approach to learning, it also constitutes a good way of promoting an in ‑depth approach to learning new learning skills. However, despite this wealth of potential, the real effectiveness of most specialized e‑learning en‑ vironments as a platform for meta‑learning remains to be proved. The fact is that most environments are based on the intuitive notions of programmers on how students “ought to” learn (Newman et al., 1998). Here too, then, we need an evaluation and a congruent design of these environments. Various types of e‑learning environments have been suggested in research into approaches to learn‑ ing. We will now examine some of the environments which currently exist. Entwistle et al. (1987) devised an “interactive simulator” for secondary school and university stu‑ dents⁶. This application comprises two modules: “theatre” and “blackboard”. The theatre module works by simulating situations typical of the 1st year of higher education (e.g. tutorials), which are pre‑ sented in the form of an adventure game. In other words, users are invited to make choices which, in conjunction with a variety of possible events, deter‑ mine how the “play” evolves. Students can ask at any time the reason for the appearance of the scenes


they are confronted with, and can also ask for advice on the right learning strategy. The blackboard mod‑ ule records the profile, actions and comments of the user, and the level which s/he managed to reach. The PASS (“Personalised Advice on Study Skills”) application, also devised by Entwistle et al., is designed for higher education students (es‑ pecially freshers) and teachers, and is one of the most complex and advanced applications of its kind (Entwistle et al., 1996, 1998; Tait & Entwistle, 1996; Tait et al., 1995; TLTP, 1998). Its objective is to point up danger signs (i.e. inadequate study skills) and consequently improve these skills, in this way contributing to a reduction in failure rates. More specifically, PASS is designed to cultivate the ac‑ quisition of “study techniques” and develop organ‑ ized, in‑depth approaches to learning. The program comprises three inter‑related modules: “Question‑ naire”, “Student View” and “Study Advisor”. “Questionnaire” is an evaluation module whose primary purpose is to identify the learning difficul‑ ties of the user. It evaluates: a) the student’s degree of preparation for higher education (e.g. entrance qualifications, autonomous study skills, study tech‑ niques, basic knowledge); b) the student’s approach to learning; c) his/her study techniques in different areas (e.g. lecture hall, reading, uncertainties, writ‑ ing, problem solving, organization and revision); d) other factors which hamper effective study (e.g. travel, health and stress, finance etc.). Evaluation is based on a series of interactive multiple‑choice questions (i.e. questions displayed on the monitor one by one, with the user required to click on the “correct” answer). The “Student View” module is a visualization tool designed to help understand the nature and extent of the learning difficulties detect‑ ed. Visualization takes the form of an “interactive graphic presentation” (i.e. the presentation of the results of the questionnaire in the form of a bi— or tri‑dimensional graph which takes the two or three learning approaches as axes). Finally, the “Study Ad‑ visor” module offers advice on learning approaches, health, stress and study techniques (for lectures, use of resources, tutorials, problem solving, oral presen‑ tations, group work, organizing time, reading, writ‑ ing, revision, exams, projects). This module uses a didactic method, but not in a prescriptive way: us‑ ers are encouraged to consider the advantages and

drawbacks of the different approaches to learning and to reflect on which approach is the best suited to their own case and context. Advice is available on two levels of complexity: a “summary” level which provides tips and tricks for better learning, and a “detailed” level which provides detailed suggestions and excerpts from replies from other students in re‑ search interviews on the learning process. A print function allows users to create a personalized guide to study techniques (i.e. the set of cues selected by the user, complemented by comments). Users also have the option of allowing their questionnaire re‑ sults to determine which content they can access via the “Study Advisor”, or of opting instead for “free” navigation. An online version of PASS was later de‑ veloped, which had the advantage of making it ac‑ cessible to a higher number of students (McCune, 1999)⁷. The creators of PASS then turned their at‑ tention to developing versions of the program for specific educational contexts (McCune, 1999). The IECM (“Integrated Engineering Course Map”) is an application designed by Solomo‑ nides (1993) which has been used in an initiative with higher education students (Solomonides & Swanell, 1995). The objective of the program was to prepare the students in the department of Mechani‑ cal Engineering at Nottingham Trent University for the learning they were to pursue⁸. This application comprised two modules: one on the curricular con‑ tent of the course, the other on the type of learning expected of them. The second module addresses the different types of motivation to study, differ‑ ent conceptions of learning (with valorization of a qualitative conception) and different approaches to learning. With an in‑depth approach presented as the preferred solution, the program provides in‑ struction on the skills necessary for the application of this approach — for learning in general and for reading and answering tests in particular. CLASS (“Couseware for Learning And Study Skills”) is an application developed by Kibby et al. (1995), specially designed for first‑year students with the objectives of promoting successful learning and the development of the ability to think critically. The program provides users with the opportunity to conduct a self‑assessment of their style of learn‑ ing and functions as a tutor, demonstrating and re‑ quiring the use of different learning strategies (e.g.


43

for management of time, reading, writing, group work). CLASS also features tools for the implemen‑ tation of strategies for writing, conceptual mapping, reading, and creating hypermedia applications. In an informal evaluation of CLASS, Gunn (1995) not‑ ed that the application succeeds in helping students attain their objectives and promotes the transfer of acquired skills to different contexts. “Skills Shop” is an application developed by Bailey et al. (1997), and is also directed at university students⁹. Users are first presented with the differ‑ ent approaches to learning, while being encouraged at the same time to develop an organized, in‑depth approach and dissuaded from adopting a superficial approach. To allow users to reach the objectives it proposes, the application offers the development of different learning strategies. Over the series of mod‑ ules it comprises, it acts as a strategic tutor for the management of time, learning in the lecture thea‑ tre context, reading, writing, revision and projects. “Skills Shop” also contains bibliographic references and a list of services in the area of learning strategies, as well as hyperlinks to websites on the same topic. Finally, we have to mention our own Aprender Melhor — Programa de apoio ao estudo (v.1.2), an e‑learning environment developed by the au‑ thors and whose objective is to help students self‑regulate their learning approaches (Duarte & Ramos do Ó, n. d.). More specifically, this ap‑ plication is designed to make users more aware of their learning processes and help them control them, and comprises five modules. Module one introduces users to the learning strategy concept, alerting them to the fact that the same strategy can be used at different information processing levels. Module two consists of a self‑assessment question‑ naire on the degree of use of the different strate‑ gies, accompanied by descriptions and illustra‑ tions of the strategies. The third module invites users to participate in activities whose objective is to demonstrate the different impacts of different learning strategies on the final result of learning. Module four offers personalized advice based on the user profile previously compiled, and offers a platform for the construction of personal strategies for changes in learning approaches. The fifth and last module allows users to systematically practise self‑regulation in the different learning strategies. 44

As they work in each module, users have continu‑ ous access to a profile which summarizes the re‑ sults they are obtaining. This application is cur‑ rently at the development and testing stage.

CONCLUSIONS This paper began by pointing that as in other learn‑ ing tasks (i.e. classroom/lecture theatre, reading, writing, problem solving), students mobilize a range of different learning approaches when confronted with learning situations based on ICT. According to the perspective by which we orient ourselves, these approaches reflect the interaction between different types of motivation and learning strategies. To a cer‑ tain extent these approaches can be seen as personal characteristics which students bring to the learning situations they encounter and which inform the way they organize themselves with regard to these situ‑ ations. In higher education, students and teachers — and the psychologists who give guidance in this milieu — have everything to gain from discovering the variety of approaches involved in e‑learning, for this allows them to diagnose and in some cases to al‑ ter the way learners address situations in which ICT is used as a learning resource. However, the personal approaches used in e‑learning are not immune to the influence of the context in which it occurs. Considering one of the most decisive aspects in this context is the environ‑ ment in which learning takes place, we examined the need for criteria of evaluation and design for learning environments based on ICT — criteria which will allow the learning environment to ef‑ fectively contribute to the quality of learning. In the view of the authors these criteria can be based on the knowledge of the general learning conditions which discourage a superficial approach and en‑ courage an organized, in‑depth approach to learn‑ ing. Much work remains to be done with regard to empirically establishing the degree to which the criteria followed are really conducive to improve‑ ments in learning. The authors also point out that this outcome depends not only on the e‑learning environment but also on other factors inherent to this environment. Even a “good” e‑learning en‑ vironment can have neutral — or even negative —


effects on learning if it is not coherent with other vi‑ tal components of the context: such as the conduct of the teacher or psychologist (who should therefore be aware of the risks) and the skills of the students. With regard to the latter aspect, we examined in more detail how ICT can be used as a resource for the development of learning skills in higher education students. More specifically, we analysed

the case of meta‑learning via e‑learning, highlight‑ ing how the latter can contribute both to the direct promotion of an organized, in‑depth approach to learning and to self‑regulation in the different ap‑ proaches. ICT can in fact be a particularly effective way of attaining these goals, given the potential of e‑learning as an active learning tool.


45

Endnotes 1. “Hypermedia” combines “hypertext” (i.e. a non‑linear way of structuring text) with “multime‑ dia” (i.e. “multisensorial” stimulation), involving navigation through a medium in which content is viewed and/or tasks accomplished. 2. “Interactivity” requires that the user chooses from alternative procedures, with each choice elicit‑ ing a different reaction from the system. 3. As noted, “hypermedia” is a conflation of “hypertext” and “multimedia”, thereby obtain‑ ing “(...) a better articulation with the way humans store and retrieve information than traditional linear and uni‑modal formats (...)” (Pollin, 1990 quoted in Gunn, 1995, p. 174). 4. Computer �� simulations work by testing differ‑ ent solutions to a given problem and generating an anlysis of each alternative. 5. Although tutorial learning seems to be more efficient in terms of motivation and the generation of ideas. 6. Of the various applications mentioned, this was the only one not directly tested as we were una‑ ble to gain access to a copy. 7. We thank the developer for allowing us online access to this e‑learning environment. 8. We thank the developers for providing us with a free evaluation copy of this application. 9. We thank the developers for providing us with a free evaluation copy of this application.

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van den Brink, K.; Alemany, I.; Plat, A.; Duarte, A.; Ericsson, L. & Slack, R. (2000). Students’ learning with educational multimedia in school — A multinational study. Presented at X Coló‑ quio AFIRSE Portuguesa. Lisboa: Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Univer‑ sidade de Lisboa.

Translated by Mark Ayton



i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Do creativity and university intertwine? Sara Bahia [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: The development of creative potential is one of the goals of educational intervention in se‑ veral contexts, including in higher education. The ability to innovate and critically analyse constitute essential aims at this teaching level. To what extent are these goals achieved? What are the specific concerns that higher education teachers should take into account in pursuing these goals? To answer these questions the creativity indices of 262 higher edu‑ cation students collected in 3 research studies were analysed. Based on the discussion of the results, some ideas are given as to how to stimulate the full development of the creative potential of university students. Key words: Creativity, Flexibility, Innovation, Critical thinking.

Bahia, Sara (2008). Do creativity and university intertwine? Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 49-60. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION Development of the ability to innovate and critically analyse constitutes an overriding aim of university education¹. Innovation describes a process that in‑ volves the application of the creative process to a product considered creative. The “new” problem is an epistemological concern, borne out in the work of Piaget, who says that to understand is to invent (Piaget, 1972), in other words, to create. However, ascertaining precisely what constitutes an innova‑ tion goes beyond the personal sphere and involves the context of creative production. The systematic approach (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988) therefore con‑ siders innovative and creative production the result of the person (the biological and the experience), the domain (area of knowledge) and the field (spe‑ cialists from a specific area that have the power to determine the structure of the domain and judge whether a product is creative). In turn, critical analysis is the result of a personal process linked to critical thinking, considered the opposite to reproductive and fragmented thinking (e.g. Ennis, 1989). Traditional conceptions of critical thinking point towards logic, i.e. towards convergent thinking, highlighting its logical, significant, disci‑ plined and self‑guided nature (Paul, 1992). In Bois‑ vert’s view (1999), critical thinkers in the “strong” sense of the term present seven independent traits, applicable to any domain of knowledge: intellec‑ tual humility, courage, empathy, integrity, persever‑ ance, faith in reason and intellectual sense of justice. 50

However, critical thinking involves other dimen‑ sions that go beyond logical processes, such as the production of original ideas and thought (Jonassen, 1996), intuition, imagination, creativity and analy‑ sis of thought processes to improve understanding (Litecky, 1992). Along these lines, Lipman (1991) ar‑ gues that critical thinking and creative thinking are interlinked, leading to complex thinking. To sum up, a broad perspective of creativity is found in the essence of processes that lead to an in‑ novative and critical attitude in relation to knowl‑ edge. Creativity is a human capacity that enables the perception of a problem and generation of new ideas (Torrance, 1975) or the capacity to reason in an independent, original and/or effective man‑ ner (Sternberg, 1988) with a problem or to create something new (Guilford, 1950). In Vygotsky’s view (1978) it is a quality inherent to the human essence insofar as each person becomes a flexible inventor of their own future and potentially contributes to the future of their culture through the development of creativity. This constitutes precisely the asset that University intends to nurture.

(IN)DEFINITION OF CREATIVITY Notwithstanding being an abstract concept, thanks to the “passion for abstraction” that has dominated secular scientific study of human behaviour (Kagan, 1998), creativity is multifaceted and encompasses multiple human dimensions, and is hence difficult

sísifo 7 | sara bahia | do creativity and university intertwine?

to define. Despite being impossible to capture the “whole”, E. P. Torrance (1988) advanced with a sys‑ tematisation of the most relevant processes involved in creativity: experimentation of difficulties in grasping the knowledge, the formulation of hypoth‑ eses about these inconsistencies, the assessment and testing of the positive solutions, the revision of each of these solutions, and finally, communication of the results. Undoubtedly the sphere relevant to creativity is the cognitive sphere. The cognitivist approach of creative solving of problems suggests the presence of two adjacent phases: the creation of something — generative process — and the examination, inter‑ pretation and assessment of something — explora‑ tory process (Finke et al., 1992). The mental proc‑ esses involved in creativity would therefore include the recovery, association, summary, transformation, analogical transfer and also the reduction of catego‑ ries. For the creative cognition model, variation in creativity resides in the different “mental agendas” that allow selection of the information generated (Bink & Marsh, 2000). But while the cognitive processes are important in the description of creativity, others are equally relevant. Processes of a motivational, personal, emotional and contextual order should be taken into consideration in analysing creativity. Recent approaches to creativity highlight the confluence of multiple dimensions. Amabile (1983) emphasises the integration of cognitive, social, personality and motivational variables in the creative process which includes interaction among motivation towards a task, the capacities and relevant knowledge in a do‑ main and the creative competencies. Other personality traits, such as willingness to take risks, affectivity, humour, breaking through borders or limits (e.g. Sternberg, 1985), linked to socio‑emotional competencies are at play with the cognitive components. Taking on challenges, dyna‑ mism, freedom, confidence and openness, time to let ideas mature, playfulness and humour, conflicts, backing up ideas, debating and also risk‑taking are among the most relevant personal dimensions for the expression of creativity (Isaksen & Lauer, 1998). Openness, independence, intuition, preference for complexity, tolerance towards ambiguity, the drive to achieve standards or meanings, the locus of

internal control and willingness to run risks are oth‑ er dimensions mentioned as relevant for the creative process (e.g. Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Owing to the multiple dimensions and their in‑ herent complexity, the only way to arrive at a con‑ sensus as regards the definition of creativity is by using more general definitions, which are broad enough to cover the various theoretical approaches that aim to describe creativity. However, too wide a scope ends up not being useful in demarcating fron‑ tiers and leaves gaps in terms of understanding the processes involved. Notwithstanding, one can state, without hesitation, that creativity involves the ability to go beyond traditional ideas, rules, standards or pre‑existing relations and create new ideas, forms, methods or interpretations with meaning². To sum up, creativity can be viewed as the ability to surpass what already exists and create something new. Both these concepts are considered part of the essence of the human being, leading to the inevitably creative construction and reconstruction of the past, for the interpretation of the present and the forced reflection on the personal, cultural and social future. The ability to produce ideas, the ability to relate con‑ cepts coming from different fields of knowledge, the ability to find unusual or even novel solutions, the ability to detail, the ability to express feelings, as well as the ability to surprise others, all contribute to a def‑ inition of creativity that can form basis in assessing creativity and, ultimately, its encouragement.

ASSESSMENT OF CREATIVITY The assessment of creativity is necessarily limited and reduced in that it is an indefinable, complex and limitless concept (Torrance, 1988). However, the most striking aspect of the creativity assess‑ ment paradox lies in the contradiction between the intended predictability underlying assessment and the unpredictable nature of creativity. Nevertheless, assessment of creativity is indispensable not only to describe the creativity level of the future social and cultural innovators, but also to analyse and under‑ stand the way educational practices should be mod‑ ified so as to garner their maximum potential. There are two kinds of creativity assessment: as‑ sessment of the creative process through standard


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tests or problem solving tasks in several fields of knowledge and assessment of creative production. The first category includes the creativity tests. Al‑ though there have been sporadic attempts to assess creative potential through tests for over a century, psychometric concerns only appeared in the 1950s, after the challenge launched by Guilford to members of the American Psychological Association (Guil‑ ford, 1950). This proposal to study creativity in the common individual, using pencil and paper tests, led to the elaboration of what is still today the most commonly used test in the world, the TTCT — Tor‑ rance’s Tests of Creative Thinking (Torrance, 1966). The TTCT consist of relatively simple verbal and figurative tasks that involve lateral thinking skills and problem solving. The aims of this set of tests include the general understanding of creative thinking, namely lateral thinking, as well as crea‑ tive expression, and also visual and spatial thinking (Torrance, 2000). The figurative tests, especially, require a deliberate effort to discover a creative solution to a problem and to structure what is in‑ complete (Torrance, 1966). These tests have led to one of the largest standard samples, with over 2000 research projects published, encompassing longitu‑ dinal and predictive validation (Cropley, 1999). The relation between performance in the test and future creative performance in real life is 0.62 and 0.57, re‑ spectively for males and females (Torrance, 1988). At European level another creativity measure has been gaining some support. The Test for Crea‑ tive Thinking — Drawing Production (TCT‑DP), formulated by Urban and Jellen (1996) — aims to assess creativity using a holistic and gestaltic ap‑ proach based on unfinished drawings and intends to assess cognitive and personality dimensions such as willingness to take risks, affectivity, humour, breaking through barriers or limits. It has proved to be a promising test in discriminating subjects who have high or low creativity levels in several areas of interest (Urban & Jellen, 1996). However, assessment of the creative process has been carried out through solving other kinds of broader tasks, such as solving problems covering several fields of knowledge (e.g. Sternberg & Lu‑ bart, 1996) using a series of criteria that include nov‑ elty, suitability or the aesthetic value of the response. As an alternative, assessment of creative products 52

seem to constitute a more ecological form of un‑ derstanding this difficult (or even almost impossi‑ ble) concept of defining, documenting and assess‑ ing creativity (Morais, 2005). The products reflect the personal traits of those who produce them, the process involved in their construction and the me‑ dium used, which are more similar to everyday or socially recognised situations in seeking to “grasp” the manifestation of creativity (Morais, 2005). Ama‑ bile (1996) believes that a product will be deemed creative if it is new and appropriated, useful, correct or of value for the task in question. Other authors point out other aspects such as relevance, suitability and originality (e.g. Nickerson et al., 1985), being powerful (Perkins, 1981), novelty, adapted to real‑ ity, communicable, aesthetically pleasing and capa‑ ble of change (MacKinnon, 1978), original novelty, transformational or germinal; and solution l; and also elaboration and summary, in the elegant sense, complex versus simple, understandable and well constructed (Besemer & Treffinger, 1981). However, the assessment of creativity is not limit‑ ed to analysis of creative production generated from tests or portfolios. One also has to consider self ‑assessment, even if it is not completely honest and impartial, as well as assessment carried out by oth‑ ers, whether they be peers, parents, teachers or ex‑ ternal evaluators. Moreover, assessment of creativity should also include other measures such as obser‑ vation, personality tests and biographical sketches. Only a combination of all this information can pro‑ vide an all‑encompassing assessment of creativity. The purpose of the assessment is also a cru‑ cial variable in the conjugation of the information devised for the different forms of creativity assess‑ ment. If the aim is a more individualised interven‑ tion of creativity, what is important is to understand the way the various dimensions assessed through creativity tests play off one another. The relative importance of each of these dimensions depends on the subjectivity of the conception of creativity of whoever is doing the assessing and the intervening. Therefore, if creativity is considered as a synonym of many ideas, the number of responses given in a certain period of time also counts. If creativity is considered a synonym of different ideas when faced with the same stimulus, then what counts is the flex‑ ibility given by the number of categories used in the


response. If creativity is considered a synonym of ideas that are different to others, in other words, ideas that nobody else had, then the emphasis is placed on the statistical criterion — originality. If the detail, the number of details and depth of the crea‑ tive production are valued, then the focus centres on the elaboration patent in the response. If creativity is considered a synonym of being different, namely in terms of an approach to a task expressed through emotions, then what is important is to deal with a series of complementary criteria in the test marks but used with less frequency in the research. And, finally, if creativity is considered a synonym of all of the above, then it is better to undertake a holistic ap‑ praisal of the protocol. However, the assessment may have research as its objective. The purpose is, in the final analysis, to cre‑ ate the possibility of a more general intervention. It is within this scope that this analysis of the creativity of university students is located. An attempt is made to find out, to a greater or lesser degree of exhaustion, the creativity indicators of three groups of university students, with a view to bringing about a possible fa‑ vourable change so as to enable the full development of the creative potential of future generations.

THREE RESEARCH STUDIES The results of three studies are briefly presented, which aim to find out the current status of the creativity of university students and which involve analysis of a total of over 3500 responses to differ‑ ent items of creativity given by 262 subjects who at‑ tend higher education. While the aims of each of the studies were different, they all gave an overall pic‑ ture of the creativity indicators of some university students, both in terms of results of standard tests and in terms of opinions about the theories behind creativity or self‑assessment. The creativity assessment tools used in these studies were the aforementioned TTCT and TCT ‑DP. In Study 1 a questionnaire was also used that aimed to find out the theories behind creativity and in Study 3 a creativity self‑assessment measurement was registered. Torrance’s Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT) is a set of tests that comprise a universal and timeless

benchmark measurement of creativity. The criteria assessed are fluency (number of responses), flex‑ ibility (number of categories used in each sub‑test), flexibility as indicated by the number of different categories of responses; originality, i.e. a criterion of statistical rarity; and also the elaboration, in other words, the amount of detail in the response (e.g. Torrance, 1966). The research over the last two dec‑ ades has included, upon suggestion from Torrance himself (e.g. 1988) a series of alternative criteria that has proven promising such as creativity indicators. This assessment is more qualitative and includes an appraisal of some criteria of the cognitive‑emotional order such as emotional expression; the presence of feelings and emotions, fantasy, humour, the richness of the details, or even a combination and summary of ideas. Other criteria can be of a more “technical” order, such as the communication of movement and action, breaking through barriers or internal or unu‑ sual visualisation, thus leading to a more enriching analysis of creativity (Torrance, 1988). The full set comprises a verbal part and a figu‑ rative part. The two figurative tests that are most studied and revealing consist of filling in incomplete lines in different drawings and giving them a title (Test 2) and drawing based on parallel lines (Test 3 in version A). The Test for Creative Thinking — Drawing Pro‑ duction devised by Urban & Jellen (1996) claims to be able to ascertain in a more comprehensive and holistic form the overall creative potential of the in‑ dividual. It also presupposes assessing not only moti‑ vational variables and cognitive traits, but also social obstacles to creativity. The aspects assessed include: Continuations; Completions; New elements; Con‑ nections made with lines; Connections made to pro‑ duce a theme; Boundary breaking that is fragment dependent; Boundary breaking that is fragment in‑ dependent; Perspective; Humour, affectivity and ex‑ pressive power of the drawing; Unconventionality A; Unconventionality B — symbolic, abstract, fictitious; Unconventionality C — symbolic, figure; Unconven‑ tionality D — non‑stereotyped; and also Speed. Study 1 In the first study (Bahia & Nogueira, 2005) 18 stu‑ dents from different fields of knowledge took part. The study aimed, on the one hand, to compare the


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responses of students from different areas of knowl‑ edge to the TTCT (complete version), and on the other hand to assess the underlying theories of creativity in terms of process and product. In gen‑ eral terms, there are some very creative students and some very uncreative ones in each of the groups and differences can be seen in the behaviour of each of the groups in the figurative and verbal tests. In the figurative tests the art and science group students are more fluent, flexible and original, with the results from the arts group considerably higher than those of the other groups. In the verbal tests, the humani‑ ties group almost always out‑performed the others. It was also seen that students who obtained higher re‑ sults in the four “classic” criteria also distinguished themselves in the complementary criteria that aimed to measure emotional expressiveness and assess the use of the technique to express an idea. In more specific terms, in this small sample the Humanities students showed better performance in fluency, flexibility and originality in the verbal tests and the Arts students performed better in the figu‑ rative tests (the only ones that include this assess‑ ment dimension). The Science students did well in some of the figurative tests in terms of originality and flexibility and in two of the verbal tests in terms of fluency and originality. In terms of representations of creativity, the par‑ ticipants in this study placed the emphasis on the creative thinking process and not on the solutions. They refer more to the generative processes (Finke et al., 1992), in other words, the creation of some‑ thing innovative through thinking or the imagina‑ tion and less to the exploratory processes. They as‑ sociate creation of ideas or products to a solid basis of knowledge and believe that creativity can be ex‑ pressed in multiple ways. The data that stands out in analysing the content of the protocols is unani‑ mous reference to the fact that innovation is implicit in creativity and the absence of the concept of flex‑ ibility in the conception of creativity. Study 2 This study involved 100 3rd and 4th year Psychology Degree students from Lisbon University and a pri‑ vate university (Nogueira et al., 2006). The specific aim was to compare the results of the tests 2 and 3 of the TTCT and TCT‑DP. The data suggested a 54

positive correlation between originality and pro‑ duction of the Torrance tests and the final results of the Urban and Jellen test. Comparing the results obtained by these 100 students in the TTCT with the results obtained by 246 pupils of the final years of Secondary Education (Bahia & Nogueira, 2006; Melo et al., 2006), no dif‑ ferences were found apart from the tendency for the university students to score better in the alternative criteria (cognitive‑emotional and technical) despite being less fluent, i.e. they produce fewer answers. However, when making an assessment in relation to flexibility, originality and elaboration according to fluency, the flexibility of the university students is slightly above that of Primary and Secondary School pupils. Also comparing the results of these students with those of the group of 81 teachers from different subject groups and teaching levels, one sees that the university students show substantially less creativity than the teachers. Compared to a sample from German university students, the results of the Portuguese students are slightly below the German average in version A of the TCT‑DP and considerably below it in version B, car‑ ried out after the first. This suggests a certain disin‑ vestment in carrying out the second version (version B), at least compared to the German sample, where the students performed better in the second test. The group of 44 students from Lisbon Univer‑ sity also answered questions that aimed to check the overall uptake in the assessment of one’s own creativity. As regards the overall assessment of the task to assess creativity, only three subjects admit‑ ted they did not like doing the task. The most pop‑ ular test for most of the subjects (70%) was test 3 of TTCT (parallel lines), as it proved to be a most stimulating challenge, in that it forced one to have many different ideas. Study 3 In a third study the answers to the TTCT and TCT‑DP of 144 students from the 1st Cycle of the In‑ tegrated Master’s in Psychology at Lisbon Univer‑ sity were analysed and the self‑assessment of crea‑ tivity registered. As regards the performance in the TTCT, the inclusion of alternative criteria enables positive differentiation between the Primary and Secondary School pupils and the group of students


who took part in study 2. More specifically, the only aspect in which these students seem to stand out is the inclusion of humour, fantasy or emotions in their answers. In relation to the performance in the TCT‑DP the results are very similar to the Study 2 sample, in other words, they are below the perform‑ ance of the German students. In relation to the self‑assessments, these stu‑ dents classified their creativity abilities as very poor, in other words they attributed an average of 2.5 in a scale from 1 to 5, which may indicate they do not believe they are able to be creative. The self ‑assessment of creativity and the TTCT and TCT ‑DP scores vary considerably, with no regular pat‑ tern emerging. Among the 10 most creative students in both tests, three assessed their creativity at level 4, four at level 3 and three at level 2, and this distri‑ bution coincided with that of the 10 students who returned the weakest creativity indicators. When compared with the sample of 81 teachers, these stu‑ dents are more modest than the teachers in assess‑ ing themselves (average of 2.5 against 3.5) who are indeed more creative.

GENERAL RESULTS From the analysis of the data obtained in these three studies, one can see that some university students score above average in creativity tests while others score far below the average. On average, higher edu‑ cation students are more creative than the students of 13 Primary and Secondary School classes, but are much less creative than a group of teachers. The university students represent creativity as a process that allows the generation of new ideas, at‑ tributing little relevance to the process of exploring alternatives to solve problems and flexibility in think‑ ing. In terms of self‑assessment, the students of this educational level perceive themselves as having little creativity — they do not believe they are very creative.

CONCLUSIONS Based on this study one cannot state that university students are uncreative. Such a statement would only be possible if the definition of creativity was

consensual and if the assessment carried out em‑ braced all the aspects involved in creativity. How‑ ever, the responses obtained by the 262 participants in the three studies leading to measurements that universally assess creativity do not allow us to re‑ fute the initial statement. One can only say that the university students tend not to show indications of a highly developed level of creativity. The most striking datum from this research is that the creativity of the university students assessed is more similar to that of Primary and Secondary School pupils than that of adults. However, taking a more detailed look one sees that the university students show more indications of ability for emo‑ tional expression and use of unconventional draw‑ ing techniques than the younger pupils. Moreover, these students tend to be slightly more flexible and original than Primary and Secondary School pu‑ pils, although they are less fluent, in other words, they give fewer responses, and seem rather to invest in fewer but wide‑ranging ideas, and do not go for repetitions. They are, nevertheless, very stereotyped in that they respond in a conventional and not very original manner, finding it difficult to break through barri‑ ers. As an example, the likelihood of a high score in the TCT‑DP is to a large extent dependent on recognising an element that is outside the frontiers suggested by the task. Only one in every hundred students included this outside element in their an‑ swer. Likewise, only 2 in every 100 risk linking the elements in the TTCT, in contrast to the group of teachers assessed with the same tests who associ‑ ated elements three times more often. These results suggest that the creativity of the Por‑ tuguese university students is not more developed than younger pupils. This panorama worsens when comparing the creativity of the Portuguese students with that of students from other countries. The situa‑ tion merits special attention, even more so if you take into account that the ability to innovate and analyse critically is not as developed as desirable. In a meticu‑ lous analysis of the data concerning each criteria of the creativity score assessments, one can see that the university student produces few ideas that are differ‑ ent, original or detailed in relation to the various cat‑ egories of knowledge. In overall terms, the students proved not to be particularly creative.


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What measures can be taken to increase the crea‑ tivity indices of the university students? In specific terms, the creative ideation of the stu‑ dents assessed seems to be beyond what would be desirable. However, having lots of ideas is a neces‑ sary condition for expressing creative potential, and consequently it would be desirable to increase the number of ideas that these student can come up with. VanTassel‑Baska (1998) states that boosting potential in creativity in formal education contexts involves developing the ability to takes risks intel‑ lectually through activities that arouse your interest, chosen from a list of alternative ideas and perspec‑ tives. As such, stimulation towards seeking prob‑ lems and themes of debate is in line with the idea that creativity involves the discovery of problems and not only the solving of problems (e. g. Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1975). Given that flexibility is a crucial characteristic of creativity, taking on different perspectives, even if unusual, increases production. However, flexibil‑ ity can be viewed in different ways. It may be the production of different ideas when faced with the same stimulus or idea. But it could also be explo‑ ration of the same theme based on different stimuli or ideas. In other words, flexibility can be viewed as an issue of many different categories or different elements within the same category. Regardless of the kind of flexibility in question, creativity implies flexible work (Fryer, 1996), especially taking on dif‑ ferent perspectives. Excessive structuring of tasks can constitute an obstacle to the creative solving of problems and to learning about what it is to take risks (Sternberg & Lubart, 1996). However, having ideas that are different to those of others, ideas that nobody else has, is also cru‑ cial for the expression of creativity. Originality is achieved when one does not act in line with what is expected. However, the culture in which we live is full of beliefs that constitute barriers to creativity, not only at social level, but also in economic and cultural terms (Nieman & Bennet, 2002). These be‑ liefs clamour for conformism, comparison, pressure towards realism, lack of space and time to develop curiosity (e.g. Sternberg, 2001). Nevertheless, one of the characteristics of creativity most commonly described is the endeavour to overcome obstacles, take sensible risks and tolerating ambiguities (e.g. 56

Barron & Harrington, 1981; Sternberg & Lubart, 1996). Therefore, the opportunity to develop these personal traits can empower the expression of crea‑ tivity and contribute towards a society that gives the opportunity to the production of knowledge and not its mere reproduction. The amount of detail and depth of creative pro‑ duction should not be underestimated. It is in de‑ veloping one’s response that often one not only “fine‑tunes” the idea but one also produces new ideas. In this elaboration, time and space should be given to the aspects that are most closely connected to emotions. However, creativity involves a dynamic among all the aspects mentioned, whose expression is empowered by the establishment of a creative cli‑ mate that supports and encourages new productions (Amabile, 1999). As stated by Fryer (1996), creative education implies freedom to explore and question, which is important to provide the opportunity to go into depth, to exhibit, to discover and solve a lot of issues and problems based on the readings and debates inside and outside the specific domain of knowledge one is seeking to impart. A creative climate should not apply pressure towards realism, whereby in “planting one’s feet firmly on the ground” one in‑ hibits the willingness to invent (Amabile, 1999). This creative environment fosters the interest to learn and nurtures flexible and critical reflection, arousing cu‑ riosity, stimulating originality, encouraging an active posture that transforms the reality. However, the search for problems and ideas de‑ pends on clearly structuring the aims to be achieved, which are essential for creativity to be expressed (Amabile, 1999), as creativity depends on the de‑ velopment of converging and diverging skills (e.g. VanTassel‑Baska, 1998). Hence, the creation of well defined but not excessively rigid goals, leads to the desirable endeavour to overcome obstacles, to take risks, to tolerate ambiguities, as well as a taste for challenging the masses, immersing oneself in a task, passion for work and concentration on the activity itself and not its possible rewards, which constitute aims of University itself. The results obtained in the research described can be viewed in the light of theories from many authors involved in encouraging creativity in the educational context who perceive the teaching in general as uncreative and accuse it of placing more


value on reproduction instead of productive and creative learning (e.g. Hennessey, 2003). A lot rides on providing the knowledge in a framework that en‑ ables the selection of generated information (Bink & Marsh, 2000), the search for new problems and questions (Getzels & Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) and

the production of new knowledge. The warning of Alexander Graham Bell, “never walk a trodden path, as it will only lead to where other have already been,” will certainly help the creation of a University that produces more creative students.


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Endnotes 1. According to point 3 of Article 11, Subsection III of Law no. 46/86, of 14 October (Base Law of Education System) which refers to the goals of uni‑ versity education. 2. Webster Encyclopædia, 1996.

Bibliographical references Amabile, T. M. (1983). The social psychology of cre‑ ativity. New York: Springer‑Verlag. Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context. Boul‑ der, CO: Westview Press. Amabile, T.M. (1999). How to kill creativity. Har‑ vard Business Review, 76, 5, pp. 77‑87. Bahia, S. & Nogueira, S. I. (2005). A criatividade dos estudantes universitários: como difere com a área de conhecimento. Retrieved September 2007 from http://fs‑morente.filos.ucm.es/publi‑ caciones/iberpsicologia/lisboa/bahia/bahia.htm Bahia, S. & Nogueira, S. I. (2006). A criatividade emerge na adolescência? Uma abordagem pre‑ liminar. Sobredotação, 7, pp. 161‑175. Barron, F. & Harrington, D. M. (1981). Creativity, intelligence and personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, pp. 439‑476. Besemer, S. & Treffinger, D. J. (1981). Analysis of creative products: review and synthesis. Journal of Creative Behavior, 15, 3, pp. 158‑178. Bink, M. L. & Marsh, R. L. (2000). Cognitive regu‑ larities in creative activity. Review of General Psy‑ chology, 4, pp. 59‑78. Boisvert, J. (1999). La formation de la pensée cri‑ tique. Théorie et pratique. Canada: De Bœck Université — Ed. du Renouveau Pédagogique. Cropley, A. J. (1999). Definitions of creativity. In M. A. Runco & S. Pritzker (eds.), Encyclopedia of creativity. Volume 1. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 511‑524. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1988). Society, culture, and person: a systems view of creativity. In R. J. Sternberg (ed.), The nature of creativity: con‑ temporary psychological perspectives. NY: Cam‑ bridge University Press, pp. 325‑339. Ennis, R. H. (1989). Critical Thinking and Subject Specificity: Clarification and Needed Research. 58

Educational Researcher, 18, 3, pp. 4‑10. Finke, R. A.; Ward, T. B. & Smith, S. M. (1992). Creative cognition: Theory, research, and appli‑ cations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Fryer, M. (1996). Creative Teaching & Learning. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Getzels, J. W. & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). From problem solving to problem finding. In I. A. Tay‑ lor &. J. W. Getzels (eds.), Perspectives in cre‑ ativity. Chicago: Aldine Publishing, pp. 90‑116. Guilford, J. P. (1950). Presidential address to the American Psychological Association. American Psychologist, 5, pp. 444‑454. Hennessey, B. A. (2003). The social psychology of creativity. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Psychology, 47, pp. 253-271. Isaksen, S. G. & Lauer, K. J. (1998). Relationship between cognitive style and social culture. Euro‑ pean Journal of Personality, 12, pp. 187‑198. Jonassen, D. H. (1996). Using Mindtools to Develop Critical Thinking and Foster Collaboration in Schools. In D. H. Jonassen (1996), Computers in the Classroom: Mind tools for critical thinking. Columbus: OH: Merrill/ Prentice Hall, pp. 23‑40. Kagan, J. (1998). Three Seductive Ideas. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Litecky, L. (1992). Great teaching, great learning: Classroom climate, innovative methods, and critical thinking. In C. A. Barnes (ed.), Critical Thinking: Educational imperative. San Fran‑ cisco: Jossey Bass, pp. 83‑90. Lipman, M. (1991). Thinking in education. Cam‑ bridge: Cambridge University Press. MacKinnon, D. (1978). In Search of Human Effec‑ tiveness: Identifying and developing creativity. Buffalo, NY: Bearly Limited. Melo, A.; Ornelas, M.; Gomes, N.; Lopes, R. & Máximo, R. (2006). África em Portugal; a neces‑ sidade de inclusão de referências culturais afri‑ canas no Currículo de Educação Visual do 3º Ciclo. Relatório de Actividades de Integração da Profissionalização em Serviço da Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Univer‑ sidade de Lisboa. Morais, M. F. (2005). A avaliação da criatividade: A opção pelos produtos criativos. Recre@rte, 4. Retrieved September 2007 from www.iacat. com/Revista/recrearte


Nickerson, R. S.; Perkins, D. & Smith, E. E. (1985). The Teaching of Thinking. Hillsdale, New Jer‑ sey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Nieman, G. & Bennet, A. (2002). Business Man‑ agement: A value chain approach. Pretoria: Van Schaik Publishers. Nogueira, S. I.; Bahia, S. & Almeida, L. (2006). Dois testes de criatividade: a avaliação da mesma criatividade? Comunicação apresentada no VI Congresso da ANEIS: SobreSobredotação, perícia e Meta desEnvolvimento: Aprenderaexcelência, Coimbra, Novembro. Paul, R. (1992). Critical thinking: What every person needs to survive in a rapidly changing world. San‑ ta Rosa, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Perkins, D. N. (1981). The Mind’s Best Work. Cam‑ bridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Piaget, J. (1972). Où va l’éducation?: comprendre, c’est inventer. Paris: Denoël/Gonthier. Sternberg, R. (1985). Implicit theories of intelli‑ gence, creativity and wisdom. Journal of Person‑ ality and Social Psychology, 49, pp. 607‑627. Sternberg, R. J. (1988). Mental self— government: a theory of intellectual styles and their develop‑ ment. Human Development, 1, pp. 197‑224. Sternberg, R. J. (2001). What is the common thread of creativity? Its dialectical relation to intelli‑ gence and wisdom. American Psychologist, 56, 4, pp. 360‑362. Sternberg, R. J. & Lubart, T. I. (1996). Investing in creativity. American Psychologist, 51, 7, pp. 677 ‑688.

Torrance, E. P. (1966). The Torrance Tests of Cre‑ ative Thinking: Technical— norms manual (re‑ search ed.). Princeton, NJ: Personnell Press. Torrance, E. P. (1975). Tests de pensée créative de E. P. Torrance: Manuel. Paris: Les Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliqué. Torrance, E. P. (1988). The nature of creativity as manifest in its testing. In R. J. Sternberg (ed.), The nature of creativity: contemporary psycho‑ logical perspectives. NY: Cambridge University Press, pp. 43‑75. Torrance, E. P. (2000). On the edge and keeping on the edge. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Urban, K. K. & Jellen, H. G. (1996). Test for Cre‑ ative Thinking — Drawing Production (TCT ‑DP). Frankfurt: Swets Test Services. VanTassel‑Baska, J. (1998). Counseling talented learners. In J. VanTassel‑Baska (ed.), Excellence in educatinggifted and talented leamers. 3rd edi‑ tion. Denver, CO: Love, pp. 489‑510. Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The devel‑ opment of higher psychological processes. Cam‑ bridge, MA: Harvard University Press.



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i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Collaborative methodologies, education in and towards responsibility in nurse training Mª Aurora Rodríguez Borrego [email protected] Nursing Faculty of Córdoba University

Julia Boronat Mundina [email protected] Faculty of Education and Social Work of Valladolid University

Isabel Freire [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: This multiple case study¹ covers three experiments implemented in University Degrees in Nursing, in which learning processes encouraging responsibility were implemented. Action research was the guiding principle of this task. The stages followed were similar to those of the Nursing Healthcare Process. The three cases were geared towards and im‑ pregnated with a cooperative methodology, aimed at achieving significant learning on the real meaning of responsibility. The case study was carried out in a qualitative methodolo‑ gy background. This strategy enables a holistic and significant study to be undertaken of an event or phenomenon, in this case university teaching and learning, within the real con‑ text in which it is produced (nursing degree lessons), and requires that several different didactic strategies are put into action and various monitoring and assessment instruments are put in place, which represent consistent sources to contrast with the process and the results obtained. Key words: Collaborative methodologies, Higher education, Case study, Educate in responsibility, Nurse training.

Rodríguez Borrego, M. A.; Boronat Mundina, J. & Freire, I. (2008). Collaborative methodologies, education in and towards responsibility in nurse training. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 61-72. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION It is the nursing professional’s responsibility to take care of human beings from an integral perspective. The multiculturalism that is today part of our lives, in the most wide‑ranging domains, and the diversity this implies, constitutes a great challenge to modern ‑day nursing. It implies that in training future nurses teaching and learning methods and strategies are adopted that lead to cooperation, consensus, re‑ flection, adaptation to change, diversity and the unforeseen. Therefore, the acquisition of reflective and cooperative skills is clearly indispensable. The work we present is based on these principles, conse‑ quently leading to the students gradually accepting responsibility for their own learning. It is undertaken in a university environment and intends to put into practice the principles that preside in the Sphere of European Higher Education, which centres atten‑ tion on the learning of the student, in which coop‑ erative learning acquires a major role, which implies “education in and towards responsibility”. The purpose of this research was to establish a dynamic of commitment and responsibility in train‑ ing the students, which in the future will be reflect‑ ed in their professional work as nurses. The aims that guide the process were: a) applying the spirit of European convergence as regards teaching meth‑ odology, driving forward collaborative learning; b) putting into practice the principles of democratic education in the classroom, in certain curricular modules of the Nursing degree; c) reflecting on the 62

teaching action itself, aimed at improving; c) assess‑ ing the process monitoring the results obtained.

AXIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH The terms “responsibility” and “response” are constant factors in the nursing profession, mean‑ ing they are aspects of personal and social develop‑ ment that have to be interiorised by the university students who are preparing themselves to exercise this profession. We are aware that in tackling this aspect of training we are clearly dealing with the field of the intangible. We have found, however, sev‑ eral works that from an axiological perspective have been carried out with the intention of grasping the intangible. They all heavily focus on clarifying the meaning of the term responsibility, as a value and also as a crucial attitude of individuals in Western society, while in the workplace (Jonás, 1995; Ro‑ dríguez Borrego, 1999, 2004). Cortina (2000) states that we organise our lives based on what we value and on what we prefer. In truth, values whether they be aesthetic, intellectual, religious, moral, etc, as qualities of the things, ac‑ tions and people that attract us, help us to construct an inhabitable world. From our point of view, moral values are those that any person or institution should have, and which any action should be subject to, so that one can call oneself human in the full sense of the word. Given that responsibility is a value, the

sísifo 7 | rodríguez, boronat, freire | collaborative methodologies, education in and towards …

theoretical benchmark of the research presented here is the Pedagogy of Values, in its broadest sense, as pointed out by Tierno (1996): “If the world of val‑ ues can serve as a script for individuals in their aspi‑ rations for peace and fraternity, for the same reason they should act as the script for individuals in their desires for self‑fulfilment and perfection” (p.19). Putting ourselves in the shoes of the trainer of fu‑ ture nursing professionals and also trainers of train‑ ers, it is vital that we commit ourselves to preparing students such that, as future professionals, they re‑ spond to requests that are put to them in such a way that their responses are grounded on human values. As such, as we mentioned above, our proposal it aimed specifically at the commitment to educate in responsibility and towards responsibility. Responsibility is intimately linked to the set of beliefs that guide our everyday social, ethical and moral values which lead to certain beliefs. As a con‑ sequence, an education towards and in moral val‑ ues can only be successful if these values are not left hanging merely as ideas, but rather they embody the beliefs in our day‑to‑day lives. In the case of univer‑ sity education, one thing is what we read, the ideas and content of a subject; and another is the world of beliefs that we experience every day, i.e. what we do professionally. Translating the much emphasised gap/distortion between theory and practice leads us to balance the need to educate based on and geared towards coherent responses, in accordance with beliefs, i.e. educating based on and geared towards responsible responses. In this case, the researcher/trainer himself faces a challenge: to identify and assess the existence of lack of responsibility; from all points of view this goal involves a difficult and complex approach, al‑ beit feasible if we invest in carrying out lessons with cooperative methodologies, as we will see below. Responsibility is a value that can be understood based on different perspectives. This value can be present, materialised, assessed, researched, grasped and, ultimately, one can educate oneself in and to‑ wards responsibility. In our professional environ‑ ment it is unquestionable that the practice of nursing should be impregnated with responsible actions. As such, we believe that the university training of future nurses has to incorporate the principle of responsibil‑ ity, based on democratic and collaborative education.

TRAINING FOCUS: COOPERATIVE LEARNING Starting from the axiological framework presented above and given that the chief goal of our research project is to educate university students, future Nursing professionals, in responsibility and towards responsibility, it is necessary to outline and explain the pedagogical options that have been taken. Our option for a methodology which focuses on cooperative learning, while in part deriving from the current trends regarding university policy, in the framework of European convergence it undoubt‑ edly responds to the social, educational and health needs of society, which originate from the values and principles inherent to democracy. Principles such as participation, collaboration, sharing of interests, con‑ sensus, decision making, autonomy were the factors underpinning the pedagogical options of this project. Moreover, this methodology in coherent with the guidelines established in Tuning (González & Wagenaar, 2003) insofar as the educational process is geared towards the development of skills that are reflected in giving student to the chance learn how to learn, preparing themselves for a process of life ‑long training. In order to put these principles into practice we establish the following relational struc‑ ture to guide and structure our research: problem based learning, such as didactic foundations; coop‑ erative learning, as a practical tool for implementing the learning process; and significant learning, as the product that is aimed for, with a long‑term reflection. Cooperative learning is a generic term linked to a set of teaching procedures that are based on split‑ ting the class into small mixed and heterogeneous groups, in which the students work together, coor‑ dinating among one another, to solve academic tasks and deepen their learning. The cooperative method‑ ology, worked on and contrasted by several authors (Bará & Valero, 2005; Bará et al., 2005; Johnson & Jonhson, 1999, 2006; Ovejero, 1993; Slavin, 1991), allows inter‑relation between the actors of the edu‑ cational process, as part of a commitment in order both to share the knowledge and build new knowl‑ edge, and is as such coherent with the democratic values that both govern and underpin it. According to Cuseo (cited by Bará & Valero, 2005), cooperative learning responds to the following


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characteristics: a) encourages the active involvement of the student in the learning process; b) capitalises on the capacity of groups to increase the levels of learning by means of interaction among classmates; c) reduces drop‑out rates; d) allows the implementa‑ tion of education grounded on freedom and respon‑ sibility: e) encourages independent and self‑directed learning; f) favours the development of ability for crit‑ ical reasoning; g) facilitates the development of writ‑ ing skills and oral communication; h) increases the satisfaction and enthusiasm of the students for this learning method, and leads to more positive attitudes in relation to the matters under study; i) allows the different learning styles of the process to be followed; j) develops leadership skills; k) prepares students as citizens, so that they can face up to the challenges of today’s society and job market with more maturity. To implement an effective cooperative initiative, it is crucial that there is a positive interdependence between the members of the group, an individual and shared responsibility and a reflection on the functioning of the activity in each group. These conditions occur when the group members discuss the scope of the goals and value the effectiveness of their work in cooperation. Problem based learning (PBL), although used for many years, is one of the renewed strategies of the teaching‑learning process that has been most con‑ solidated in the Higher Education institutions which have decided to implement ECTS credits (Martínez Ortega et al., 2006). In the opinion of Bará and Valero (2005), PBL is a didactic strategy in which the stu‑ dents, organised into groups, develop projects geared towards the following goals: integrating knowledge and skills of several areas, developing high‑level intel‑ lectual abilities, encouraging learning on one’s own and in a team, favouring self‑assessment. Morin (2002), in his work The seven Complex Lessons in Education for the Future, in the chapter on the fifth lesson, points out: “one has to learn how to face uncertainty, given that knowledge supposes navigating an ocean of uncertainties through archi‑ pelagos of certainties”. Undoubtedly, PBL helps us to learn to face problematic and uncertain situa‑ tions. In training nurses, PBL is backed up by a well ‑grounded trajectory of research and reflection, with authors such as Molina et al. (2003); Zapico (2004); Juanola (2004); Blanco et al. (2005) standing out, 64

who suggest the target in nurse training is that they are able to develop the different aspects of their pro‑ fessional role in an integrated manner, defined in the form of skills. The bedrocks of problem based learning, ac‑ cording to Font (2004), are as follows: the problem or guiding principle; the student and the teacher, who acts as a tutor; the activity, seen as a coopera‑ tive action, and the assessment that is part of the process itself, taking several hues: self‑assessment, assessment among peers, hetero‑assessment and co ‑assessment. Finally, significant learning is presented as a consequence of applying the collaborative method‑ ologies, which are indispensable to live, move and evolve within the scope of the knowledge. Signifi‑ cant learning, in the present case, implies a personal exercise of reflection, i.e. a dialogue with the self, through which students elaborate and interiorise knowledge, capacities and skills, based on their own interests and needs, in other words in real and everyday situations in the field of health. Significant learning has special relevance in cognitive and at‑ titude training for “educating in responsibility and towards responsibility”. At this point we want to emphasise the impor‑ tance of the teacher in this kind of methodology, who is the person who guides, facilitates, helps, shares and plays a decisive role in the whole assess‑ ment process, whether dealing with the students’ assessment or assessment of his/her own teaching practice. Representing an authority that is simulta‑ neously moral and formal, the teacher is a reference point for the young student, a human, professional and scientific model (German, 2004). In an epoch of substantial change, the teachers’ challenge, namely higher education teachers, resides in the ability to innovate, incorporating the people involved in the training process into a future vision.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This case study is part of a qualitative methodology framework. While there is no agreement among the authors regarding whether it is a research method or a strategy, they all agree on its potential to produce information based on and concerning the singulari‑


ties and particularities of the actions and situations. Yin (2001) defines the case study as a “research method that allows a holistic and significant study of a contemporary event or phenomenon, within the real context in which it is produced. As such, it is difficult to establish limits between phenomenon and context, leading to the need to use multiple sources of evidence”. What are the issues and aims of the case study? The research project was carried out based on the following starting questions: 1. To what extent do corporative methodologies favour the acquisition of the “being responsible” skill in its two facets: responding and accepting the consequences derived from this response? 2. Could it be that cooperation in learning and ac‑ ceptance of shared commitments leads to more significant learning and translates into more re‑ sponsible learning? 3. What kind of influence exercises teaching cen‑ tred on the students, whereby they actively take part in the different learning situations, includ‑ ing assessment with its self‑assessment facet, so as to develop a responsible attitude? 4. What are the processes that cooperative educa‑ tion puts into place in training of nurses, with a view to a critical transformation of the nursing profession? Based on Tuning (González & Wagenaar, 2003), in the curricular modules in question, we attempted to encourage the development of skills in the domain of knowledge, of being and know‑how, which in‑ cludes “wanting to do” (Pereda & Berrocal, 2001, cited by Rodríguez, 2007). All these aspects of the training process are closely linked to education in responsibility, understood as a response in freedom, which demands a voluntary and conscious decision. The purpose of this research project follows this line of thinking and the educational intentions that govern it are closely linked to the research ques‑ tions listed above. As the overall goal the intention is to establish a dynamic of better commitment in the training of university students that in the future is reflected in the professional work as nurses; this

commitment should be understood in order to edu‑ cate oneself “in responsibility and towards respon‑ sibility”. The specific aims that guided the entire action research process were as follows: 1. Apply the spirit of convergence at the level of the teacher’s methodology: ∙ Centre the teaching on the students’ learning. ∙ Educate the students in and towards respon‑ sibility. ∙ Encourage teamwork. ∙ Implement cooperative, collaborative and problem‑based learning. ∙ Incorporate self‑assessment and hetero‑assess ment, as part of the teaching‑learning process. 2. Put into practice the principles of democratic education in the classroom, in certain curricular modules of the Nursing degree. ∙ Nurture the development of cooperation with others in each person (Dewey, cited by Romo and Nubiola, 2005). ∙ Respect individual initiative, equal opportu‑ nities and intellectual freedom (Dewey, cited by Romo and Nubiola, 2005). ∙ Foster real and active participation by the students in building their own educational process. 3. Reflect on the teaching action, aimed at improv‑ ing it. 4. Assess the process implemented and the results obtained. ∙ Deepen knowledge about the respective cur‑ ricular modules. ∙ Analyse the responses of the students and the teacher, referring back to what was planned and/or the commitments made. Institutional and academic context At the moment it is obvious that higher education institutions are undergoing change, and this change constitutes a challenge to any university teacher. In the specific case of Nursing teachers, given that it is a question of training people who will be responsible for the health of others, we are in an extraordinarily complex field in which several perspectives, hues, contexts, forms and approaches intermingle. Both in the field of Nursing practice and in the field of their


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training, we are dealing with human beings, with all the aspects this entails. As such, we are dealing with aspects related to health and illness, where each ail‑ ment and each sick person has their defined charac‑ teristics. Moreover, university teaching is linked to a social and educational context that is deeply rooted in culture, where the teacher is the holder of knowl‑ edge and the students are mere receptors of it. Fi‑ nally, we witness a complex situation where the theo‑ retical training of Nursing students is complemented with practical training in Health Centres and Hospi‑ tals, and there is not always articulation between the information and a true training process. As for the socio‑educative context, we situate the multiple case study on two university centres, Span‑ ish Nursing Faculties, located in cities with an av‑ erage population of 60 000 inhabitants (Ponferrada and Soria), which belong to the campuses of Léon University and Valladolid University, respectively. The study was carried out in three different cur‑ ricular modules (Nursing Diagnoses, Oral Health and Nursing of Surgical‑Medical Specialties), with three different groups of students, although in the case of the first two curricular modules, which are optional, a few of the students overlapped both subjects. The fieldwork was carried out over two academic years, 2004/05 and 2005/06, in the aforementioned univer‑ sity centres. The curricular modules in relation to the first and second cases (Ponferrada) are optional, with a credit load of 4.5 credits each and in the third case (Soria) it is compulsory, with a load of 3 credits. The number of students enrolled was 15 in the first case, 44 and 50 in the second and third, respectively. When the research started, the introduction of innovative experiences in the backdrop of European convergence practically did not exist on Ponferrada Campus, which led to the need for an additional effort to raise awareness among the university stu‑ dents and get them involved; this was not the case at Soria Campus, where there was greater knowledge about the European Higher Education Space and about its repercussions on university teaching, even though there were no experiments comparing inno‑ vative methodologies. Given this complex reality, at the heart of the research, which in part we present here, was the deliberate intention by one of the authors to carry out a pedagogical experiment in the classes so as to 66

encourage democratic and collaborative education. The option for an action research case study was the ideal medium to obtain knowledge, reflect and intervene.

RESEARCH PROCESS: MULTIPLE CASE STUDY In the study we are reporting on, the research strat‑ egy used was an action research multiple case study, geared towards democratic and collaborative edu‑ cation in the classroom. It is a holistic multiple case study, which increases the chances of contrasting and comparing data, in line with the similarities and/or differences. In analysing the data a content analysis technique was used which allowed us to draw up several categories. The following steps during the undertaking of each case were gradually adjusted to the following intervention scheme, through the establishment of democratic and cooperative education in the class‑ room, expressed in the following terms: a) Negotiation, between the teacher and the pupils, of the aims to be achieved, content to be tackled, methodology, activities to carry out, organisa‑ tional aspects concerning space, time, resources and assessment system: self‑assessment, hetero ‑assessment and objective proof. b) Definition of how the cooperative methodology and Problem Based Learning will be applied, so as to lead to significant learning. c) Schedule for undertaking the programme of the respective curricular modules: in the case of Nursing Diagnoses and Oral Health, during the second third of the 2004/05 academic year, and in the case of Nursing of Surgical‑Medical Spe‑ cialities, during the academic year of 2005/06. d) Monitoring of the data collection process through the use of wide‑ranging tools, devised for this purpose: ∙ Student presentation forms at the start of the experiment. ∙ Negotiations in writing of an individual na‑ ture. ∙ Fieldwork folder/portfolio. ∙ Records of individual interviews.


∙ Records of participant observation. ∙ Records of the assessment.

RESULTS OBTAINED The information gathered was so abundant and wide‑ranging that it is difficult to systematise it in this short space. The triangulation of the data obtained in three cases, based on the use of different strategies and tools throughout the training process, allows us to organise the results around these aspects: ∙ Initial assessment and written commitment of the pupils. On the first day of lessons the stu‑ dents answered a questionnaire, which provided us with valuable information about their ex‑ pectations, interests, professional expectations, etc. As well as the presentation of the curricu‑ lar module, it was indispensable to carry out an initial negotiation on the methodology, activities and means of assessment. The commitments made essentially revolved around assiduity and also participation, the undertaking of tasks and drawing up of the fieldwork folder. ∙ Drawing up the portfolios. Through analysis we can observe that, over time, there has been a positive evolution of the products drawn up. In the first case it is easy to see the importance the students attach to the contents; in contrast, in the second and third cases other aspects begin to emerge, such as opinions and conclusions on the work carried out. Also the formal aspects are more carefully worked on. As well as the endogenous factors of the situation itself, namely the teachers’ learning from reflecting on their practices, this may also be due to the fact the convergence proc‑ ess is gradually taking hold in the university envi‑ ronment, and as such, it is becoming increasingly accepted that the learning process must revolve around the student (Boronat, 2006). ∙ Role played by the teacher. The teacher’s records increased in quantity and in depth, deriving from greater perspicacity and involvement in the observation, as the experiment progressed. The teachers/researchers recognise they are protago‑ nists to a certain extent through their words, however there are also indications of change; as

a consequence, we can state that the incorpora‑ tion of an innovative methodology is possible and based on it you can engender significant changes in the teacher’s action, especially when the process takes place through real involvement of the teacher in the change, in the research and in the reflection about and during this change (Caetano, 2004; Freire, 2001). ∙ Monitoring through tutorials. The evolution in the tutorials was obvious, with the students in the first two cases attending them and com‑ plying. As for the tutorials of the third case, in groups, there was a considerable advance, in that the students did not only come to the tutorial, but they also reflected on and valued its dynam‑ ics and registered these thoughts in their field‑ work folder. In both cases the tutorial is an aspect that is highly valued by the students. ∙ Assessment system. The assessment was not uni‑ form, given that different procedures were used. In the first case, self‑assessment was given prior‑ ity, which was very focussed on assiduity; in the second hetero‑assessment was used, of a more conventional nature, even though the criteria was agreed beforehand with the students; in the third case, the assessment was rich and diversi‑ fied, using different procedures. In this case, the application of a questionnaire of critical inci‑ dents revealed the positive and negative aspects of the process implemented and the correspond‑ ing improvement ideas. Overall, we positively view the good uptake in the implementation of this methodological focus by the students, and the evolution of many of them with regard to greater acceptance of their responsibilities as students and incorporation of a critical attitude and thinking about themselves. We therefore believe that these experiments resulted to a certain degree in laying the foundations of know‑how‑to‑be and know‑how, which led to the sense of responsibility which is where we ultimately wanted to get to.

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS In the three case studies, the intention was to en‑ courage cooperative action in the training process,


67

although this was not fully achieved. The coopera‑ tive activity demands more time, more work and a greater sense of responsibility. Managing to get a team to function with an independent conscience is a complex process, which many factors contrib‑ ute to, ranging from the convictions of the students themselves (it is easier to achieve them when they are convinced of their benefits and assiduously ap‑ ply them in their learning), to the convictions and pedagogical and educational values of the teacher; but the climate and culture of the educational or‑ ganisation are also at play and in the final analysis the system as a whole. Despite the “winds of change” in higher educa‑ tion in the different countries of the European Un‑ ion, the universities are largely very deep‑rooted in the culture of working in traditional groups, where in general one can observe an obvious imbalance in forces, as some make more effort than others and often the teachers encourage individuality and com‑ petition more than cooperation. In this case, the in‑ troduction of a methodological change, at times, led to a response that we classify as corporativist, which were observed in the hetero‑assessment processes. It seemed obvious that the group protected itself from a kind of external threat — the methodological change, without fully accepting a responsible and shared assessment. We start with the assumption that reflective learning that encourages dialogue and collaboration favours significant learning about what it means “to be responsible”. Even though in our project, the concept of the cooperative group did not garner the full agreement of the students, reflection was the dominant note. The students, through their words, reflected this change: ∙ “You discover the things you have to focus on, you think for yourself ” ∙ “You learn how to value things through our knowledge, we are learning to be critical and to act logically and not through memory” ∙ “I learn to reflect on what is around me, above all in relation to the patients and to relate the patho‑ logical with the psychological which is very im‑ portant and which we sometimes don’t attach much importance to.” 68

One of the apriorisms of the so‑called Higher Educa‑ tion European Space revolves around education cen‑ tred on the student. It is directed at the individual, who, in essence, is free (Fromm, 1983), which presup‑ poses being responsible. Freedom and responsibility are intimately linked, and as such accepting our free‑ dom presupposes accepting responsibility for what we do, including what we try to do or at times the undesired consequences of our acts (Savater, 1999). Processes centred on the students and the in‑ teractions among them, in an environment that is intended to be cooperative, seems to have fostered the development of a responsible attitude. The indicators are positive concerning not only the pedagogy experienced during the experiment, but also raise expectations that this attitude can be in‑ corporated into a future profession. In the whole process and in the self‑assessment, the students experienced the methodological innovation, in which they felt responsible for themselves and in relation to themselves. According to Fromm (1983), exercising freedom is not an easy task, hence “the urge of the modern man to restrict it” (p. 46), or, in Savater’s opinion (1999), “the connection between freedom and responsibil‑ ity becomes more obvious inasmuch as we want the former but the latter frightens us” (p. 157). As with the intellectuals, also the students who took part in our project recognise the presence of these tensions when they have freedom to assess themselves: “the personal assessment is difficult and it is complicated for somebody to assess themselves”; “everything in this curricular module, or almost everything, sup‑ poses a new reference for each one of us.” The gap between theory and practice, between beliefs and ideas, in our point of view, can only be overcome through a reflective, critical and respon‑ sible attitude. We believe that designing the initial training in order to educate the future nursing pro‑ fessionals, based on collaborative learning proc‑ esses that encourage responsibility and, in the long run, the development of reflective communities, is certainly the first step towards the critical transfor‑ mation of the nursing profession, as acknowledged by one student: “It has helped me a lot to be more critical about what I read and what I see, and therefo‑ re, with what I do in my practicals and how I will act in the future as a nurse”.


To sum up, we have to end by stating that the methodological change process remains open. We estimate that, in general, the aims that at a certain point were established, have been attained. Howe‑ ver, we also detected difficulties, mistakes and in‑ conveniences, which far from constituting impassa‑ ble hurdles represent a good opportunity for change and for action, or, as Veiga Simão puts it (2002), for

self‑regulation, given that responsibility is a self ‑regulated response. The history I am part of along with the others is a time of possibilities and not determinism; the know ‑how of critical self‑reflection and the know‑how‑to ‑be of cultivated wisdom (Freire, 1997, pp. 13 and 20).


69

Endnotes 1. This article was written based on the research, carried out as part of a PhD, by Maria Aurora Rodrí‑ guez Borrego, under the supervision of Julia Boro‑ nat Mundina, in Spain, and Isabel Freire, in Portugal.

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González, J. & Wagenaar, R. (coords.) (2003). Tun‑ ing Educational Structures in Europe. Informe Final. Fase Uno. Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto. Johnson, D. & Johnson, R. (1999). El aprendizaje cooperativo en el aula. Barcelona: Paidós. Johnson, D. & Johnson, R. (2006). The cooperative Learning Center. Homepage. University of Min‑ nesota. Retrieved June 2006 from http://www. co‑operation.org. Jonás, H. (1995). El principio de responsabilidad. Barcelona: Herder. Juanola Pagés, M. D. (2004). Aprendiendo cuida‑ dos enfermeros con el método de Aprendizaje Basado en Problemas: Acción Tutorial. Present‑ ed at the Vigésimoquintas Sesiones de Trabajo de la Asociación Española de Enfermería Docente. Marzo, Madrid, pp. 267‑271. Marcelo, C. et al. (1991). El estudio de caso en la formación del profesorado y la investigación didáctica. Serie: Instituto Ciencias de la Edu‑ cación, 7. Sevilla: Secretariado de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Sevilla, pp. 11‑71. Martínez Ortega, R. Mª et al. (2006). El Apren‑ dizaje Basado en Problemas (ABP), una apuesta educativa innovadora en la Diplomatura de En‑ fermería de la Escuela Universitaria de la Comu‑ nidad de Madrid. e.ducare 21. Revista electrónica de formación enfermera, 22. Molina Ortiz, J. A. et al. (2003). Aprendizaje Basa‑ do en Problemas: una alternativa al método tradi‑ cional. Revista de la Red Estatal de Docencia Uni‑ versitaria, 3, 2. Retrieved June 2006 from htpp:// www.uc3m.es/uc3m/revista/Diciembre 2003. Morin, E. (2002). Os sete saberes para a educação do futuro. Lisboa: Instituto Piaget. Ovejero, A. (1993). Aprendizaje cooperativo. Una eficaz aportación de la Psicología Social a la es‑ cuela del siglo XXI. Psicothema, 5, pp. 373‑391. Rodríguez Borrego, Mª A. (1999). Las actitudes en el perfil enfermero. Motivos de reflexión. Co‑ municação apresentada nas Vigésimas Sesiones de Trabajo de la Asociación Española de Enfermería Docente. Marzo, San Sebastián, pp. 205‑212. Rodríguez Borrego, Mª A. (2004). La responsabi‑ lidad un valor a la baja en la sociedad occidental (in press). Rodríguez Borrego, Mª A. (2007). La educación democrática colaborativa en el contexto univer‑


sitario. Área de Salud: Enfermería. Educar en la responsabilidad y para la responsabilidad. Estudio multicaso. Tesis mención doctorado eu‑ ropeo. Facultad de Educación y Trabajo Social de la Universidad da Valladolid e Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Univer‑ sidade de Lisboa (PhD thesis). Romo, A. P. & Nubiola, J. (2005). Virtudes �� demo‑ cráticas en la educación de hoy: la propuesta pedagógica de John Dewey. Retrieved November 2006 from http://www.unav.es/gep/Dewey/Pro‑ puestaPedagogicaRomoNubiola.html. Savater, F. (1999). Las preguntas de la vida. Barce‑ lona: Ariel. Slavin, R. E. (1991). Synthesis of the Research on Cooperative Learning. Educational Leadership (February), pp. 71‑82. Tierno, B. (1996). Guía para educar en Valores Hu‑ manos. Madrid: Taller de Editores.

Veiga Simão, A. M. (2002). Aprendizagem Estra‑ tégica. Uma aposta na auto‑regulação. Lisboa: Ministério da Educação. Yin, R. K. (2001). Case Study Research. Desing and Methods. Neubury Park: Sage. Zapico Yánez, F. (2004). La EUI Vall d’Herbron avanzando hacia la Europa del conocimiento: resultados de la implantación de la metodología (ABP) en el currículum enfermero. Presented at the Vigésimoquintas Sesiones de Trabajo de la Asociación Española de Enfermería Docente. Marzo, Madrid, pp. 127‑132.



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i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Tutoring in higher education: concepts and practices Ana Margarida Veiga Simão [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Maria Assunção Flores [email protected] Institute of Education and Psychology of the University of Minho

Sandra Fernandes [email protected] Post‑graduate student at Institute of Education and Psychology of the University of Minho

Célia Figueira [email protected] Post‑graduate student and GAPE senior officer at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: An important topic in itself, tutoring assumes even greater importance in the light of the plans to implement a single academic model throughout the European Union. In this pa‑ per we examine some of the tutoring experiments currently being implemented in Portu‑ guese universities, and the framework within which tutoring operates in a higher educa‑ tion context. The various kinds of tutoring — mentoring, curricular tutoring, academic tutoring and training‑related tutoring — are implemented by higher educational institu‑ tions in their attempts to find a response to the needs diagnosed among students. Due to its scope and the possibilities for intervention it provides, tutoring is characteristically diverse in its manifestations. We go on to conclude that the diverse tutoring programmes and practices have been put together piecemeal as part of the concrete practices of each institution, in accordance with the characteristics of the students and the context, both of which point to the importance of, and recognition of, the need for training on the part of teaching staff, and the need for greater clarification of the role of the tutor. Key words: Tutoring, higher education, Bologna Declaration, guidance.

Veiga Simão, A. M.; Flores, M. A.; Fernandes, S. & Figueira, C. (2008). Tutoring in higher education: concepts and practices. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 73-86. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION

TUTORING IN THE UNIVERSITY

With higher education facing new challenges in the light of commitments undertaken as part of the Bolo‑ gna Declaration of 1999, increasing importance is be‑ ing given to new teaching‑learning models and to edu‑ cation centred on self‑regulated learning (Veiga Simão & Flores, 2006). In a context where change is the only constant, higher education institutions have to be capable of analyzing, monitoring and anticipating major social and economic trends, foreseeing prob‑ lems, contributing to solutions and influencing policy — and of nurturing “citizens who see themselves as knowledgeable, critically‑minded and free, capable of living and working in a society which values critical re‑ flection and liberty” (Simão et al., 2005, p. 27). It is no longer possible nowadays to continue accepting the role of higher education as a mere add‑on to acquired theoretical and scientific knowledge. Learning is now conceived of as a process which is active, cognitive, constructive, meaningful, mediated and self‑regulated (Beltran, 1996), which means we have to rethink cur‑ ricular organization models for courses and teaching methodologies (Simão et al., 2002). It is in this context that tutoring assumes special importance, given the academic model which is to be implemented on a European scale. Our objective in this paper is to reflect on some of the experiments in tutoring currently underway in Portuguese universities, and to contribute to the construction of a conceptual framework for these experiments within the context of higher education.

Given its scope and its range of intervention, the tutorial function embodies features and character‑ istics of considerable range and diversity. Boronat, Castaño and Ruiz (2007) mention several dimen‑ sions, among which we can highlight: a) the legal or administrative dimension provided under current legislation; b) the teaching or curricular dimension, which interprets tutoring in terms of the curricu‑ lum, with regard to content and the programme fol‑ lowed by curricular units; c) the academic or edu‑ cational dimension, which addresses the assistance given to students in their endeavours to pursue their academic activities with success, while promoting autonomy in their studies; d) the personalized di‑ mension, which addresses personal interaction (the tutor provides special help in cases of particular difficulties and offers guidance to students on their educational development) and careers advice (the tutor advises on which curricular options to select and on the possible career outlets associated with the options); e) the practical dimension, which, in certain courses (teaching, medicine, nursing etc.), has a long tradition in which university teachers and tutors are involved; f) the distance tutoring di‑ mension, characteristic of teaching environments in which teacher and student are physically remote; g) the awareness of diversity dimension, since uni‑ versities now accommodate students with different problems stemming from their personal character‑ istics and from the social, economic and cultural

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sísifo 7 | veiga simão, flores, fernandes, figueir a | tutoring in higher education: concepts and practices

characteristics of the modern age; h) the peer tutor‑ ing¹ dimension, which exists in many foreign uni‑ versities and in which mentors simultaneously play an intermediate role and act as tutors for the groups of students (or individual student) in their charge. The multiple possibilities that all these kinds of tutoring present may respond to the perceived need to create and cultivate, among the teachers and students of the university, a culture of guidance and tutoring. But a mere declaration of intentions is not enough. The university teacher‑tutor becomes the teacher of reference of the group of students which s/he is in charge of. Lázaro (2002) sees the university teacher‑tutor as the guardian of the hu‑ man and scientific development of the student as an individual, not as an abstraction, who is also re‑ sponsible for keeping an eye on the student’s entire learning process and who seeks to identify the stu‑ dent’s strengths and weaknesses. This makes it pos‑ sible to establish a series of objectives for tutoring action: guiding students in their knowledge of the university to promote their integration in the new university context, informing students on academ‑ ic and/or career issues, encouraging participation in the different aspects of university life, reflecting on the academic and personal development of stu‑ dents, and evaluating the need for tutoring assist‑ ance as an instrument of knowledge and reflection

in the university education process. The emphasis accorded each of these dimensions generates dif‑ ferent tutoring models. Carrasco Embuena and La‑ peña Pérez (2005) note that we can identify in the different conceptions of university tutoring a set of common characteristics which may be summarized as follows: a) tutoring is a form of guidance which is intended to promote and facilitate the all‑round development of students, in the intellectual, emo‑ tional, personal and social aspects; b) tutoring is a teaching task which personalizes university educa‑ tion via supervision on an individual level, which enables students to build their knowledge and at‑ titudes and bring them to maturity, helping them plan and develop their academic progress; c) tutor‑ ing is an action which enables active integration and preparation of students in the university institution, channelling and dynamizing their relations with the different university services (administrative, teach‑ ing, organizational etc.), ensuring the adequate and cost‑effective use of the different resources which the institution makes available. An analysis of the various tutoring programmes and practices implemented in higher education in‑ stitutions, such as the tutoring programme in Lis‑ bon’s Instituto Superior Técnico,² the tutorial action in the university of Alicante,³ the AIA programme at the Instituto Politécnico of Castelo Branco⁴,

table 1 Some essential aspects of tutoring systems Category

Indicators

Dimensions / modes

Administrative, curricular, academic, personalized, etc.

Objectives

Promoting the acquisition of skills, consolidating learning across different disciplines, pro‑ moting and facilitating the integral development of students, reflecting on the academic and personal development of students, etc.

Content

Learning strategies, social skills, communication skills, etc.

Target groups

Course groups, school year groups, class groups, students considered individually, ERASMUS students etc.

Types

Presence, distance; compulsory, optional

Timetables

Included / not included in the academic timetable, etc.

Nature

Formal encounters — classes, meetings; informal encounters etc.

Characteristics

Smaller classes, additional number of tutoring hours etc.

Tutor

Teacher from curricular unit, course teacher, final year student etc.

Assessment

Positive results (bringing teachers and students closer together, improved student integration); constraints (tiredness and reduced performance due to excessive timetable burden) etc.


75

and the PANA fresher assistance programme in the faculty of psychology and educational science at the university of Lisbon, reveals significant diversity in the way these practices and programmes are imple‑ mented, as shown in Table 1 on the previous page. The various tutoring programmes and practices have taken form in the specific context of their host institutions, in accordance with the characteristics of the students and the educational milieu.

EXPERIMENTS IN TUTORING The need to provide guidance and support to uni‑ versity students is nowadays acknowledged by higher educational institutions, which seek to pro‑ vide ways of responding to this need. Tutoring, mentoring⁵ and curricular tutoring are some of the solutions developed by these institutions in their attempt to respond to the support and guidance needs of their students. Below we take a closer look at two of these experiments.

THE PANA FRESHER ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME AND THE PAEE MENTORING PROGRAMME FOR ERASMUS STUDENTS AT FPCE‑ UL As part of the reception it extends to its new stu‑ dents, the psychopedagogic student support service (GAPE) at FPCE‑UL implements two student assist‑ ance programmes⁶. Both programmes are structured according to the precepts of peer mentoring⁷. They place emphasis on mutual assistance among peers and attach importance to close ties, with modelling behaviour (Bandura, 1969) which can facilitate the promotion of efficient integration of new students on their entry into university or college (Welling, 1997). The motto is to help instead of direct — taking into account emotions and opinions, exploring and strik‑ ing compromises (Wallace & Gravells, 2005). Each of the two programmes implemented by GAPE at FPCEUL is directed at different target groups: the PAEE assistance programme for foreign students attending the university as part of the ER‑ ASMUS scheme (academic years 2006/2007 and 2007/2008); and the PANA freshers assistance pro‑ 76

gramme for students entering the university in the 2007‑2008 academic year. In general terms, the principal objectives of a mentoring programme directed at higher education students are to integrate new students in their new learning environment and to promote their per‑ sonal and interpersonal development, with a view to promoting their well‑being: helping students get to know their university, how it works, its geographic context, creating a “safety net” to prevent social iso‑ lation, defining the academic objectives of students and helping them attain these objectives and gain acquaintance with the skills required for the course they are following. In the specific case of assistance for foreign stu‑ dents, these students are considered as newcomers in a strange country and a strange university, but not as freshers — it is assumed that they are already in‑ tegrated into the higher education system of their countries of origin and that they are already familiar with the content of the course they are following. Some of these students spend only one term at the host university, which means the assistance they receive has to address more immediate objectives such as rapid integration and adaptation to the new study milieu. This assistance is based on the premise that the needs of foreign students are essentially related with the expectations of teachers and fellow students with regard to their integration and academic per‑ formance, the clarification of the objectives inherent to their study programmes, communication with their fellow students, and practical issues such as administrative, financial and logistic requirements, as well as the problems encountered when living in an “alien” culture. To respond to all of these potential needs, the students who liaise with these incoming students — the mentors — are expected themselves to have participated in the ERASMUS scheme, so that they can draw on their own experiences of the difficulties they faced and the solutions they encountered when helping and meeting the needs of the new arrivals. Mentoring programmes are implemented over five phases: 1. Identification and recruitment of mentors: in May/June, the ERASMUS coordinator of the


FPCE is asked to get in touch with students who studied abroad in the previous or present (in the case of PAEE) academic year; the programme is disclosed in its general outlines, with an appeal for students to come forward as volunteers, via in‑class recruitment drives which aim to assem‑ ble a group of around 40 volunteers (in the case of PANA); also with PANA, mentors are appoint‑ ed in pairs, comprising wherever possible one 2nd‑year student and one student from a higher year. This system allows protégés to draw on the more immediate experience of their 2nd‑year col‑ league while also benefiting from the longer‑term input of the mentor from a higher year; 2. Dissemination of the programme among assisted students (the protégés): in the case of PAEE, in June/July the ERASMUS coordinator respon‑ sible for the reception of the foreign students is asked to provide the e‑mail addresses of the stu‑ dents, so that they can be contacted and invited to participate in the PAEE programme; s/he is also asked to provide, where possible, information on the dates and times of arrival of the students, so that their mentor(s) can meet them on their arrival at the airport;⁸ in the case of PANA, during ma‑ triculation week the mentors (who by now have been organized into pairs) meet the new students, help them choose their timetables, and encourage them to enjoy the benefits of the mentoring pro‑ gramme; following this initial contact some 90% of new students sign up for the programme, with each assigned to a group and a pair of mentors; 3. Training of mentors (September). Training mod‑ ules cover the following themes: the role of the mentor and the values inherent to the mentor ‑protégé relationship; dealing with “typical” situ‑ ations; solving problems; empathy, communica‑ tion, cultural diversity; and study and learning strategies and organization. Training methods essentially fall into two categories: discussion in small groups, and the exchange of conclusions and role‑playing scenarios in large groups; 4. Development of mentor‑protégé relationships. Students are approached within days of their arrival; follow‑up contact takes place in the first week of classes or in the week following the ar‑ rival of the students (i.e. at a time when the stu‑ dents can be found on an everyday basis, either

in the university or when socializing at night); in the period spanning the 2nd to 5th week of class‑ es / sojourn at least two further scheduled meet‑ ings are organized, on themes addressing e.g. the organization of timetables and study plans; and a new formal meeting is held during the first round of examinations. All formal meetings are held in a group setting, with each pair of mentors heading a group of 8 to 12 students; 5. Supervision and assessment of the programme. The programme is assessed at various stages: at the beginning (before intervention; in the case of the mentors, before training, and in the case of the protégés, at the moment of their arrival); at the end of the first round of examinations; and at the end of the academic year (all participants). The assessment process is designed to gauge the degree of satisfaction of the participants and evaluate the impact of the programme both on protégés and mentors, taking into account a se‑ ries of variables inherent to the processes of ad‑ aptation to the new academic milieu and subjec‑ tive perceptions of well‑being. After one year of the programme, the programme can be provisionally pronounced a success: its ob‑ jectives — helping students adapt rapidly to their new environment — have been and continue to be met, particularly where the interpersonal com‑ ponent and integration in the new institution are concerned. However, some mentors have voiced their dissatisfaction with the degree of commitment among new students to the challenges which the programme poses them. The group component, in some cases, does not work. Casual, person‑to ‑person encounters are more frequent, and more productive, than group meetings. The evaluation of the impact of these pro‑ grammes in adaptation processes and the promo‑ tion of the well‑being of their participants has been the subject of a more detailed study of the benefits deriving from the participation of higher education students in voluntary social and peer assistance ini‑ tiatives. Benefits are defined in accordance with in‑ dicators such as well‑being, academic achievement and careers advice.


77

PROJECT‑ BASED LEARNING: THE ROLE OF THE TUTOR The shift towards a more active approach to teach‑ ing and learning has been one of the principal con‑ sequences of the implementation of the Bologna Process in the courses offered by Universidade do Minho. More particularly, since 2004‑2005 the engi‑ neering and industrial management course (MIEGI, now “Mestrado Integrado”) has included a teaching ‑learning component based on cross‑disciplinary projects — Project‑Led Education (PLE)⁹ — with first‑year students following this course. This ap‑ proach to learning incorporates a methodology which emphasizes group work, resolution of cross ‑disciplinary problems and the articulation of theo‑ ry and practice in a project which culminates in the presentation of a solution / product devised in real conditions and related with the future professional context (Powell & Weenk, 2003). The aforemen‑ tioned authors identify the principal characteristics of the PLE methodology as the emphasis on learn‑ ing and the active role which students must play in their learning processes, and the development of so ‑called “soft” cross‑disciplinary skills which extend beyond the immediate technicalities of the subject. The verdict so far has been positive on the whole, among both students and teachers, and the project has shown itself to make an effective contri‑ bution to the active involvement of students in their own learning processes, in this way helping them improve their performance in the first year of their studies — the year which is generally considered as critical to the success of their course. The impact of this experiment has been evalu‑ ated in a more detailed study carried out as part of a doctorate course on project‑led education. Its principal objective is to identify the set of variables which contribute to the successful implementation of this teaching‑learning methodology. This paper confines its scope to the role of the tutor in monitor‑ ing the progress of the project and of group work. The tutoring process in PLE The role of tutor in PLE is normally performed by lecturers from the curricular modules included in the project, with a group of students formed on the first day of the term. The number of students annu‑ 78

ally participating in the PLE project has ranged be‑ tween 37 (2006/2007) and 44 (2004/2005). Groups generally comprise 6‑8 members. In the formation of the groups, care is taken to ensure a degree of het‑ erogeneity, i.e. to distribute students in such a way as to ensure an even representation of variables such as gender, previous skills for the development of the project (e.g. 12th‑year chemistry), the degree of affin‑ ity with other parts of the course, and other perti‑ nent factors. Typically, each PLE project comprises 6 groups and 6 tutors. The principal functions of the tutor, as enumer‑ ated in the Learning Guide for 2007/2008, are to make group work more dynamic and to monitor the progress of the project and of individual learning. The tutoring process in MIEGI is organized along fairly systematic and continuous lines. Gener‑ ally speaking, all groups meet their tutor every week to discuss issues related with the development of the project and the operation of the work group. Tu‑ torial meetings are held in the project rooms of each group, at a pre‑scheduled date and time. Tutorial meetings are not included in students’ timetables: the tutor and the group are responsible for setting a time most convenient to all involved. In terms of responsibilities, the tutor not only assists his/her group but also acts as the project’s scorekeeper, recording and monitoring the mile‑ stones plotted for the development of the project. For example, in the formal presentation of students and in extended tutoring sessions, the tutors conduct the discussion phase for each of their respective groups. Perceptions of tutoring in PLE To gauge the sentiments of PLE tutors, we inter‑ viewed them on their experiences as tutors, the practices they followed in meetings, their interven‑ tions in the student assessment process, their feel‑ ings about how tutors should ideally intervene, the conditions necessary for good tutoring practices, and the principal skills of the tutor. Below we pro‑ vide a summary of the principal conclusions gleaned from our interviews with these PLE tutors. The views of the tutors The first part of our interview centred on the expe‑ riences of tutors in PLE projects. 3 of the 9 tutors interviewed had participated in only one tutoring ex‑


periment; the remaining tutors had previously par‑ ticipated in at least 2 PLE projects as group tutors. Our interviews revealed that not a single tutor had any formal training in tutoring, with most quali‑ fied merely in the teaching‑learning methodology based on cross‑disciplinary projects devised by Pe‑ ter Powell of the university of Twente in the Neth‑ erlands. Other training in areas as diverse as com‑ munication, leadership skills, team management, project management, motivation etc. have helped teachers in their work as tutors. In the immediate context of the MIEGI, tutors expressed satisfaction with and, in some cases, a sense of personal fulfilment from, their work. The overall verdict of the tutors on their tutoring expe‑ rience has so far been positive. The close relation‑ ship with students, and a better understanding of the principal motivations, interests and problems shared by all new arrivals in a university, are some of the advantages which tutors pointed to as a result of their supervision of their students. With regard to the principal difficulties experi‑ enced during the process, tutors identified the fol‑ lowing aspects: their lack of tutoring experience (the need to “test the ground”, learning as they go), the difficulties they encountered in motivating their groups behind the project, their difficulties in “win‑ ning over” their groups, uncertainties with regard to the extent of the tutor’s jurisdiction, the accumu‑ lation of functions (tutor plus teacher), the lack of availability (their sense that students would like to spend more time with their tutors, with the latter not having the time), the willingness to make the group more dynamic, difficulties in coordination between tutors, teachers and coordination team, permanent adaptation (the theme embraced by the project re‑ quired research in areas which do not strictly lie within the tutors’ sphere of competence), the imma‑ turity of the students (with other motivations com‑ peting with learning per se, such as meeting friends, finding a boyfriend/girlfriend, going out at night, practising sports etc.). Of all the tutors interviewed, only one claimed not to have encountered any dif‑ ficulties during the tutoring experiment, noting that the groups s/he tutored never revealed problems with regard to group dynamics and that therefore the supervision given to the groups was essentially centred on the more technical aspects of the project,

an area in which the tutor felt perfectly equipped for helping the students. The experience acquired over several PLE projects in recent years has allowed tutors to correct and improve certain of the procedures adopted in their tutoring work. All tutors felt the characteris‑ tics of the group itself to be decisive in the defini‑ tion of the posture adopted by the tutor in his/her interaction with students. However, another major influence was the individual style of the tutor, which essentially had to do with his or her personality and professional modus operandi, factors which are equally visible in the way tutors conceive and de‑ velop their tutoring practices. Many of the principal changes and adjustments implemented by tutors had to do with procedures of a more formal character, such as making sure that minutes of tutoring meetings were taken and mov‑ ing meeting venues to places not restricted exclu‑ sively to the tutoring group. These two strategies were designed to solve communication problems between tutor and group — written records of the issues discussed at meetings and, in the second in‑ stance, improved concentration by students, who are easily distracted by other tasks and preoccupa‑ tions related with their immediate environs. After some of these changes, one of the tutors claimed to detect a clear change in the attitude of the students, who as a result of a change of venue adopted a more serious and attentive attitude in the meetings. Other changes introduced by tutors were direct‑ ed at attitudes revealed with regard to the resolution of problems related with group dynamics, such as one‑to‑one conversation with each group member at some stage in the project, the prohibition of the repeated use of certain expressions related to group demotivation, the need to have an open attitude to‑ wards the group, and the exposition of personal is‑ sues which may be factors in the problems faced by the group at a given moment in time, among other activities. The interviews allowed us clearly to identify a set of functions¹⁰ related to the task of tutoring: i) Providing the group with feedback during the preparation, and after implementation, of each of the project control points. ii) Supporting the group in the taking of deci‑


79

sions relative to the project, which in some cases means monitoring group preferences even where the options under discussion place the success of the project at stake. Tutors have to show that they believe in the decisions made by the group, and have to encourage the group to adopt an am‑ bitious attitude towards the project, encouraging it to work constantly harder and better. iii) Increasing group motivation, promoting dia‑ logue, interaction and informal exchange among the members of the group and between the mem‑ bers and the tutor (given that demotivation of students mostly derives from social interaction problems), and seeking to cultivate a team spirit. iv) Showing an interest in the individual learning progress of students, trying to find out how the students in the various curricular units are get‑ ting on, either via open discussion with the tu‑ tor’s own group or via information gleaned from coordination meetings, where teachers regularly conduct a diagnosis of students vis‑à‑vis the evaluation of the respective curricular unit. Al‑ though most tutors recognize that this function is not easy to monitor over the course of the tu‑ toring process, they did say they had made some efforts in this direction. As for the role of the tutor in the student evaluation process, opinions vary. Some tutors feel that the are‑ as for which they are responsible can make a contri‑ bution to evaluation, such as the cross‑disciplinary skills of the students in their group. Other tu‑ tors argued that teachers too can and should play an important role in the evaluation of the cross ‑disciplinary skills of students: since they spend so much time with them, especially in supervised learning situations, they have a clearer perspective on the realities of the situation. The opposite too may happen, however: teachers may have different views of the performance of their students as a result of the students’ evaluation of their curricular units, and this may compromise the validity of the evalu‑ ation process. In addition to the evaluation of cross‑disciplinary skills, some tutors feel that the evaluation of content ultimately constitutes a legitimate object of apprais‑ al on the part of the tutor, albeit a less significant one in view of the fact that it is very difficult to separate 80

one part from the other. When questioned on the principal skills required of a tutor, most teachers reflected the opinions of their students in citing aspects essentially related with the attitude to be adopted by the tutor with regard to his/her group — the willingness to listen, to show interest and concern, to enjoy contact with students, to be friendly, sincere and open with them, to deliver what is expected of them and, as one tutor said, to be a “good parent” for the students. Other skills related with the methods adopted by tutors have to do with the role of the tutor as a facilitator in the learning of his/her students. The function of the tutor is not to direct but to guide, providing the group with all the necessary assist‑ ance and incentives but demanding in return a rig‑ orous and serious approach to group work. Tutors should be ambitious, and not settle for merely “ac‑ ceptable” achievement from their students, but in‑ stead impress upon them the need not only to do the job but to do it well. In the event they were asked to give and advice or suggestions to potential PLE tutors, those with experience in this field indicate that being available for students is the key factor. Some tutors compare tutoring with guidance work, as there is no single standard or ideal method of intervention; constant adaptation and re‑adaptation is required as the complexion of the group changes and as the project progresses. Sometimes it is better to adopt a more dirigiste posture; in other cases it may be enough simply to raise certain questions for the group rap‑ idly to hit upon the best strategy for the pursuit of its objectives. This is a job which requires a certain “artfulness”, as one of the tutors remarked. The resources cited by tutors for the success‑ ful performance of their functions were mainly re‑ lated to training in various areas such as project management, communication, team work, conflict management, learning styles etc., all of which help equip the tutor with the skills and knowledge s/he requires in determining which is the best posture to adopt (more rigid, more flexible etc.) in view of the profiles of the students and the type of situations encountered in the course of the tutoring process. In the opinion of one tutor, previous briefing on the characteristics of the students may help tutors deal better with the heterogeneous composition of


many groups. The views of the students Perceptions of MIEGI students of the performance of their tutors during implementation of the project have been fairly positive. The findings, taken from a questionnaire‑based survey at the end of the PLE experiment (2nd term 2006/2007), revealed that most students gave the tutors in their groups a rat‑ ing of between 8 and 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. In the light of the functions of the tutor as pro‑ posed by Guedes et al. (2007), in the MIEGI context and in accordance with the opinions of its students the role of the tutor is essentially associated with the figure of “facilitator” and “motivator” rather than “specialist” and “evaluator”. No student made any reference to the role of tutor as evaluator. As for the tutor as “specialist”, some comments on to the in‑ tervention of the tutor on the level of the technical aspects of the project were made, although none stressed the importance of this aspect. The key categories which we can identify in the discourse of the students on the role of the tutor concern not only the skills which the tutor should mobilize during his/her involvement in the project (Table 2) but also, and more importantly, the atti‑ tudes revealed by the tutor in his/her interaction with students.

table 2 Skills required of tutors (in the opinion of students) Tutor skills

f

Approachability

11

(being on hand all the time; being available to listen to the group)

Stimulating group motivation

9

(making the group more dynamic; making it lively; improving group morale)

Monitoring and contributing to project progress

6

(giving ideas; helping the group make decisions; helping in the preparation of control points; providing the group with feedback)

Helping the group solve problems (providing support in difficult moments; maintaining group unity)

3

Of the attitudes cited by students as the most im‑ portant in the work of the tutor, the correlations es‑ tablished between the different attitudes yield three principal categories. · The first category concerns the attitude of the tutor with regard to his/her performance in the tutoring function, with the following aspects the principal benchmarks of this attitude: respon‑ sible, attentive, concerned, dedicated, hard ‑working, interested, organized. · The second category emphasizes the attitudes of the tutor with regard to the resolution of the problems faced by the group. Here the qualities most valued in a tutor are sincerity, directness, impartiality, justice, equanimity, critical posture, and respect for others. · The third and final category concerns tutor ‑student interaction. The adjectives recurrently cited in describing the ideal tutor attitude in in‑ teraction between the tutor and the group and/ or individual students were: friendly, nice, help‑ ful, communicative, patient, understanding, out‑ going, approachable, relaxed. To arrive at a final verdict on the PLE experiment over two consecutive terms, the coordination team organized a workshop with the objective of reflecting on the process and identifying points for improve‑ ment. Generally speaking, the students participating at this workshop cited the principal functions of the tutor as: orienting the group, promoting group moti‑ vation and confidence, helping the group overcome conflicts, and stimulating debate. They also men‑ tioned availability as a fundamental requirement for the successful accomplishment of the tutor’s role. When asked for their suggestions on how things could be improved in future projects, the students reiterated the idea that tutors should not be teach‑ ers from any of the curricular units included in the projects. They stressed the importance of greater informal contact between tutor and group (e.g. extra‑curricular activities), with tutor‑student rela‑ tions striking a correct balance between respect and “feeling at ease”. Students generally acknowledged the importance of the figure of the tutor, without whom, they said, it would have been more difficult to get to the end of the project.


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CONCLUSIONS By way of a brief conclusion we shall now cite some of the key ideas to have emerged from the debate and experiences examined in this paper. In addi‑ tion to the recognition and valorization of the tu‑ toring processes and practices in different contexts and their positive effects on students, but also for the teachers involved (as is the case of the PLE ex‑ periment in the university of Minho), and despite certain obstacles and difficulties, three principal issues deserve special mention. Firstly, the impor‑ tance of the need for training in tutorial tasks, and the recognition of this importance; this also in‑ volves a more detailed exposition of the functions of the tutor, on the basis of the recommended mod‑ el, alongside the joint construction of mechanisms for regulating and monitoring these processes. The decisive importance of feedback in training de‑ serves special attention from those who organize and develop these programmes. Secondly, and as a follow‑on from the first point, is the importance of clarifying the role of the tutor as a person who pro‑ vides support and carries out evaluation. How do we strike a balance between these two functions?

82

What are the implications when it comes to select‑ ing a tutoring model? The friction likely to arise from the clash of these two functions needs to be accounted for in the framework of a continuum ranging from a greater to a lesser degree of struc‑ turing of tutoring and mentoring programmes and practices, within the scope of the nature of the as‑ sistance provided and of the stated objectives (see, for example, Johnson, 2008). Thirdly, and again as a follow‑on from the first two ideas, it is important that collaboration is conceived as a strategy for the promotion of tutoring and mentoring practices if the challenges posed by the diversity of student profiles are to be properly addressed and the qual‑ ity of training is to be improved. As Veiga Simão, Caetano and Freire (2007, p. 68) argue, “if we be‑ lieve that the student can be the architect of his own knowledge, participating in collaborative processes with his peers under the guidance of a teacher, why should teachers not equally develop their skills and professionalism via contact with their peers at their place of work?” Thus, as with tutoring between tu‑ tor and student(s), peer mentoring processes can represent an opportunity for personal, academic and professional development.


Endnotes 1. The �� literature, in the English‑speaking aca‑ demic world especially, makes frequent use of the expression “peer mentoring” (see for example Ter‑ rion & Leonard, 2007). This text uses the two terms indiscriminately. 2. See http://gep.ist.utl.pt/html/tutorado (01‑2008). 3. See http://www.ua.es/ice/tutorial (01‑2008). 4. See http://www.ipcb.pt/index.php?option= com_content&task=view&id=509&Itemid=637 (01‑2008). 5. �� The satisfactory definition of the term “men‑ toring” is one of the difficulties faced by research in this area, since it is a term which often overlaps and is confused with others such as “tutoring”, “advisorry services”, “guidance/supervision” (Barnett, 2008; Colvin, 2007; Denisson, 2000; Pereira, 2005; Rose & Rukstalis, 2008) and “coaching” (Healy, 1997). What distinguishes “mentoring” from other kinds of teaching and/or assistance relationships is that it is designed for use in a transitional context — help‑ ing the recipient make the transition from one state to another (Wallace & Gravells, 2005). 6. In the case of students in higher education, various researchers (Cooke et al., 2006; Dias, 2006; Jones & Frydenberg, 1999; Soares et al., 2006) have concluded that for most students their 1st year at uni‑ versity is a criitical phase in the process of adaptation to higher education — and the 1st term of the 1st year is the time for preventive action (Jones & Fryden‑ berg, 1999). 7. For a review of peer mentoring experiments focused on the characteristics of the mentors, see Terrion & Leonard (2007). 8. The programme was organized along the lines of one pair of mentors for one group of 8 to 12 stu‑ dents, in this way ensuring that for each pair there are students with knowledge of the languages of the countries represented in the group and also of the courses followed by each member of the group. 9. For �� more details on how the PLE project oper‑ ates in MIEGI and the findings of the related eval‑ uation process, see Lima, Carvalho, Flores & van Hattum‑Janssen (2005, 2007); Carvalho & Lima (2006); Alves, Moreira & Sousa (2007); Fernandes, Flores & Lima (2007a, 2007b); Lima, Cardoso, Pereira, Fernandes & Flores (2007).

10. Other functions performed by the tutors as part of the same experiment are described in greater detail in Alves et al. (2007).

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Simão, J. V.; Santos, S. M. & Costa, A. (2005). Am‑ bição para a excelência. A oportunidade de Bolo‑ nha. Lisboa: Gradiva. Soares, A. P.; Almeida, L. S.; Diniz, A. M. & Gui‑ sande, M. A. (2006). Modelo Multidimensional de Ajustamento de jovens ao contexto Universi‑ tário (MMAU): Estudo com estudantes de ciên‑ cias e tecnologias versus ciências sociais e huma‑ nas. Análise Psicológica, 1, XXIV, pp. 15‑27. Terrion, J. L. & Leonard, D. (2007). A taxonomy of the characteristics of student peer mentors in higher education: findings from a literature review. Mentoring &Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 15, 2, pp. 149‑164. URL: http://www.sefi‑igip2007.com/ URL: http://www.udc.es/congresos/psicopedagoxia Veiga Simão, A. M. & Flores, M. A. (2006). O aluno universitário: aprender a auto‑regular a aprendizagem sustentada por dispositivos par‑

ticipativos. Ciências & Letras, 40 (Jul/Dez), pp. 229‑251. ISSN 0102‑4868. Veiga Simão, A. M.; Caetano, A. P. & Freire, I. (2007). Uma formação para o Desenvolvimento Profissional em Contexto Laboral. In J. C. Mor‑ gado & M. I. Reis (orgs.), Formação e Desenvol‑ vimento Profissional Docente: Perspectivas Euro‑ peias. Braga: CIEd, pp. 41‑72. Wallace, S. & Gravells, J. (2005). Professional De‑ velopment. Lifelong Learning Sector: Mentoring. Exeter: Learning Matters. Welling, H. (1997). Mentorado em Portugal. �� Re‑ trieved August 2007 from http://www.indeks.pt/ mentorado.htm



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Ethical‑deontological education need of higher education teachers—subsidies for a debate Maria Teresa Estrela [email protected] Full Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Joana Marques [email protected] Research scholarship of the Ethical‑deontological Thinking and Training of Teachers

Francisco Cordeiro Alves [email protected] Coordinator professor at the Education Higher School of Bragança

Mariana Feio [email protected] Doctoral Student in Educational Sciences at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: The changes made to higher education in response to globalisation and “informationism” (Castells, 1997) bring with them the need to re‑question its purposes. Documents such as the “World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty‑first Century: Vision and Action” and the Bucharest Declaration stress the ethical role to be played by these institu‑ tions in today’s world and in the ethical training of students for this world. Despite some theoretical reflections on several aspects of university life, there is a clear lack of empirical studies concerning how teachers see the ethical dimension of their functions, how they encourage the ethical development of their students and whether or not the feel they need for ethical training that would help them better perform their professional functions. An exploratory study based on 14 interviews of polytechnic and university teachers aims to contribute to constructing this knowledge. The data obtained constitute material for a debate on these issues. Key words: Ethics, Moral, Deontology, Ethical development of students, Ethical training of teachers.

Estrela, M. T.; Marques, J.; Alves, F. C. & Feio, M. (2008). Ethical‑deontological education need of higher education teachers – subsidies for a debate. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 87-98. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION In a globalised world and at a time in which post ‑modernist culture helps bring into question the principles and values conveyed by modernity, shak‑ ing the very foundations of ethical thinking by de‑ nial of the “twin flags of universality and reason” (Bauman, 1997, p. 13) ethics has become paradoxi‑ cally a centre of interest in various areas of social ac‑ tivity. In effect, we understand today that the prob‑ lems threatening the survival of human life on our planet and the social balance and peace are under‑ pinned by ethical issues. Scientific and technologi‑ cal progress has brought previously unimaginable problems, giving rise to new fields of reflection such as bioethics and environmental ethics. The return of ethics hence seems to be searching for stable principles and values that guarantee social justice and cohesion. Universities, whose prestige has been shaken as the benchmarks of intellectual and moral order, cannot distance themselves from this move‑ ment of uneasiness and ethical reflection. Partly due to the economic and technical pressures exercised on higher education, there is a certain emptying of the cultural and humanist dimension, which estab‑ lish the connection between its different missions. If higher education wants to be a critical social con‑ science, above all else the teachers are invited to re‑ think their professionalism in relation to their new roles, redefining their ethics and their responsibility in the ethical education of the students.

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NEW ETHICAL ROLES OF HIGHER EDUCATION Rethinking the ethical role of higher education leads to multiple questions covering for example the science that it produces, its social effects; dis‑ closure and access to this knowledge, which can potentially lead to social inequalities and abusive forms of power; the ethical education given to the students; the ethics and deontology of the teach‑ ing/research professionals, a crucial aspect of their professionalism; the ethical training of the teachers that gives meaning to their scientific, technological and pedagogical training and calls for awareness of collective positions about the new needs in terms of greater social intervention. Not having a monopoly on research and educa‑ tion, bringing the first two aspects into question goes beyond the realms of higher education, involving university and non‑university populations, scien‑ tists, philosophers and even writers (Marcuse, Hab‑ ermas, Morin, Jonas, Morávia, etc). The last aspects listed, without excluding other segments of the pop‑ ulation, are chiefly concerned with higher education institutions. Reflection on them is pressing, given the multiple changes that occurred as a response to the transformations of all kinds that has led to globalisa‑ tion and “informationism” (Castells, 1997). Marginson (2007, p. 35) considers that, with variations in space and intensity, they can be sum‑ marised as such: “Globalisation and internationalisa‑ tion, mass participation and vocational credentialing;

sísifo 7 | estrela, marques, alves, feio | ethical‑ deontological education need of higher education…

more diverse institutions with mixed funding; more business‑like administration and internal product and performance regimes; quasi‑market competition between institutions; the part marketisation of teach‑ ing, research and services”. These changes lead to new ethical issues such as the use of new technology in the real world and in virtual worlds, the relations between universities and within university, globalisation and the market, between research and the economy, etc. These is‑ sues were of little interest when the universities were “ivory towers” or “temples of wisdom”. Mass participation brings other problems, already expe‑ rienced in other levels of education, that bring into question the principle of justice and which appeal for equity. At an optional and meretricious teaching level, how can we understand, for example posi‑ tive discrimination in relation to some less gifted students, the possible conflict between justice and productivity/efficacy…? The institutionalisation tutelage in countries where they have no experience raises some ethical issues, which may lead to profes‑ sional dilemmas. The “World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty‑first Century: Vision and Action” (UNESCO, 1998) is a contribution to the redefinition of ethics linked to the new roles of the institutions. The document breaches the comfortable ethical‑axiological neutrality maintained by most of the institutions. It is especially enlightening in article two. On the one hand it outlines principles such as autonomy, ethics in meticulously carrying out the various scientific and intellectual activities, independence and awareness of social responsi‑ bilities; on the other hand it attributes to higher education institutions a clearly ethical mission. Therefore, they are stimulated to use their intel‑ lectual capacity and moral prestige to defend and disseminate universally accepted UNESCO values (peace, justice, freedom, equality and solidarity), and are charged with identifying and searching for solutions to problems that affect social well‑being on a local and global scale. “The Bucharest Dec‑ laration concerning Ethical Values and Principles for Higher Education in the Europe Region” (AA. VV, 2004) also stressed the ethical and axiological dimension of higher education in Europe, which is attributed new roles and responsibilities.

Although the compatibility between the afore‑ mentioned principles and values raise doubts, it is important that these goals are clearly stated. How‑ ever, we question whether the policies, the institu‑ tions and the higher education teachers are guided by these goals. Above all, are they aware of the scope of the ethical demands entailed in being members and main players in these institutions? The Bologna Declaration points out the need to “raise awareness of the shared values and the sense of belonging to a social and cultural common space”. However, at the same time it conveys an essentially economic con‑ cern: the paradigm of supplying education to acquire skills that can be used in the workplace seems to out‑ weigh the general and humanist training, broadening perspectives and horizons (García & Ruiz, 2006). On the other hand, save for rare exceptions, it seems that higher education institutions have not encouraged an internal debate (Macfarlane, 2004) on the ethical dimension of the professionalism of teachers and researchers and on the ethical training of the students. Esteban and Buxarrais (2004) point out that in Spain the relation between university education and the ethical training of students is one of pure chance, doing nothing to promote an ethical life experience and moral development. The cur‑ ricular aspects of this training are interconnected, at best, to some deontology subjects or modules in the professional courses (Vicente, 2006). The same goes for Portugal.

LACK OF EMPIRICAL RESEARCH ON THE ETHICAL THINKING OF TEACHERS AND THE ETHICAL EDUCATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS Another indicator showing the lack of attention given to ethical problems is the paltry empirical research on the matter, while the same cannot be said about the individual reflection on some ethi‑ cal problems linked to the missions of universities. Research in databases (EBSCO Host, EJS, B‑ON, Eric, Eurydice) proved disappointing, confirming what Willemse, Lunenberg and Korthagen (2005) said about the scarcity in the databases they con‑ sulted of material on the ethical thinking of teacher


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trainers who, in higher education, are supposed to encourage the ethical‑deontological development of future teachers. Even so, some themes can be identified: the teachers’ and students’ representations about pla‑ giarism and justice; relations between ethical code and behaviour; representations of the students as regards their preparation in relation to the deontol‑ ogy of their future professional work. Only extreme‑ ly rare references are made to empirical research on the ethical training of higher education teachers. To sum up, there are big gaps in knowledge, among which we point out: the teachers’ views of the ethi‑ cal dimension of the profession and their role in the ethical development of the students.

AIMS, METHODOLOGY AND FIELD OF STUDY Given the new challenges that have arisen, finding out the thinking of higher education teachers con‑ cerning their professional ethics is of crucial impor‑ tance. The study we describe is part of a broader project (focusing on non higher‑education teach‑ ers) and is merely exploratory. It aims to ascertain how a group of polytechnic and university teachers respond to the following questions: how do they perceive the ethical dimensions of their functions? What ethical principles guide their professional ac‑ tivity? What is their attitude regarding the possibil‑ ity of a deontological code? What ethical dilemmas do they experience in exercising their profession? Do they feel it is necessary or would be beneficial to have ethical training? The study covered 14 higher education teach‑ ers, to whom we express our gratitude for their generous collaboration. They were selected on convenience, based on availability, but making sure that they came from different subject areas (social and human sciences, science and technolo‑ gy, excluding in this phase the areas of arts and law, owing the specificity of their relations with ethics), if possible from different institutions. Therefore, 7 came from universities and 7 from polytechnics; 8 are male and 6 female; 11 teach in the region of Lisbon and 3 in the region of Bragança (zones of residence of the project team). 90

The qualitative methodology, inserted into an interpretative paradigm, aims to give a voice to these subjects and discover the meaning they attribute to their everyday lives. Within the presuppositions of this methodology, the researcher should silence his voice so that the voice of the others can be heard. To do so, his conceptual frameworks should be pushed into the background, not using them as the starting point but rather letting them emerge from the data. This is a difficult mission when the researcher is not limited – as many advocate – to being a mere receptor and discloser of data, but seeks to interpret the mean‑ ing attributed by the subjects to arrive at second ‑order concepts (Schütz, 1987) or the construction of a theory based on the data (Strauss & Corbin, 1997). However, although guided by the data, the researcher learns what he is prepared to learn, and therefore our reference frameworks, of a multidisciplinary origin, end up being implicit in categorising the data and in the comments they engender. Data collection and analysis The technique used was the semi‑directive inter‑ view. The script, guided by the topics correspond‑ ing to the aforementioned questions, was open enough to allow the free expression of the interview‑ ees. Each interview, transcribed in its entirety, was assigned a code. To analyse the data a categorical content analy‑ sis was used. In reading the results one must bear in mind that the text of each interview results from an oral reflection, made on the spur of the moment in response to the interviewer and constructed and verbalised during the interview, but could express different degrees of previous reflection on the top‑ ics raised. In accordance with what we wrote about the interviews carried out of non‑university teach‑ ers (Estrela, 2008), each interview can be read as an inter‑text where wide‑ranging cultural references and experiences overlap one another and where convictions, doubts and feelings appear, at times, to outweigh the argumentative logic that usually un‑ derpins the ethical discourse. The discourse of each subject was deconstructed in units of meaning that, through semantic comparison, gave rise to indica‑ tors, categories and subcategories. The thinking of the interviewees does not reflect, in the vast majority of cases, the influence of the


general ethical systems of which professional ethics would be only one application. It may, nevertheless, fit into categories that, without the unity, reasoning and interconnection of a system, meet some catego‑ ries used in Western thinking systems (philosophi‑ cal, psychological, sociological and educational), without being able to affirm its direct influence from there however. In other words, if by chance the discourse of the interviewees fits into the ethics of duty or the ethics of care, this does not mean that the underpinning references do, e.g. the philosophy of Kant or Noddings or the psychology of Kolhberg or Gilligan, unless such influences are explicit or the terminology or context of the answers lead one to this conclusion. To sum up, with the limitations mentioned above, an attempt was made to seek an emerging categorisation that inevitably weakened individual expression and diminished differences and inter‑individual hues. But it simultaneously al‑ lowed a different indelibility to be conferred to the discourses of the interviewees, through the under‑ standing of the common and the different. Due to space restrictions, we limit ourselves to a concise summary based on the general categorisa‑ tion found, towards which the interviewees contrib‑ ute in different ways. The individual differences are situated above all at the level of the subcategories and the indicators that operationally define them.

THE INTERVIEWEES’ CONCEPTS OF ETHICS, MORAL AND DEONTOLOGY Throughout the history of ethical thinking there has been a coexistence of the terms ethics and moral used either as synonyms or distinct con‑ cepts. However, apart from one interviewee, who considered the terms synonymous (albeit consid‑ ering that ‘moral’ has gained a pejorative connota‑ tion), most of them made the distinction, although during the interview one concept is sometimes confused with the other. The personal concepts of ethics are organised into two subcategories: one describes rationalist and essentialist ethics based on the reflection of human conduct; the other re‑ fers to a contextualising and consequentialist con‑ ception of ethics that calls for action, feelings and the consequences of action.

Also with regard to the origin of these concep‑ tions opposite subcategories can be noted. For the majority of the interviewees they are acquired, re‑ sulting from a personal construction that derives from several influences. These include primary and secondary sources and forms of socialisation, among which the following stand out: family, religion, edu‑ cation and work experience, and to a lesser extent, the influence of authors, above all philosophers and psychologists. For a small minority ethical concep‑ tions are innate and based on the biological basis of consciousness. Hence, although ethics suffer some social influences, “there are a natural ethics that are engraved in our history, in our mental structures (…) a natural ability to tell good from evil” – E13. The category “notion of moral”, expressed through different indicators leads us to standards of behaviour in particular situations. As for the cat‑ egory “relation between ethics and moral”, the indi‑ cators pointed to the fact that ethics outdate moral, contrasting her general, abstract and universal na‑ ture to the more regulatory and particular character of moral. As one of the interviewees said, “moral have to be conjugated in the plural” – E7. Deontology is seen as the regulation of action in professional contexts, i.e. as a guiding regulatory framework which derives from professional ethics. It is applied in any situation that may or may not be covered by the code of the profession. As it does not exist in Portugal, there is some ambiguity as to the concept of professional ethics: more than ethics reflected and shared by the professional group, it is personal ethics applied in work situations. Never‑ theless, according to a minority of the interviewees there is no total coincidence between personal and professional ethics. There may be principles or de‑ grees of different demands, depending on whether dealing with work situations or others, such as family issues. As one interviewee said, provided that teach‑ ers strictly comply with their professional duties, nobody has any business interfering in their private lives, and the same can be said of the students. Most of the interviewees are in favour of the ethi‑ cal regulation of the profession through a written code, stating there is a need to regulate the profes‑ sion and highlighting the preventive and cautionary role this document could play. Only 3 interviewees were against the idea, for different reasons: pointing


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to the ineffectiveness of other codes, the formality of the code, which could lead to exterior morality. This opinion matches others expressed in the in‑ ternational literature that question the ethics of the professional codes: usually they do not go beyond a pre‑conventional or conventional set of moral, giv‑ ing rise to exterior uptake that would be the very denial of ethics. The favourable opinions regarding the code surprised us in this time of individualism that Lipovetski, cited by Bauman (1997), calls the “post ‑deontological era”.

THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS OF THE TEACHER Professional ethics is present in the teacher’s whole activity and show itself in two different but inter ‑related aspects: in the principles that make the pro‑ fessional conduct ethical and in the task of encour‑ aging the ethical‑moral development of the student. Ethical aspects of the teaching profession and professional conduct principles/values With the exception of one interviewee mentioning management functions, the others describe the tra‑ ditional missions of higher education, although the cultural dimension is less talked about. An example: “firstly, a scientific task, secondly – but we are not talking about a hierarchy – a cultural function and thirdly action in the community” – E7. Although some interviewees change the order of research and education, they generally acknowledge that these two functions cannot be separated from each other. The ethical dimension of these functions is con‑ sciously accepted. Some say it underpins all they do: “I have no doubt that the university teacher, and any teacher at any teaching level, exercises a function to educate humans for society (…) the university teach‑ er prepares in the name of the current technological society” – E8; “the work of imparting any content, teaching, guidance of work, is always an ethical ex‑ perience because it is never limited to didactics or merely the transmitting of information (…)” – E7. However, ethical issues may come to the fore in specific domains: in the relation with the pupils, 92

with any listener, with colleagues, in the educational act in general, in the teaching‑learning process, in research, in the community (in decreasing order with regard to the number of subjects who men‑ tioned these aspects). The ethical dimension also shows itself through the principles and values – terms which are gener‑ ally used indiscriminately – that guide the profes‑ sional conduct of the teacher. Few interviewees dis‑ tinguish them clearly (the objectivity of principles versus the subjectivity of values). The principles/values outlined can be typified in relation to others in general (respect for others, for the opinions and values of others, solidarity, respon‑ sibility for others, etc); to oneself as a professional (responsibility for solving conflicts, intellectual hon‑ esty, quality of work, the teacher as a learner, etc); to the students (honesty, justice, responsibility, infor‑ mation, liberty, respect, etc); to colleagues (liberty, support, respect, respect for their work, acknowl‑ edgement of their abilities, sharing and honesty); to the research (values of truth, validity, honesty and scientific rigour); and to the community (loyalty to the culture of the past and attitude of projecting the future, regional development). Concepts of the good of the student and justice in education Subordination of personal and corporative inter‑ ests for the good of the student and compliance with the principles of justice are general principles included in the deontological codes of the teachers in the various countries. It is precisely the concepts of good and justice that, according to Rawls (2001), best define a moral personality as having the ability to define good and having a sense of justice. These are, however, complex concepts whose definition is far from consensual in time and space. We therefore requested that they outline what they understand as the good of the student. A small part of the dis‑ course of some interviewees focuses on the ambigu‑ ity of the concept: “… it’s an expression that can be marked by relativisation, particularisation and regionalisation. The good of the student cannot be divorced from a universal good” – E7. Another example of the relativity of the concept: “when we are exercising our profession, I think it is always our intention: the good of the pupil” (…) but “with


a variety of students in front of us it is impossible to know what is this ‘good of the student’, because for student A it may be one thing and for student B something else” (E14). Despite these reservations, attempts were made to specify factors that gave rise to three subcategories: one, geared towards the per‑ son of the student (“being a person in relation to others”, “great growth at a personal level”, “self ‑esteem”, “well‑being”…); another, towards the process of professional preparation (the good of the students, e.g. “… is teaching them to play the game, in other words, to work creatively, to question every‑ thing, to be able to ask questions, even when things seem to be a closed box” – E7); another towards the teacher, given that the good of the student depends on the good of the teacher (“I endeavoured to do what I believe to be best, giving complete freedom. The students would benefit from this”, “the good of the student emerges from the competence of the teacher…” – E8). The difficulty in identifying the greatest good of the student potentially leads to di‑ lemmas, as mentioned by two interviewees: opting for more authoritative methods or granting freedom to the students bringing the principle of the teach‑ er’s responsibility and the principle of the student’s freedom into conflict; expressing their values or not in order not to influence the students. The concept of justice gives rise to two catego‑ ries: one, focusing on the general principles of jus‑ tice, which can be grouped into principles that safe‑ guard fair action (equity, respect, reciprocity, duty to respect rules, non‑discrimination, exercising balance of power, etc) and corrective principles (de‑ nouncing injustices, seeking ways to correct them). We can call them principles of retroactive justice, while the others are principles of active and proac‑ tive justice; the second category involves principles of justice in assessment, which themselves can be split into two subcategories: general principles (ret‑ ribution of effort, objectivity in assessment, based on work, etc) and specific principles: processes and procedures (diversification of strategies, param‑ eters, complete assessment of the path, etc). Whether referring to the principles of justice in general or those of assessment in particular, two po‑ sitions stand out that tend to contradict each other more than complement each other: justice as equal‑ ity, appealing to the universality of the principle and

justice as equity geared towards individual needs. The following extracts show this contradiction: “The issue of justice is not about dealing with eve‑ rybody in the same way, because we are all differ‑ ent, therefore students have the right to be treated differently” – E5; “my concept of justice does not believe that equal opportunities for all is just” – E12; “Levels of classification are attributed as objectively as possible. If you feel the need to carry out any in‑ terpretation of the assessment data, do it at the end of the process” (recommendation that one teacher gave his assistants). In comparison to other studies, we find, albeit without this terminology, the 4 kinds of justice of Chryssides and Kaler, mentioned by Macfarlane (2001): procedural, retributive (based on punish‑ ment), remedial and distributive and the 6 rules that Leventhal, cited by the same author, found in higher education: consistency, elimination of biasness, re‑ liability of the information, correction of mistakes, ethics and representations of the parties. This last rule is less obvious in the interviews carried out. It is difficult to conciliate these two conceptions of justice that give rise to most of the dilemmas that were reported to us. For example: to pass a student who is on the borderline or fail him/her; to give a good grade to a student who has the knowledge but who the teacher believes will not be a good profes‑ sional; to fail a student who does not achieve the specific objectives of a given subject, implying the loss of a year, or to lower the demands to let the stu‑ dent pass. The teacher’s role in the students’ ethical‑ moral development The ethical dimension of the profession is ex‑ pressed in another way in the ethical‑moral devel‑ opment of the student, although not all interview‑ ees explicitly and fully accepted this. In the opinion of one interviewee, the ethical dimension has been greatly neglected: “I think that little value has been given to human training, relational training, ethical training and this necessarily ends up having reper‑ cussions on professional development” – E6. But, in contrast, others believe it is outside their respon‑ sibility. As stated ironically by E13: “the function of university is not to make the students saints. Or re‑ duce their stay in purgatory… The function of the


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university environment is to impart skills useful for the career that the students choose (…)”. The ac‑ quisition of other ethical competencies, according to him, should be taught through university activi‑ ties that are not the responsibility of the teachers. When this educational facet is accepted, it aims to: educate the person (“development of the other as a person” – E1; “the ethical perspective in train‑ ing is crucial and important in relations of the self with others, as the student is somebody who builds a relation with the teacher, on the one hand, but has relations with others that are around him” – E2); to educate the researchers (“I do this, for example, in my exams. Plagiarism is unacceptable in science, therefore it is unacceptable in the exam” – E4) and above all it is aimed at the ethical preparation for the profession (“draw attention, almost maternally, to what they will be like in two or three years as future professionals, and therefore the respect they must have for their professions” – E9). Some interview‑ ees reduce the ethical teaching of students to this last aspect and the example teachers give in fulfilling their duties. These aims referring to the contexts (classroom and outdoor spaces) are based on general and spe‑ cific strategies that entail difficulties. The former consider ethics all‑encompassing to the express school curriculum and especially the hidden cur‑ riculum (“there is certainly circumstantial training, one can say, a hidden curriculum” – E1; “I am always transmitting values, although at times I don’t realise this but I think that I’m transmitting them” – E9), the interactive methods that respect the freedom of the other, the creation of collaborative contexts, monitoring and guidance, the definition of regula‑ tions, and above all the teacher’s example: (…) the teacher helps the student also as an exam‑ ple with regard to research, relations established, an open attitude towards interacting with others, being flexible in a supportive demeanour, encouraging co‑ operation, showing assertiveness, going that extra step forward and wanting to make progress and con‑ tribute to the common good (E5).

As for specific strategies, these include, for example, reflection on ethical issues, seminars, the exercising of competencies, etc. 94

The obstacles are mentioned only by two sub‑ jects. As well as the lack of time and curricular spac‑ es mentioned, there is also the number of students per class: “I give modules in which I have one hun‑ dred students, so what can I do with one hundred students? I often make a historical comment, but I don’t mean to say that I want to transform a small incident, sometimes even an anecdote, into a La Fontaine fable” – E4. To sum up, the ethical education of the students, above all in professional courses, focuses chiefly on deontology and the future profession. The goods are distinguished from the good and are essentially in‑ strumental, with the complete ethical training of the person pushed into background by some interview‑ ees, as a job of teachers from a lower education level. This gives rise to a question that led to an animat‑ ed online debate held in 2001 by an Ibero‑American journal on the role of university in the education of values, which would be interesting for us to discuss.

DO TEACHERS REQUIRE ETHICAL TRAINING? The concept of need is a polysemous concept. Most commonly considered as a shortfall by reference to desirable standards, this concept can also be seen as a desire and aspiration (Mesa, cited by Rodrigues & Esteves, 1993). There are subconscious and con‑ scious needs that are triggered or are confirmed through work situations and the problems and di‑ lemmas they give rise to. Their assessment leads to problems of power and legitimacy relations. Hence, we let the interviewees respond. The discourse on the ethical training of the teachers is linked to their initial training and in ‑service training and gave rise to the same subcate‑ gories: attitude and kinds of training. While 4 interviewees are against ethical training because they consider that a teacher, when entering university, is already ethically educated, 7 consider it important in the initial training and 8 in the in ‑service training. But ambiguous attitudes are also present, e.g. “I’m afraid (…) to be too paternalis‑ tic (…) on the other hand I feel (…) it would be healthy if we began to think about these issues. I think so, that it would be very useful in terms of a


broader discussion, to exchange experiences” – E4. Others make it dependent on conditions (e.g. not given by philosophy teachers). The general methods suggested for this educa‑ tion are similar, very much based on reflection of everyday situations, although emphasis is given to the idea of ethics running through the curriculum in the initial training: I agree with the ethical aspects running through all the subjects and that they should be valued and worked on in all fields of study, but I think that it is also useful to have a specific time and place for these ethical issues to be debated, clarified, deepened and therefore reflected on (E5).

The specific methods tend towards formal educa‑ tion moments, case studies, reflection on incidents. Reflection on ethical codes and the seminar are in‑ cluded in the in‑service training only by one sub‑ ject: “it’s very beneficial not to be just one area be‑ cause one area becomes funnelled (…) and that is why there are inter‑disciplinary seminars given by people with different training whereby somebody coordinates but there is also the teamwork…” – E12.

REFLECTION ON RESULTS The results brought to the fore different sensibili‑ ties concerning professional ethics, based on differ‑ ent forms of their construction. In general, we can define two groups: one, the minority, structures its thinking on philosophical (e.g. Aristotle, Kant and Jonas), psychological (Kohlberg, etc) and biological (E. Wilson and Dawkins) presuppositions; another, the majority, bases its thinking on practical wisdom deriving from their personal biography, sometimes with sporadic references to some author or other. Looking broadly at the data one can detect some coherent lines of thought, e.g. conceptions that con‑ textualise ethics, deriving from experience based on reason and feelings, in harmony with the relational nature of education and ethics, a leaning towards care, justice, equality, multicultural values; the in‑ nate conception of ethics, in line with devaluing the initial or in‑service training, with the separation of roles between personal and professional ethics,

reducing professional ethics to a deontology of du‑ ties, linked to the professional roles. Hybrid think‑ ing can also be detected. Situating the thinking of these teachers into trends of contemporary ethical thinking encounters twofold difficulties: due to the fluid nature of this thinking in most of the interviewees; due to the variety of cur‑ rents that express tensions between the illuminist rationalisation of modernity and the post‑modernist positions. Some, “focusing on the rational grounding of the ethical source of moral and moral values and on the universality and perenniality of fundamental human principles and values; others contesting the possibility of this reasoning and focusing on the con‑ textuality and ephemeral nature of the principles and values and stressing the caring side instead of the reasoning of moral experience; some, the legacy and constructors of new systems of teleological or deon‑ tological ethics; other destroyers of any system that is different from relativism raised to a system” (Estrela, 2008) but, paradoxically, seeking to safeguard some values such as solidarity (Rorty, 1988), tolerance within a “minimum morality” (Lipovetsky, cited by Bauman, 1997). We also find positions that, linked to critical modernity or post‑modernism, present alter‑ natives (e.g. Habermas, critical in relation to illumi‑ nist reason, tries to avoid relativism through commu‑ nicational act and interpretative communities; Bau‑ man, a confessed post‑modernist, creates an ethical system based on moral responsibility – “being for the Other before one can be with the Other” (1997, p. 9), as the first reality of the self and condition of social life (the disguised form of universality of a principle?). The philosophy of education has been subsidiary to the major systems of ethics, but we find attempts today that, reflecting on some post‑modernist influ‑ ences, try to construct ethics on the relational nature of the educational act and inherent responsibility (e.g. Houssaye, 2004 or Preyrat, 2007). However, this philosophy was not reflected in the thinking of the interviewees. The thinking registered in the interviews seems to take us on the whole to rationalist positions that fit into the spirit of modernity and, in one case, critical modernity. However, we can distinguish two kinds of rationalism: one, of a more technicist and instrumentalist nature of ethics, pragmatically guid‑ ing one for professional preparation as a concept


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geared towards particular good of the student; the other, of a more humanist nature, aimed at personal fulfilment within the concept of the universal good. Only a minority neared post‑modernist ethical po‑ sitions, through the consequntialist nature of ethics geared towards the results of action, based on the spirit that Noddings (2001) called the ethics of care. From the analysis of the interviews, the notion of responsibility seems to lack depth. As the meet‑ ing point of several contemporary movements, al‑ beit with different foundations, it could constitute a teacher and student training object and the basis of constructing an ethical theory of higher education.

CONCLUSIONS The results bring to the fore different sensibilities and ethical stances that represent only a few pos‑ sibilities within a multitude of possible responses. Although there is unanimous agreement by these teachers as to the lack of an ethics debate among colleagues, we cannot consider this issue a “lost di‑ mension”, as stated by Macfarlane (2004). It is, in truth, a hidden dimension, but partially unveiled and with plenty of potential for debate. If professions are not static and are driven to keep in step and often to anticipate social change, the con‑ cept of professionalism as a service ideal is a concept in permanent reconstruction by its professionals. Re‑ construction will always be difficult as it implies the redefining of interiorised ideals and the reconfigura‑ tion of personal and group identities. This uneasy reconstruction, especially at turning points, corre‑ sponds more to the pressure of outside forces than inner factors, as seems to currently be the case in the profession of the higher education teacher. Despite the importance attached to the teach‑ ing and research functions and some principles and values common to some teachers, above all in rela‑ tion to research, we cannot find a clear ideology of professionalism that mapped out a union among the teaching class or, at least, among the teachers of each institutional group. Two main visions of the profes‑ sion can be drawn up however: one, more geared towards technical‑scientific aspects, instrumental‑ ises ethics, tending to reduce professional ethics to deontology, in considering the person in the multiple 96

identities given by their roles and an attitude of re‑ jection or ambiguity as regards the need for ethical training of teachers; the other, more geared towards training of the person and in favour of the ethical training of teachers, outweighs personal and profes‑ sional ethics as the outpouring of the self. It seems to us that through the wanderings of the complex artic‑ ulation between personal and professional ethics two kinds of ethical identities are configured. However, through different logic, they converge in the role of the teacher as an example and partially in the concept of professional responsibility that can be restricted to the students or widened to society, but the dimension of planetary responsibility, theorised by Jonas, is al‑ most absent. This is where we believe there is a need for training. If, as stated by Dubar (1997), the construction of identity derives from biographical factors in in‑ terconnection with work situations, one can expect some visible differences between university teach‑ ers and polytechnic teachers, given the difference in their traditions, goals and student bodies that each institution serves. As far as a qualitative analysis enables us to ascertain, the discourse of both seem to cite more the inter‑individual variations than the inter‑group variations. However, one has to pros‑ ecute the hypothesis of differences (to be verified by another kind of analysis) regarding the consequen‑ tialist conceptions of ethics and, logically, the ethical education of the students and justice as equity, ap‑ parently more explicit in the polytechnic teachers. Nevertheless, one cannot exclude that more than the institutional differences, they can be attributed to the professional areas or even the female and male genders – a hypothesis that we are testing through the AQUAD computer program. The answer to the question about the need for ethical training of higher education teachers is yes for the majority of the interviewees. But, precisely because we found such big discrepancies in such a small sample of subjects, we believe that a debate involving the teachers that want it or would like to participate in it, inside or outside their institutions, is required. We believe that it is the teachers who are respon‑ sible for defining their ethical responsibility in reac‑ tion to the transformations taking place in the world and in the higher education institutions. It is they


who should define whether, as well as re‑focusing on some ethical dimensions of their profession, they are willing to accept responsibility for being and preparing the student to be “a voice for the voiceless” (Mayor, 2004, p. 493). Hence, two ques‑ tions seem crucial to us: how can one define and affirm the ethical ideal of professionalism of higher ‑education teachers in view of the transformations that have come about? Is university responsible for providing the ethical training of their students that

goes beyond raising awareness of the deontology of the future profession? Reflecting on these questions is the start of an ethical training of teachers. Remembering Castells (1997) and the role he con‑ fers to networks and the construction of “project en‑ tities” which, “redefining their position in society”, contribute to bringing about balanced change (1997, p. 7, 1º vol. e p. 30, 2º vol.), why not create on‑line net‑ works for this debate that require an inter‑disciplinary approach and makes this construction easier?


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Bibliographical references AA.VV. (2004). The Bucharest Declaration Con‑ cerning Ethical Values and Principles for High‑ er Education in the Europe Region. Higher Education in Europe, 29, 4 pp. 503‑507. Bauman, Z. (1997). Ética pós‑moderna. São Paulo: Editora Paulus. Castells, M. (1997). La Era de la Información. Economia, Sociedad y Cultura. 3 volumes. Ma‑ drid: Alianza Editorial. Dubar, C. (1997). A socialização: construção das identidades sociais e profissionais. Porto: Porto Editora. Esteban Bara, F. & Buxarrais Estrada, M. R. (2004). El aprendizaje ético y la formación uni‑ versitaria: más allá de la casualidad. Teoría de la Educación, 16, pp. 91‑108. Estrela, M. T. (2008). Reflexões preliminares a uma intervenção no domínio de uma formação ética de professores para o amanhã. In J. J. Bo‑ avida & A. Del Dujo, Sociedade sem Fronteiras – os Limites da Educação (in publication). García Amilburu, M. & Ruiz Corbella, M. (2006). La idea de universidad en el espacio europeo de educación superior: prós y contras de un mode‑ lo. Itinerários de Filosofia, 4, pp. 101‑112. Houssaye, J. (2004). De l’espoir pour éduquer? Iti‑ nerários de Filosofia da Educação, 1, pp. 109‑122. Jonas, H. (1998 [1993]). Pour une éthique du futur. Paris: Éditions Payot & Rivage. Macfarlane, B. (2001). �� Justice and Lectures Profes‑ sionalism. Teaching in Higher Education, 6, 2, pp. 141‑152. Macfarlane, B. (2004). Teaching with integrity: the ethics of higher education practice. London: RoutledgeFalmer. Marginson, S. (2007). Globalization, the “Idea of University” and its Ethical Regimes. Higher Ed‑ ucation Management and Policy, 19, 1, pp. 31‑45.

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Mayor, F. (2004). A global culture of peace: trans‑ mission and ethical dimensions. Higher Educa‑ tion in Europe, XXIX, 4, pp. 491‑494. Noddings, N. (2001). The caring teacher. In V. Ri‑ chardson, Handbook of Research on Teaching. Washington: AERA, pp. 99‑105. Preyrat, E. (2007). L’orientation déontologique. Les Sciences de L’éducation pour l’ère nouvelle, 40, 2, pp. 95‑113. Rawls, J. (2001 [1971]). Uma teoria da justiça. Lis‑ boa: Editorial Presença. Rodrigues, M. A. & Esteves, M. (1993). A análise de necessidades na formação de professores. Por‑ to: Porto Editora. Rorty, R. (1988). Notas sobre desconstrucción y pragmatismo. In S. Chritchley; J. Derrida; E. Laclau & R. Rorty, Desconstrucción y pragma‑ tismo. Barcelona: Paidós, pp. 35‑44. Schütz, A. (1987). Le chercheur et le quotidien. �� Par‑ is: Meridiens Klincksieck. Strauss, A. & Corbin, J. (eds.) (1997). Grounded theory in practice. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage. Unesco (1998). World Declaration on Higher Edu‑ cation for the Twenty‑first Century: Vision and Action. Retrieved March 2008 from http://www. unesco.org/education/educprog/wche/declara‑ tion_eng.htm Vicente Rodríguez, P. (dir.) (2006). Formación práctica del estudiante universitario y deon‑ tología profesional. Revista de Educación, 339, pp. 711‑744. Willemse, M.; Lunenberg, M. & Korthagen, F. (2005). Values in education: a challenge for teachers educators. Teaching and Teacher Edu‑ cation, 21, pp. 205‑217.




i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Towards the pedagogical excellence of higher education Manuela Esteves [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

Abstract: In this article¹, higher education pedagogy is contextualised in the broader fields of the aims to be achieved, of the undertaken educational policies and the social demands made to this level of education. Special attention is given to the role of higher education in the construction of the knowledge society. Some critical issues have been presented and briefly examined with reference to student ‑centred teaching, since the author regards this as the first step (though not the only one) towards achieving pedagogical excellence in higher education. If this is the main objective, then investment in the formal teacher training of university professors is necessary. Key words: Higher education pedagogy, Student centred learning, Adult learners, University teacher education.

Esteves, Manuela (2008). Towards the pedagogical excellence of higher education. Sísifo. Educatio‑ nal Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 99-106. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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The pedagogical excellence we advocate for higher education is that which does not dismiss: (i) the questioning of this very education without first questioning the means; (ii) the questioning of glo‑ bal, regional and national higher education and science policies, without questioning how these learning communities are organised in each institu‑ tion, each course and in each curriculum subject; (iii) the questioning of what it expects ( and does not expect) of higher education, without evaluating whether such requisition is being met or not. Therefore, we do not sustain a strict conception of pedagogy, satisfied with focusing on teaching ‑learning‑training processes as if they were devel‑ oped in a closed circuit. Indeed, in order to question the higher education pedagogy, the latter should be viewed as a complex and multidimensional space on which a variety of expectations and influences focus and interweave, as suggested by Zabalza (2002. pp. 13‑15) suggested, in his proposal that conceptual strands be considered in the analysis and defini‑ tion of development perspectives: university policy; curriculum material/science and technology; teach‑ ers and their professional world; students and the world of labour to which they aspire.

HIGHER EDUCATION FOR THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY Under the influence of globalization and from the per‑ spective of the construction of knowledge societies 100

(the knowledge society?) there is no doubt that edu‑ cation, teaching and training, particularly on a higher level, have been the object of unprecedented interest which goes beyond national borders. The three conceptions of university that are generally accepted − Liberal University, Research University and Service University— are being re ‑shaped: without any of them being the most domi‑ nant, solutions on the basis of commitment are be‑ ing sought among perspectives inspired by each one, giving rise to more visible and severe contra‑ dictions than, perhaps, in other periods of the past. · Most important instrument for sustaining the present and future development of societies · Sustenance of personal survival and/or affirma‑ tion projects · Guardian of the scientific and cultural heritage of humankind · Business material − knowledge / merchandise that is sold and purchased which some believe should be regulated under the World Trade Or‑ ganization · Essential contribution to the humanization of human beings These are some of the images (and realities) through which the network to which higher education cur‑ rently belongs is woven. Different protagonists give different importance and priority to each one of these traits. Some of the protagonists — politicians, representatives of economic forces, academics with

sísifo 7 | manuela esteves | towards the pedagogical excellence of higher education

high responsibilities in leading these institutions— even when they seem to converge momentarily, con‑ tradict each other at an early stage and vice‑versa. Another essential part of the protagonists, the stu‑ dents, seem currently detached from or perplexed by the training proposals put to them: they primarily discuss the material conditions of access to training and hardly or never the scientific and pedagogical training profile given to them. It is hardly surprising then that education is defined and evolves with dif‑ ficulties and hesitations in a scenario where there is an abundance of conflicts among perspectives. No one seems very sure of the targets to be achieved or of the best ways of accomplishing them.

THE PLACE OF HIGHER EDUCATION PEDAGOGY Research geared towards higher education peda‑ gogy has taken its time to develop. Goodlad (1995, quoted by Zabalza, 2002), on trying to synthesize the types of studies that had been more frequent up to that point, pointed out four main areas: · Historical studies, focusing on the variable na‑ ture of institutions over time; · Phenomenological studies on the specific con‑ tribution (to reproduce or modify) of universi‑ ties to the construction of the societies to which they belong; · Economically‑oriented studies geared towards verifying the cost‑benefit relation of higher edu‑ cation, both for the State and individuals; · Impact studies with a view to verifying a change in knowledge and attitudes provided by univer‑ sity experience. However, it is still interesting to see how pedagogi‑ cal studies based on teaching and learning proc‑ esses, perhaps due to their rarity, have not gained a classification along with their counterparts. Indeed, only from the 90s onwards did studies on higher education pedagogy begin to affirm themselves, due to their quantity and increasing quality. Interest in the university as “a space for formative decision ‑making”, to use the expression of Zabalza (2002), is, nevertheless, very recent.

QUESTIONING THE CONTENT OF EDUCATION Talking about the pedagogy of higher education is, for us, talking about science through teaching and learning and of science on teaching and learning. Let us briefly consider the first of these traits in the conviction that the first pillar of university peda‑ gogy has to be the knowledge available to be taught and learned. According to multiple evaluation reports, more often than not the knowledge made available to students is mainly, if not exclusively, constructed knowledge provided for and contained in the manu‑ als. This type of knowledge is more available than the knowledge constructed through pertinent ques‑ tions and the search for valid responses on the part of real learning communities made up of teachers and students which, really, all higher education in‑ stitutions ought to be. However, it is vital to acknowledge that soci‑ ety seems to be claiming two kinds of differentiat‑ ed products: the training of merely executive staff who act in accordance with consecrated knowledge (which will inexorably become outdated over in‑ creasingly shorter periods of time) and the training of creative staff, capable of inventing new solutions for existing and possible future problems. The mas‑ sification of higher education that has been wit‑ nessed in a number of societies has brought to light the first of these tendencies, while simultaneously increasingly more sophisticated and pressurising evaluation systems identify those which respond to the second above‑mentioned requirements as excel‑ lence centres. It may be said that in current societies there is room for both kinds of training and, within the realm of higher education, what was formerly referred to as ensino médio [secondary or technical education] has to live alongside a type of “higher education” inspired by the best traditions of univer‑ sity education. In spite of the complicated web in which higher education currently finds itself, in terms of the main aims to be met, and without forgetting the weight of the external entities involved and the pressure to which they are subject, we firmly believe that the higher education institutions should not give in to adopt a passive or merely reactive role on this matter.


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They should affirm themselves as an important and pro‑active part of the construction of the future. It is from this perspective that we also place re‑ sponsibility on the institutions for the increase in pedagogical quality. It is crucial to act so as to im‑ prove the curricula and processes of teachers and students, with a view to learning and training from within the system without waiting for general social and political constraints to determine them. As far as pedagogical issues are concerned, political power has restricted itself to discourse (albeit, inconsequen‑ tial) on them. Take, for example, the mainly bureau‑ cratic study carried out by the MCTES [Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education] on the registration processes of new Master and Under‑ graduate Degree courses under the Bologna Proc‑ ess —greater emphasis is given to whether the forms have been filled in correctly, in accordance with the criteria (debatable) of Central Administration, than to the scientific and pedagogical content of the proposals. An implicit and premature norm has tri‑ umphed, according to which all basic training would be two‑phased (undergraduate degree+master), only making exceptions for cases where such an imposi‑ tion would cause social alarm, by criteria we fear have been exclusively economically‑based.

FOCUSING LEARNING/TRAINING ON THE STUDENT/LEARNER In our opinion, this is an aim that is far from novel: several examples of this aspiration and its accom‑ plishment may be found at a number of periods and in situations which are either further or closer to us in time, thus, the perplexed reaction when it was presented as the great plan for the present and fu‑ ture of higher education pedagogy. In spite of what has just been said, we believe that this aim has been established on the basis of three reasons: · Since there are still many situations where high‑ er education pedagogy is teacher and material ‑centred; · Since the context to which such aim belongs nowadays is more difficult and demanding than in past situations, even when successful; 102

· Since this aim encourages all those who are con‑ cerned with increasing and improving the re‑ sources lacking in higher education and which, as we know, have become increasingly scarce. As far as the second aspect is concerned, it is funda‑ mental to bear the massification of higher education in mind, which has already occurred in a number of countries and brought increasingly heterogeneous groups of students, in terms of their socio‑economic and socio‑cultural origins, personal and academic backgrounds and plans for the future to this level of education. Therefore, nowadays, when speak‑ ing about making the teaching‑learning‑training processes student‑centred, one is speaking about an aim which is only connected to what occurred in past situations by the terms used: even though in name it is the same, it is currently more complex in its accomplishment, more difficult to achieve and a source of contradictions which need to be specified, discussed and overcome. It is easy to recognise a variety of obstacles which might hinder the accomplishment of this aim, among which the following are included: · The dominant academic culture and the concep‑ tions of teachers and students regarding what it is to teach and learn in higher education; · Each teacher having excessively large groups of students. We will now go on to briefly refer to a set of is‑ sues we consider worthy of further research so that student‑centred learning may effectively take place and the pedagogy of excellence be attained — in other words, so that student‑centred learning may occur from a critical and not omissive perspective in terms of the contradictions that may also stem from an aim that is completely defendable at first sight. Question 1— How do young adults and adults learn and train? Since these are the main targets of higher educa‑ tion, one should not be too hasty in generalising certain characteristics that are habitually attributed to adults, namely: · Knowing what they want from school;


· Having a relatively broad and rich cultural and experiential background; · Knowing their direction in life and having a de‑ fined personal project; · Completely mastering the decision‑making skill; · Being clear in terms of their specific professional interests. The afore‑mentioned increasing heterogeneity of university students is also conveyed in different approximation levels of the former to the above ‑mentioned characteristics. Entwistle (2001, p. 8) referring to the empirical studies of Saljo (1979) and Marton and Saljo (1997) regarding the learning conceptions sustained by the students, points out the great diversity of concep‑ tions among them which may be summed up in two broader categories: that of those who view learning as memorization and reproduction and those who regard it as the transformation of their knowledge and experience in accordance with the information and new ideas presented to them. On this basis, En‑ twistle suggests three possible ways of approaching learning and study on the part of students which he refers to as the superficial approach (passive repro‑ duction), in‑depth approach (active transformation) and strategic approach (reflective organization) to knowledge. These scenarios, understood as being successive, take time to construct over an academic period, even when the teachers invest in the accom‑ plishment of more profound and reflected learning on the part of their students. According to Zabalza (2002, p. 105) knowing how the young adults and adults learn and what the role of education (as the action of the teacher) may be are the most novel aspects for most higher edu‑ cation teachers. The same author is of the opinion that most higher education teachers have adopted a defensive attitude, considering “teaching” (their task) to be merely a question of commitment to the valid scientific knowledge in their area, and that “learning” is the exclusive problem of the student/ learner, associated with his/her determination, mo‑ tivations, skills, knowledge and previously acquired competencies. Garrison and Archer (2002, p. 3) insist that ideal learning situations in higher education are those in which:

· All the learners have a life experience relevant to the learning task with which they are confronted and, thus, are capable of getting involved in a constructivist knowledge venture; · The group is made up of what might be called a collaborative learning community; · The learners are all capable of taking responsi‑ bility for their own learning; · The learners have or may acquire critical think‑ ing skills; · The control of guidance in a learning situation is congruent with the educational targets and the learner’s skills; · The learning situation includes an aim which gives substantial motivation to the students to run and manage their own learning — in other words, they have the incentive to determine themselves. The authors underline the fact that in real situations we will only encounter more or less intense approxi‑ mation levels to these characterising situation traits regarded as being ideal. The transactional perspec‑ tive of teaching‑learning that Garrison and Archer defend, which represents the connection among the six above‑mentioned traits, is based on constructiv‑ ism and collaboration, involves responsibility and control as main issues and is accomplished by means of stimulation processes or the emergence of the crit‑ ical thinking of students and self directed learning. For the afore‑mentioned authors, learning is, thus, a meaningful construction process stemming from raw available information and personal knowl‑ edge yet to be confirmed, which involves a double process based on: i) The construction of personal meaning for the learner; ii) Social validation of this meaning. Simultaneously, meaning is/should be personal and socially shared and validated so that the simple per‑ sonal attribution of meaning does not conduct be‑ liefs, implicit theories or erroneous representations. Question 2 — What meaning does “teaching” take on? It is consensual, at least as far as discourses are con‑ cerned, that the simple passing on of information


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is not the teachers’ main task. Shavelson (1992, pp. 33‑34), referring to the role of the teacher in the knowledge society, believes that it changes from “a distributor of information to an orchestrator of tasks which make reflected knowledge construction pos‑ sible”. Facilitating and sustaining the emergence of student skills so that they think in a critical manner, are able to determine themselves and continue to learn throughout life have been pointed out as the main tasks of teacher action. The difficulty (and controversy) is in how to go about accomplishing such intentions. The simple perspectives of innova‑ tion and technical inspiration that are often adopted do not attain these results since they fail to consider the global complexity of the training process, the training contexts and constraints. Using the isolated introduction of techniques regarded as being inno‑ vative (the use of portfolios, for example), or new devices (tutorial training spaces, e‑learning), if it is detached or insufficiently anchored to an overall vision of training, to clear conceptions in terms of student learning targets and the role and influence of the teacher (the latter are, indeed, challenging and difficult issues), it may not bring significant im‑ provement to the quality of training carried out. The congruence among intentions/activities/results— aspects which need to be considered through dy‑ namic interaction— seems to be more important than the application of a specific technique viewed as being innovative. In fact, it is precisely in this last case that we have encountered many higher educa‑ tion teachers preoccupied with improving the kind of teaching they provide. We may say that training orders made on these terms should be the object of negotiation on the part of the trainers so that sim‑ plistic perspectives of the depth of change necessary and illusions regarding the ease with which they can be accomplished are not fuelled. This forces us to examine higher education curricula, from the gener‑ al conception of a course to the specific conceptions in each of its subjects, to the ways the activities are accomplished and to how evaluation is carried out. Question 3 — Curricula: what are the consequences of learning by competencies? Some authors sustain that the subordination of learning to the acquisition and development of com‑ petencies represents a flagrant perspective based on 104

the coupling of higher education with the economic sphere and the demands of a new capitalist order that is typical of globalization. We feel that this con‑ sideration might be excessive as it all depends on the conception of the “competencies” adopted. They can be defined as knowledge in use, exclusively use‑ ful for economic production or, alternatively, define themselves simultaneously in the cultural, humanis‑ tic and economic use of knowledge. In the latter, we do not think it necessary to banish but rather to ac‑ complish academic paths guided for/by competen‑ cies to be displayed by the students. When Leclercq (2001, pp. 31‑32) suggests that they should be defined as competencies on leaving university education, (i) specific subject competencies, (ii) de‑multiplying or instrumental competencies, (iii) strategic or meta ‑cognitive competencies and (iv) dynamic or motiva‑ tional competencies, we believe that the second afore ‑mentioned scenario is being mentioned. António Moreira (2005, p. 6) who has worked arduously on curriculum issues suggests that “the curriculum should be conceived as a contested ter‑ ritory, as a battle field in which different groups and agents fight for the officialization and prestige of their knowledge, meanings, skills, methods, beliefs and values”: In coherence with this conception, Moreira suggests that the curriculum process in higher education should involve both the analysis of the idea components in the curriculum as well as the ideas that dispute space and prestige under the specific area curriculum of a given course. · How have the characteristics of a curriculum been established in the university? · What forms have been considered appropriate in order to discuss and construct it? · What aspect(s) of the curriculum — aims, con‑ tent, methods, evaluation, social relations — is (are) given priority in the selected conception and what effects does such emphasis cause to the curriculum renewal process? · What influences (national and international) do the principles and criteria adopted reflect and what interests are at stake? · How have discussions among curriculum ex‑ perts been carried out and how can they come to be incorporated in decisions regarding higher education curricula?


Moreira poses just five sets of questions which we are picking up on here in order to exemplify the de‑ bate among academic communities in terms of sus‑ taining more coherent and more strongly grounded pedagogical proposals. These kinds of issues help stimulate a criti‑ cal thinking scenario about pedagogy in academic communities. We also think it is pertinent to situate the tension between the contextualization and uni‑ versalization of training. The movement of a peda‑ gogy by competencies frequently seems to induce a possibly excessive contextualization of curriculum: contextualization in the present and in its immedi‑ ate demands, hindering a vision of the near future; contextualization in the immediate social needs; contextualization in the current conditions of the institutions, without procuring a change of condi‑ tions regarded as being insufficient or deficient; contextualization in view of students’ starting point, without raising the issue of modifying and improv‑ ing this starting point. Interpreted thus, contextualization may be, above all, inductive of conformist and not very am‑ bitious pedagogical processes. It is important, then, to question the “curricu‑ lum contextualization” concept used, the virtues it may contain, but, also, the risks and errors to which it might light, even unawares. Furthermore, if there is a time when the construction of universally valid knowledge and competencies is necessary, that time is now and, as far as we are concerned, will increas‑ ingly be time in the future. Simultaneously, in the name of another concept, “curriculum flexibility”, room has been made for increasingly important choices on the part of the students, on whom the content or subjects of their curriculum are based. It is also necessary to dis‑ cuss whether or not a core curriculum should be safeguarded, as well as a healthy vote on the part of students which will enable them to broaden their interests. This core curriculum would identify a given training course and distinguish it from others, with the risk of some losing their sense of specializa‑ tion completely and being little more than the sum

of sundry credit subjects and, at the limit, not even making sense in scientific and educational terms.

SYSTEMATIZING THE PEDAGOGICAL TRAINING OF TEACHERS In Portugal, and where the pedagogical excellence of higher education depends on the specialized training of teachers, there is still a long way to go. Since the evaluation of higher education has been developed under the Fundação das Universidades Portuguesas [Portuguese University Foundation], school failure has become more easily identified and an increasing number of voices have claimed attention, innova‑ tive action and scientific study for the phenomena of pedagogy. Some innovative pedagogical intervention experiments have emerged, but are still far from in‑ volving the whole universe of people and institutions. As far as we are concerned, the systematization of the pedagogical training of teachers we suggest is imperative in terms of institutional consecration, professional duty and the generalization of training for the entire teaching staff. Having said this, we believe that the problems with which the learning and training of students in each course are confronted should be the basis of the training to be developed and not the creation of general training courses inspired by a defectological paradigm of teacher training. Instead of standard‑ ized courses for everyone, in view of the increase in the educational knowledge of teachers, we defend contextualized intervention/training programmes geared towards the resolution of pedagogical prob‑ lems which stem from each specific situation. The development of pedagogical training pro‑ grammes, involving teachers of equal or related courses, from a variety of institutions (national and, possibly, international), the development of institutional and inter‑institutional research‑action projects and the consolidation of post‑graduate courses in the field of higher education pedagogy may be important stimuli for the construction of pedagogical excellence in higher education.


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Endnotes 1. Paper presented in the IX Congresso da Socie‑ dade Portuguesa de Ciências da Educação [IX Con‑ gress of the Portuguese Society of Educational Scien‑ ces] (Funchal, April 2007).

Bibliographical references Entwistle, N. (2001). Promoting deep learning through teaching and assessment. In R. B. Sou‑ sa; E. Sousa; F. Lemos & C. Januário (orgs.), III Simpósio — Pedagogia na Universidade. Lisboa: Universidade Técnica de Lisboa, pp. 7‑24. Garrison, D. R. & Archer, W. (2000). A transac‑ tional perspective on teaching and learning. A framework for adult and higher education. Ox‑ ford: Pergamon & EARLI.

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Leclercq, D. (2001). Desafios actuais à pedagogia universitária. In C. Reimão (org.), A formação pedagógica dos professores do ensino superior. Lisboa: Colibri, pp. 29‑54. Moreira, A. F. B. (2005). O processo curricular do ensino superior no contexto actual. In I. P. A. Veiga & M. L. P. Naves (orgs.), Currículo e ava‑ liação na educação superior. Araraquara, S.P.: JM Editora, pp. 1‑24. Shavelson, R. J. (1992). New roles for teachers and students. In F. K. Oser; A. Dick & J. Patry (eds.), Effective and Responsible Teaching: the new syn‑ thesis. San Francisco: Jossey‑Bass. Zabalza, M. A. (2002). La enseñanza universitaria. El escenario y sus protagonistas. Madrid: Nancea.




i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Teacher training in higher education. The case of teachers of medicine Patrícia Rosado Pinto [email protected] Faculty of Medical Sciences of the Universidade Nova of Lisbon

Abstract: This paper addresses the subject of teacher training in higher education, and more specifically the training of teachers of medicine. It starts by establishing a theoretical articulation between the fields of medical education and teacher training at the higher education level. Reference is made to the teaching component of academic activity, and to the importance which should be attached to this component, in terms both of progression in teaching careers and of training. The author examines the characteristics of the teaching activity of medical teachers and describes the training programme of the teaching staff at the Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. From the conclusions drawn by the author, there emerge issues of leadership, involvement and participation by teachers in their own training, creation of programmes for professional development, and the existence in institutions of structures specifically designed for purposes of training, with an emphasis on the contribution of educational science specialists working within these structures. Key words: Teachers of medicine, Medical education, Higher education, Teacher training.

Rosado Pinto, Patrícia (2008). Teacher training in higher education — the case of teachers of medici‑ ne. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 107-120. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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TEACHING AS PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY Social, economic, political and cultural changes in contemporary society are forcing higher education to rethink the teaching and learning processes it em‑ ploys, if we accept that teaching strategies should re‑ spond to the needs of a recipient population which is ever larger and more diversified (Pedrosa, 2001). Meanwhile, also undergoing rapid change is the professional profile of teachers in higher education — a profile hitherto with a major scientific compo‑ nent but which, owing to the increasing challenges posed by a student population with highly diversi‑ fied socio‑cultural and age characteristics, has been forced to incorporate other skills of a more social and interventional import, both within and outwith the place of education (Biggs, 2003). It should be noted that conditioning factors spe‑ cific to university culture and environment are oper‑ ating here, and that although this culture and envi‑ ronment have retained the characteristics necessary for the production and transmission of knowledge (Lerbet, 1993) they are now strongly influenced by a series of contextual factors including funding, au‑ tonomy, quality of service and relations with the em‑ ployment market. On this subject Cachapuz (2001) asserts that although universities continue essential‑ ly to act in three domains — teaching, research and extension, i.e. the provision of services to the com‑ munity — what is at stake in today’s global context is the redefinition of the mission of the university as 108

institution, in such a way that, as Candeias (2005) observes, it can be “credible and economically vi‑ able” at the same time (p. 11). All these factors have the effect of exerting on the university different stresses which pull it in op‑ posite directions (Zabalza, 2002). In the first place, there is the concern with maintaining the quality of education it offers, despite the democratization and diversity of its student population: a dilemma which is conventionally called the quality versus quantity debate (Veiga Simão et al., 2002). Another source of stress lies in the esprit de corps which binds the different faculties of the same university versus the autonomy of these same faculties — a factor which also operates within faculties in terms of the autonomy of their component departments. These conflicts can be conceptualized as a question of collective identity (of an institution) against indi‑ vidual identity (of e.g. a department) (Hargreaves & Fullan, 2000), or more broadly as openness versus self‑absorption. A third source of stress lies in the tendency towards specialization and the atomiza‑ tion/compartmentalization of knowledge, with the consequence that each discipline tends to over ‑estimate its own value. On this topic, Shulman (1993) observed that although they are active mem‑ bers of scientific communities which are organized by speciality and among which they exchange find‑ ings, methods and knowledge, teaching profession‑ als seem not to have the same desire to share within the immediate scope of the subjects they teach. The “mission” of the university is a further source of

sísifo 7 | patrícia rosado pinto | teacher training in higher education. the case of teachers of medicine

tension, in that (at least) two different rationales co ‑exist in universities — one centred on research, the other on teaching. From this co‑existence one strain — research — emerges as the prevalent one, and this creates a new form of stress which inevitably affects progress in the teaching profession. By implication, the attribution of different “weightings” to the two principal functions of teachers in higher education (researching and teaching) means the professional prestige of teaching staff derives almost exclusively from their research activity and scientific output; it is their dedication to research which secures them stability in their profession, often to the detriment of teaching (Dill, 2003). Finally, and closely linked to the teaching side of things, is the tension which obtains in the teaching/learning dichotomy and the growing concern, in higher education, with the promotion of “significant” and “useful” knowledge. Cross (2001) draws our attention to the paradigm shift in this “new” higher education, in which the objective of the university is now a question of pro‑ ducing knowledge rather than giving instruction. This change of focus from teaching to learning re‑ quires a whole new array of teaching skills on the part of the teacher (Bireaud, 1990; Leclercq, 2001). We should add that, as a consequence of the sci‑ entific and teaching autonomy at this level of teach‑ ing, teachers are expected to be capable of taking decisions on what they teach. This brings up the need to examine the didactic side of higher educa‑ tion, which in the French academic context is des‑ ignated “university pedagogy” (Zabalza, 2006). In the first place there emerge questions relative to didactic transposition (Chevallard, 1991), i.e. the transformation of the knowledge of the teacher into content taught to the student [“savoir savant” and “savoir enseigné” (Charlot, 1997)]. Cachapuz (2001) distinguishes between didactic transposition of the first order (how to transpose knowledge into a teach‑ ing object) and of the 2nd order (how to transpose teaching objects into learning objects). Nóvoa (2002, p. 69) opts for the designation of “deliberative trans‑ position”, which reinforces the idea that the mobili‑ zation of skills always involves an ethical dimension and the individual taking of decisions. Then again, higher education teachers are also expected to take decisions — based on their own knowledge of education — on the form of education

they intend to opt for, the way the content of their subject relates with content from other domains, the learning situations they wish to construct, the teach‑ ing materials best suited to the objectives pursued. As a consequence they are also expected to be capa‑ ble of applying their educating skills to the content they wish to teach (Hadji, 1997), transforming it into a skill internal to education [in the words of Roldão (2005), the “educational skills” and “educating skills” levels]. But this tension between educational knowledge and a practical, action‑based skill is rare‑ ly consciously perceived by higher education teach‑ ers, who base their teaching decisions on the know ‑how accumulated over the course of their teaching career — acquired, in many cases, by imitating those with more experience. On the application of theoretical knowledge in practical contexts, Shulman (1986) introduces the concept of “didactic knowledge of content” which links the domain of content with the ability to un‑ derstand it and transmit it in an accessible form to others. In the words of Nóvoa (1988, p. 127), this concept moves us on from the old Shavian maxim of “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach”, to “those who can, do; those who can’t, but have mas‑ tered the teaching procedures, teach” (the phase, according to Nóvoa, of valorization of the educa‑ tional sciences to the detriment of the academic and scientific content of the subject) before leading us finally to a new maxim: “those who can, do; those who understand, teach” (Shulman, 1986, p. 14). Therefore it’s essential that we approach the concept of “scholarship of teaching” in terms of the specific nature of higher education and the particu‑ larities of teaching intervention deriving from this specific nature. Boyer (1990, cited in Braxton et al., 2002), first applied this concept to the domain of education, observing that one way of resolving the apparent contradiction between the need for invest‑ ment in research (as a means of career progression) and the need to expand the remit of higher educa‑ tion institutions in an attempt to respond to the de‑ mands of society would be to eliminate the barri‑ ers between the different scientific domains and the teaching of their respective contents, given that both entities should be objects of research. It’s in this context that the university undertakes specific objectives of research, teaching, learning


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and, above all, the taking of decisions with regard to education; it is now accepted that higher educa‑ tion has its own status in terms of professional com‑ petencies (Zabalza, 2003), i.e. “professionalism in teaching” (involving the mastery of a series of skills and techniques and a practice underscored by a framework of guidelines and values, professional‑ ism which, since it is not a static entity, can express itself via different ways of operating in the profes‑ sion) (Nóvoa, 1992). Bucklow and Clark (2000), writing on higher edu‑ cation in the United Kingdom, stress the importance of the promotion of the professional identity of teach‑ ers in higher education, and present an inventory of the obstacles to be overcome. In the first place is the lack of consensus in the sector, and the concerns felt by some teachers that attempts to “professionalize” education may end up interfering with the way they administer their teaching content, in this way dimin‑ ishing the importance attached to the autonomy of the university. Then there is the argument that teach‑ ing is only one aspect of academic activity and that the professionalization of teaching will lead to the impoverishment of research activity. Finally there is the conviction of university teachers that they already are professionals in their field of knowledge, and that there is no need to further professionalize them. At the heart of this conception of professional‑ ism, and despite the apparent absence of consensus, it seems beyond doubt that a certain specific nature is progressively being attributed to higher educa‑ tion teaching, in domains closely linked to the char‑ acteristics of the target audience and the needs of the social context.

THE IMPORTANCE OF TEACHER TRAINING One of the fundamentals in the development of re‑ sponses to the new challenges facing higher edu‑ cation is unquestionably teaching staff and their “teacher/professional training”. Kogan (2001) prefers this designation to “teacher training” tout court, insofar as the longer designation underlines the application of teaching skills in the broad sense, i.e. the specific ability of the university teacher to encourage and support his or her students in their 110

learning. Ambrósio (2001, p. 93), writing in defence of a form of teacher training which goes beyond the mere improvement of the teacher’s organizational and managerial abilities in the act of teaching, op‑ poses to the concept of the training of higher educa‑ tion teachers the concept of “construction of teach‑ ing abilities and the teaching skills of university teachers/researchers”, stressing the dual function (teaching and research) of these professionals. The current approach to teacher training in higher education therefore extends beyond its purely technical and utilitarian characteristics to embrace discussion on contextual issues related with the spe‑ cific situation of teachers and with curricular issues, going well beyond strictly subject related issues. In the words of Garcia (1999, p. 253), the educa‑ tion administered by higher education teachers can only be effective if it: is based on the current and future needs of the organization and its members; is centred on professional practice and based on criti‑ cal reflection on teaching; aims to construct specif‑ ic, scientifically‑founded knowledge; emanates from the teacher him/herself, and occurs in a collabora‑ tive manner, in a group context and with colleagues, attaching importance to training in the different de‑ partments, on a first level, and in the institution as a whole, on a second. Defining the relevant areas and crucial moments in the training of higher education teachers has been no easy task. In the first place, the importance of the supervised social integration of teaching profes‑ sionals at the start of their teaching career seems un‑ questionable. However, training during the exercise of the profession is also essential, with contact with other professionals and respect for professional growth cycles also of importance (Alarcão & Sá ‑Chaves, 1994; Zeichner, 1993). As for the formats used, the focus of profes‑ sional development of teachers shifts from sup‑ porting teachers in the acquisition of new skills or new knowledge to the provision of opportunity for teachers to critically reflect on their teaching prac‑ tices and to adapt new knowledge and new forms of intervention to the context (Chickering & Gamson, 1987; Darling‑Hammond & MacLaughlin, 1995). We might say that, with new needs being iden‑ tified, different global training strategies are begin‑ ning to emerge:


· Joint work involving several teachers (Jesus, 2000), based on a model of “participative or in‑ tegrated self‑training”, i.e. the “valorization of the idea that all training is a process of individ‑ ual appropriation which occurs during perma‑ nent interaction and confrontation with others” (Nóvoa, 1988, p. 127); · Discussion forums with teachers as part of a process based on the teachers’ own convic‑ tions and values, with the emphasis on the de‑ velopment of personal and professional career projects (Esteves & Rodrigues, 2003); · Opportunities for experimentation, with train‑ ing centred on the resolution of concrete prob‑ lems, whereby teachers develop their skills in a professional context and training acquires new, utilitarian characteristics (Canário, 1999; Zeich‑ ner, 1983); · Application of practices of reflection on and about action (Schön, 1983), allowing teachers to reinterpret their experiences in the light of the interaction between the professional and his/her context (Leite & Silva, 2002); · Time for training and time for teachers to incor‑ porate new practices into their teaching routines (Garcia, 1999), in an attempt to prevent training from becoming a mere accumulation of facts with no connection to the exercise of the profes‑ sion (Paquay et al., 2001); · Integration of training programmes in the mis‑ sions of institutions, recognizing training as a factor in institutional change which cannot be detached from the institution in which it occurs (Nóvoa, 1988); · Incentives, in terms of career progression, and professional rewards (Cross, 2001); · Training based on current knowledge of learning and the process of change (Sparks & Loucks ‑Horsley, 1989); · The possibility of further examination of the fundamentals of teaching, based on reliable frameworks of reference and going beyond the imitation/empiricist model of practice (Alfana, 1994). Of the different characteristics involved in the pro‑ fessional development of higher education teachers which simultaneously responds to their own needs

and to the needs of the institutions in which they work, a number of training models place emphasis on one or more of these characteristics. At present, the preference is clearly for flexible and creative so‑ lutions which mobilize different reservoirs of poten‑ tial behind the training process. Sparks and Loucks ‑Horsley (1989) identify five models for professional development in higher education: The first model, oriented towards the personal and the individual, is based on the needs and the individual efforts of teachers. This model allows teachers to find solutions to the problems they themselves identify, using their preferred methods of teaching (Good & Brophy, 1994). The second model is based on the observation and assessment of the teacher in the classroom (though not limited to the classroom), with feedback as a valuable tool for critical detachment, reflection and analysis (Es‑ trela & Estrela, 1977). It is also based on the premise that observation is a growth factor both for the ob‑ server and the observed, who both develop negotiat‑ ing skills, mutual respect and the ability to critically reflect (Estrela, 1984). A third model is oriented to‑ wards professional development and is based on the solving of problems, generally curricular, where the teacher becomes involved in institutional develop‑ ment projects (Tom, 1985). The training model, the fourth model, is closely connected to institutional needs and based on objective‑oriented training. It involves the replication of conduct and the acquisi‑ tion of a repertory of teaching skills (Allen & Ryan, 1969). Finally, there is the research‑based model, which emphasizes the training potential in the for‑ mulation of valid questions on teachers’ own prac‑ tices and the application of a research methodology for discovering causes and solutions (Little, 1993). In addition to the characterization of training models, some work has been carried out on the conditions necessary for adequate professional de‑ velopment regardless of the model selected. Chief among these conditions are certain characteristics of the institution, such as the climate of collegiate solidarity and experimentation (Little, 1982), lead‑ ership which validates training and integrates it in the teaching institution (Sparks & Loucks‑Horsley, 1989), the articulation between a clearly‑defined “top‑down” orientation and respect for the propos‑ als and needs of the different institutional structures


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(“bottom‑up”) (Fullan, 1982), and the existence — and diligent management of — resources allocated to training (Garcia, 1999). In addition to the characteristics of the institu‑ tions in which training programmes take place, oth‑ er questions merit discussion and analysis. Zabalza (2002) identifies different vectors of analysis and decision‑making: the clear definition of the purpose of training, and clarification in regard to the train‑ ing initiative (responsibility of trainees or leaders) and its compulsory/voluntary nature; the choice of training characteristics, whereby it is crucial to de‑ fine whether the option falls on a generalist training — which according to Zabalza, has the advantage of creating a common arena of reflection — or on a specific type of training associated with the teaching of the various subjects; the choice of areas of train‑ ing (exclusively “teacher” training or training cov‑ ering several different areas, such as management and research), the selection of recipients (only for teachers or for all personnel in the institution, only for younger staff or for everyone) and the skills and backgrounds of the trainers (internal or external). Finally, the author underlines the importance of the existence in institutions of structures specifically created for teacher training, with qualified staff. These structures are designated by Kogan (2001) as “teaching development centres”. Finally, we should mention that research on these training models in higher education is still limited, and little reflection has taken place on the way higher education teachers learn and construct their professional abilities, regardless of which model they follow (Wilson & Berne, 1999).

THE TRAINING OF MEDICAL TEACHERS The situation in schools of medicine does not differ greatly from that of other institutions of higher edu‑ cation, although the situation of teachers of medi‑ cine does have its specificities, insofar as we cannot forget the healthcare services which, in coexistence with other activities, constitute an essential part of the work of a teacher of medicine and a source of his/her social status. We should also bear in mind the fact that the career dynamic of these teachers 112

follows objectives which are not always compatible among themselves, since the healthcare institutions and teaching institutions in which they work oper‑ ate under the aegis of different government minis‑ tries (Schormair et al., 1992). The specific nature of medical teaching is condi‑ tioned by a number of circumstantial factors. In the first place, and as a result of the changes in the fund‑ ing systems for healthcare units, is the fact that many of these units find themselves undergoing a process of adaptation to new requirements, such as manage‑ ment objectives and cost‑effectiveness, which leave less and less space for medical training. Secondly, and also due to a number of conditioning factors, is the fact that teachers work across an increasingly wide range of activities: the full‑time teacher in the school of medicine is increasingly a rarity (Bland & Wersal, 2002). Another question is identified by Weatherall (2006), writing on medical training and its history. It involves the discussion of the tensions between the teaching of science(s) and the teaching of clinical practice, which the author designates “the tensions between science and clinical practice in medical education” (p. 195). These tensions, according to Weatherall, cause many doctors to be trained with a notion that their profession is learned by practising it, and that the theoretical side is of little use. With specific regard to the training of teachers of medicine, Irby (1996) argues that training must accommodate four different aspects: the develop‑ ment of teaching skills on the individual level (cen‑ tred on teaching practice); the development of aca‑ demic skills (centred on the collection, analysis and processing of data and the summarization and com‑ munication of findings); the development of lead‑ ership and group dynamics skills (centred on the management of services and resources); and the de‑ velopment of institutional dynamics skills (centred on the interaction between departments and the institution’s organizational and management struc‑ tures). In this domain, and although the training of medical teachers is not yet globally acknowledged, various solutions have been emerging in the attempt to attribute meaning to teaching. As an example, we can cite the experiment of the Faculty of Medi‑ cine of Wake, North Carolina. Taking on board the four domains in which teachers of medicine exer‑


cise their profession (teaching, research, clinical practice and academic/administrative work), Wake decided to offer four different avenues of progress in the career of trainees, using differently‑weighted combinations of the four spheres of professional activity (Sherertz, 2000). Another example comes from the Faculty of Medicine of Harvard University, which in 2001 created, on the initiative of its direc‑ tor, an “Academia” constituted by teachers from the faculty who were recognized for their teaching skills and their involvement in the educational side of medicine, both in basic areas and in hospitals. The objectives of the Academy are fourfold: to promote the conditions for innovation and excellence in ed‑ ucation, to promote the selection of the academic path among young teachers (with predominance of the educational component), the creation of teach‑ ing discussion forums linking the basic, social and clinical areas, and the creation of resources for sup‑ porting education (Thibault et al., 2003). The role of the training of teachers of medicine has recently been the subject of articles in medical education reviews (Guilbert, 1969; Irby, 1986; GMC, 1999). More recently still, the evaluation of training has been the subject of papers by Dennick (2003) and Godfrey et al. (2004). Using self‑assessment questionnaires, Dennick (2003) evaluated percep‑ tions of improvement in the practice of teachers at Nottingham University’s Faculty of Medicine. The findings indicated that teachers on the one hand af‑ firmed that they felt confident in their teaching, and were able to put into practice the techniques they had learned as trainees, while on the other hand they stated that their students had benefited from the improvements in the teaching skills of their teach‑ ers. In similar fashion, Godfrey et al. (2004) used questionnaires to gather the opinions of training course participants on the advantages of their train‑ ing in terms of teaching practice. The respondents felt they had improved in four main areas: the plan‑ ning and development of learning activities based around small groups; “negotiation” with students on the objectives of learning; ways of underlining key points in classes by conducting partial summa‑ ries; and strategies for giving feedback to students. Of all the conditions considered essential for the success of a teacher training programme, the most important is the recognition of training by the insti‑

tution, or what Harden and Crosby (2000, p. 343) designate “the culture of good teaching practice”.

FROM TEACHER TRAINING TO PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES Based on research from the 1990s which pointed to the need for a more global approach by teachers of medicine, the frames of reference adopted in the new millennium have been wider, extending beyond the “teaching to teach” formula. Coles (2000), for example, suggests that training programmes could include discussion forums on professional prac‑ tice. More than merely teaching practices, teachers should be made aware of the importance of discuss‑ ing with their students the characteristics of a pro‑ fession in which decision‑making is crucial, where the rules may not be applicable to every individual case and where a bad decision can be a matter of life and death. Chism (2002) recommends, howev‑ er, that teaching practice should provide the frame‑ work for training, mobilizing it in a practical, “on the job” situation. On this topic, an observation by Märtenson (Buckley et al., 2001), published after the author’s death, points towards some of the characteristics of the training of teachers of medicine, and calls for an articulation between two paradigms normally consid‑ ered antagonistic — a skills‑based training based on explicit educational objectives, and training centred on experience and reflection on this experience. Resource materials for the formulation of train‑ ing programmes have evolved recently, with texts on educating skills (Harden & Stamper, 1999; Newble & Cannon, 1995) now accompanied by other, more global texts designed to provide guidelines for the creation of training programmes. An example of this kind of text is the Guide by Harden and Crosby (2000) on the news roles required of teachers of medicine in their endeavours to provide a response to changes in the curriculum and the new learning environment in schools. According to the authors, although they are still seen as a source of informa‑ tion (for purposes both theoretical and practical, as in demonstration), teachers are also expected to be a model for their students, to be able to foment


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learning in a small group as well as individual con‑ text (“personal advisor and mentor”), and also to act as evaluator (of students and curriculum), plan‑ ner (of curriculum and courses), author (of educa‑ tional resources such as guides and IT material). While this guide provides fuel for discussion on the various roles of the teacher and the best way to per‑ form them, its most important contribution is in its closing recommendations. Since these recommen‑ dations and especially pertinent to, and in harmony with, the training philosophy which has recently been cultivated in the Faculty of Medical Sciences, they are worth enumerating individually: the impor‑ tance of equipping the teacher with the necessary skills for accomplishing the tasks expected of them; the existence of programmes designed for large groups of teachers and of others whose objective is to provide a response to the specific needs of small groups or even individuals; the availability of train‑ ing programmes designed to develop and improve skills already acquired and of programmes for the acquisition of skills not yet mastered by teachers. Finally, there is the promotion of what is designated “the culture of good teaching practice” (Harden & Crosby, 2000, p. 343).

THE TEACHER TRAINING PROJECT FOR TEACHERS AT THE FACULDADE DE CIÊNCIAS MÉDICAS (FCM) The teacher training project for the teachers of the FCM was closely linked to the creation of a support structure for the teaching of medicine and the use of the problem‑based learning methodology in the physiopathology department of the FCM, which we were asked to monitor (Rendas et al., 1993, 1995, 1997 a,b,c). The introduction of this methodology in the teaching of other course subjects was accompanied by a series of actions devised in response to spe‑ cific needs voiced by the teachers, since the use of problem‑based learning involved profound changes in the roles traditionally played by teachers. One of the first of these actions was specific training in stimulating group dynamics and performing tu‑ torial functions (Rosado Pinto, 1993, 2002). Our role, at the outset, was to give support as required 114

to teacher training processes; the need for a more systematic, institutional support arose later. Thus, at the proposal of the Directive Council of the Fac‑ uldade de Ciências Médicas, in 1994 a support bu‑ reau for medical teaching (GAEM) was created, lat‑ er to become the Department of Medical Education (DEM), which led to the invitation for us to work full time with the FCM. The new institutional status of this bureau arose as part of a specific strategy which started with a process of exchange with the various departments and units, the aim of which was to characterize the FCM, make contact with department directors and the chairpersons of the various councils and, finally, to gather proposals and suggestions for suitable action based on the needs manifested by teachers and students. After the consultation process a pro‑ gramme of activities was drawn up around the four major vectors of action identified from the concilia‑ tion of interview material with the requirements of the Directive Council: Collaboration in processes of evaluation (inter‑ nal and external evaluations by medical faculties); teacher training; teaching practice advisors (open‑ ness to requests for assistance from departments which, individually, and on the basis of specific needs, approached the DEM); supervision of cur‑ ricular innovation projects (especially the APP project of the department of physiopathology). The actions of the DEM embrace the whole in‑ stitution, including collaboration in the evaluation processes of which the FCM has been the object, and advisory services, in the domain of teaching, for Directive and Teaching Councils. On the depart‑ mental level, action included basic teacher training courses for young teaching assistants and monitors of the FCM, attended on a modular basis through‑ out the academic year; the organization of “Teach‑ ing Encounters” and Journal Clubs for the discus‑ sion of wide‑ranging and cross‑disciplinary topics; and workshops directed at specific methodologies, for instance “Computer‑Assisted Learning” and “Study Techniques”. Finally, there was assistance for the preparation and evaluation of the practices of teacher trainers, with the DEM working on the planning and observation of classes and the formu‑ lation, application and processing of the respective teaching evaluation questionnaires; and assistance


in lesson planning for teaching aptitude examina‑ tions and for pooling of teaching staff from different departments.

PRINCIPLES FOLLOWED IN TEACHER TRAINING IN THE FCM In addition to the characteristics already mentioned (where assistance and validation of the role of the DEM in the Faculty of Medical Sciences are major factors), the aspect most valued by teachers at the faculty were the following: The importance attributed to content and the production of “evidence” From the many interviews we conducted with teach‑ ing staff, two concerns emerged as fundamental. On the one hand was the necessity that there should be demonstrable advantages in the partnership with the DEM, especially from the point of view of the stu‑ dents’ learning. Teaching staff consistently revealed themselves averse to innovations which do not trans‑ late into better results in the acquisition of skills by students. On the other hand, and directly connected to the question of students’ learning, was the ques‑ tion of scientific evidence and the priority given to evaluation. Thus one of the major investments of the Department of Medical Education was the creation and application of tools for evaluation and presenta‑ tion of results that provide timely — and therefore useful — feedback (Rosado Pinto, 1993). Creation of support materials for teaching projects Teachers and students alike attached great impor‑ tance to investment in the production of classroom support materials. This aspect was of importance for the strategy delineated by the whole institution. Requests for training invariably came accompanied by requests for texts and articles that students could read as part of their training. One of the key roles taken up by the DEM was therefore that of compil‑ ing and providing bibliographical references in the domain of teaching and the creation of summary materials for different teaching subjects.

Phasing of projects and teacher training The different stages in a given project, with the training which underpins the project, was another of the characteristics of the teaching projects we monitored. With regard to training, this involved assessment of the progressive and negotiated acqui‑ sition of teaching skills. It was also clear that for a given project to be successful it had to have as its basis a problem/need identified by the teachers or in articulation with the teachers. It was also noted that the resolution of the prob‑ lems identified should always occur in a context of reflection and in‑depth theoretical examination, transposing to the domain of teaching a practice which is widespread in clinics and among teachers of medicine, and which combines research with re‑ flection and action. Finally, and again with regard to training, re‑ spondents appreciated the fact that the objectives of training were the development and enrichment of skills, with no evaluatory component. Dissemination One of the essential characteristics of the teaching projects we monitored was the joint publication (DEM/other departments) of articles in national and international reviews. Since publication is a key component of both academic and medical activity, it had an extremely important role in the projection of the Department of Medical Education and the vali‑ dation of the scientific tenor of its activity (Barahona et al., 2003; Rendas et al., 1998, 1999; Rosado Pinto et al., 2001). Finally, and more than any results per se, what we should really emphasize is the total integration, in the FCM, of the partnership between Medical Sciences and Educational Sciences. The opinions we systematically gathered on this topic stressed the importance of our presence in the institution as spe‑ cialists in teacher training. In addition to underlin‑ ing our supportive role in the institution’s teaching project, teachers at the FCM also acknowledged the importance of the contribution of the DEM to their educational research. The role of educational specialists in higher ed‑ ucation institutions has not yet received the recogni‑ tion it deserves. This lack of recognition stems, in


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our opinion, from an absence of awareness of what is being done in this area and, above all, from the fact that positive experiences in overcoming obsta‑ cles tend to go unnoticed. We hope to contribute to

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a change in this situation with the presentation of the work of the Department of Medical Education of the Faculty of Medical Sciences of Universidade Nova de Lisboa.


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i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Professional development of the university teacher: a contribution for its analysis Sandra Graça [email protected] Faculty of Dentistry of Lisbon University

Abstract: In the background of university education and the challenges that today face university teachers in particular, the object of this study is the development of dentistry teachers analysed by looking at their professional careers. To gain access to the teachers’ representations about their teaching career, the methodological approach chosen was a qualitative and exploratory study, of a biographical nature, based on semi-structured interviews given to a group of 13 teachers. Analysis of the content enabled the professional development stages throughout the career of the group of teachers studied to be characterised. The results show that the teachers interviewed represent their career on the whole in a positive light, and despite the multiple constraints felt, they remain motivated and satisfied. The stages identified correspond to the start of teaching, preparation for their PhD and post PhD. The aim behind the characterisation of these stages is to help in the development of dentistry teachers and the creation of institutional strategies that encourage this development. Key words: University education, Dentistry teacher, University career, Professional development.

Graça, Sandra �� (2008). Professional development of the university teacher: a contribution for its analy‑ sis. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 121-132. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

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INTRODUCTION Higher education is today going through very tur‑ bulent times following the changes that have been made, especially in the last decade, when the peda‑ gogy of learning, as Nóvoa states (2000), has come to the fore preparing individuals to be able to adapt throughout their lives. The shift of emphasis from teaching to learning changes the conception of the university teacher, who moves from being the teach‑ er to the bridge between the knowledge available and the cognitive, cultural and affective structures of the students (Fernandes, 2001). In this background the teacher has become abo‑ ve all an educator: critical, reflexive and open to change, working in a collaborative climate contri‑ buting to institutional projects and missions, with a sense of responsibility and commitment in the different roles he takes on (March, 2003; Patrício, 2001; Rodríguez Rojo, 1999). Zabalza (2002) argues that today’s university teacher is linked to the three major ideals: professionalism, in being a complex professional activity that requires specific training; life‑long learning, which conceives the development of an activity that requires constant updating; and the importance of the quality of teaching in the im‑ provement of learning. The fact that the teaching task is a complex, dif‑ ficult and challenging reality leads to the need to develop pedagogical, social and institutional com‑ petencies which harmoniously relate all the tasks involved in the profession of university teaching 122

(Cruz Tomé, 2003). The development of the teacher is dependent on personal, professional and institu‑ tional development which cannot be separated (Bell & Gilbert, 1994) and which corresponds to an on‑ going process of learning that arises from the daily practice, seeking synergies among the personal and professional development needs and the needs of the institution to bring about an improvement in pro‑ fessional competence, a deepening of the teacher’s self‑knowledge, his role in the institution, the con‑ text and his career (Benedito, 1991, cited by March, 2003). Therefore development seems to be linked to the concepts of change and learning, in which the teacher is in a process of change by becoming aware of “weaknesses or faults in components of his sub‑ jective theory” and in the process learning occurs (Marcelo García, 1999, p. 51). Several authors have tried to identify the cha‑ racteristics of the professional development of tea‑ chers. Soto’s contribution (1994, cited by Simões, 1998, p.36) systematised this concept as dynamic, constant and progressive, with implications for the teaching practice that cannot be separated from the social context and the teacher taking on a unifying and integrating character. These characteristics make it a complex and multifaceted concept (Ni‑ chols, 2001). Professional development for higher education teachers takes on many forms. Rarely does it follow a constant, predictable and credible form during a whole career. It may move forward extremely quickly at times or more slowly at other times (Ferman, 2002). Indeed, empirical data reveals

sísifo 7 | sandra graça | professional development of the university teacher: a contribution…

that there is considerable variation in the actual and ongoing endeavour put into the development proc‑ ess by teachers throughout their careers (Wilkerson & Irby, 1998), owing to the circumstances, con‑ straints and challenges of different orders, which limit or empower their professional development (Cafarella & Zinn, 1999). Teacher development should occur throughout a series of stages, each corresponding to different ways of qualitative thinking. Research carried out with non‑university teach‑ ers (Cavaco, 1991; Gonçalves, 1992; Huberman, 1989; Loureiro, 1997; Sikes, 1985; Steffy et al., 2000) suggested that different experiences, attitudes, per‑ ceptions, expectations, motivations, satisfactions, frustrations and concerns seem to be related to dif‑ ferent phases of the professional career. At the start of one’s career there is ambivalence between feelings of survival and discovery. In the stabilisation phase the teacher consolidates his space. The diversifica‑ tion phase can be marked by endeavour/enthusiasm or by lack of belief and routine. In the serenity phase the teacher shows personal satisfaction or conserva‑ tive attitudes. In the last phase the teacher close to retirement age may show signs of bitterness or se‑ renity. Other researchers (Feixas, 2003; Kugel, 1993; Robertson, 1999), attempting to assess the profes‑ sional development of university teachers, propose an initial phase focused on the teacher marked by insecurity and the need to gain the confidence of the students. In the following phase the teacher tries to improve the teaching and motivate the students. Finally, in the last phase, the teacher focuses on the autonomous learning of the student. These development models, despite being lin‑ ear in nature, are not necessarily hierarchical. An individual may show aspects of two or more phases at the same time, and it may not be clear when one phase transits into the next. Although the professional development of uni‑ versity teachers has been recently looked at by sev‑ eral researchers, the way it is constructed is still an unstudied field. This study focuses on the profes‑ sional development of the dentistry teacher, built and grounded on two complementary dimensions: as a university teacher and as a professional dentist. Historically, dentistry schools have recruited their teachers from among the best students or those

who have obtained the best academic grades, assum‑ ing that this fact is enough to exercise the teaching activity, but the gap between effective practice and effective teaching can be big (Masella & Thompson, 2004). To teach, teachers fall back on their practical experience, imitate the models that were subject to as students to implement passive learning (Living‑ ston et al., 2004). Another aspect that should be highlighted is that in dentistry teaching there is another factor that interferes in the teaching‑learning process: the pa‑ tient. The teacher‑student‑patient triangulation in dentistry teaching requires that the teacher has a twofold commitment: with the patient to implement the technical and scientific resources as well as abid‑ ing by ethical and humanistic guidelines, while with the student the pedagogical competencies come into play in carrying out the teaching‑learning proc‑ ess (Behar‑Horenstein et al., 2000). Furthermore, most teachers are involved in the provision of oral healthcare in the private sec‑ tor, which does not leave much time to dedicate to the educational tasks (Howell & Karimbux, 2004). This leads one to conclude that the dentistry teach‑ er’s job has not earned the full status of a profes‑ sion, but is rather a complementary activity of the dentistry practice. This identifying fact is of critical importance in the curriculum and in the instruction (Masella & Thompson, 2004). Adding to these as‑ pects are a difficult economic climate that leads to cut‑backs in the organisational structure, increased volatility linked to technological advances, the grow‑ ing demands of the consumers and the reduction in funds for research (Murray, 2002). Dentistry teachers thus face the pressure of be‑ ing effective and reflexive educators, productive dentists, promoters of innovation in oral healthcare, high‑quality researchers, and are also asked to con‑ tribute to the leadership and management of faculty and university services. Striking a balance among these activities may be difficult, if not impossible, and is influenced by the environment of the educa‑ tional environment and by the interactions among colleagues (Schrubbe, 2004). It is therefore of interest to analyse how the pro‑ fessional development of the dentistry teachers is constructed and how the two dimensions are articu‑ lated throughout their professional career.


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METHOD This study is guided by the overriding goal of re‑ searching, through the teachers’ discourse, how their professional development is constructed throughout their career. An effort is also made to understand the factors that affect this development, attempting to reconstruct the trajectory of develop‑ ment constructed in the and by the profession, in the different phases of the career. The problem was analysed with the following aims: · To ascertain if, in the teachers’ description of their professional lives, one can distinguish phases; · To characterise the interests and concerns that define each phase identified; · To identify what factors hold back the profes‑ sional development of the university teacher; · To compare the data obtained with other re‑ search on the careers of university and non ‑university teachers. The methodological approach chosen to answer the problem and the issues that guide the research, which lead us to the teachers’ representations con‑ cerning their teaching career, was a qualitative and exploratory study, of a biographical nature, based on semi‑structured interviews (Fontana & Frey, 2003; Gubrium & Holstein, 1998).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Analysing the content of the interviews enabled the stages that marked the career to be identified as well as how the professional development occurred over this time. Professional development and pedagogical training The data collected seem to suggest that the profes‑ sional development model followed by the teach‑ ers interviewed is predominantly within the model of striving to perfect the individual as defended by Villar Angulo (1993) and in the same line of think‑ ing within the autonomous development model 124

proposed by Sparks and Loucks‑Horsley (1990), emphasising the personal and isolated nature of professional development (Cranton, 1994). From this viewpoint, the teachers learn independently what they perceive to be important for their de‑ velopment, seeking to respond to the individual needs, which suggests a personal orientation to professional development proposed by Benedito et al. (1995, cited by Núñez, 2001). The pedagogical practice was gradually con‑ structed throughout the career by most of the teach‑ ers interviewed based on their experience and in‑ tuition, which fits in with the “from novice to ex‑ pert” development model presented by Pill (2005), through an independent quest to solve the problems that arise, but also through imitation of positive teaching models and also learning from older teach‑ ers. These aspects are in accordance with those pointed out by Feixas (2003) and Tavares (1999). As for the professional development stages as teachers, most of the teachers seem to focus on the teaching as argued by Feixas (2003), tending to con‑ centrate on making sure the transmission of knowl‑ edge is effective and using the master’s lesson as the main teaching strategy. However, some teachers seem to highlight a development stage centred on the student (Feixas, 2003) attempting to engender a more autonomous learning. According to Rob‑ ertson (1999), the teachers’ dominant positioning is aliocentrism, with no explicit indications of syste‑ mocentrism, given that the importance of the rela‑ tionship between the teacher and the student in the interaction is never pointed out. The need for other knowledge beyond the con‑ tent is constantly mentioned by the teachers, with references made to keeping track of new informa‑ tion technology, new teaching methods, new assess‑ ment methods, in an attempt to improve the teach‑ ing and the learning of the students, which fits into the new profile that is required of the university teacher (Gonçalves et al., 2001; Zabalza, 2002). One point of widespread agreement is the teach‑ ers’ concern with the content of the lessons and the drawing up of a scheme so as to make the content able to be assimilated and appropriate for the stu‑ dents, approaching what Shulman (1986) calls ped‑ agogical knowledge of the content and Perrenoud (1993) calls didactic transposition.


One of the aspects to highlight regarding what is missing from the teachers’ discourse are group and institutional initiatives as regards profession‑ al development (Bell et al., 1991, cited by Núñez, 2001), which seems to confirm the culture of indi‑ vidualism in the university environment (Carlson ‑Dakes & Sanders, 1998). In this study none of the teachers mentioned sharing colleagues’ experienc‑ es or the discussion of pedagogical aspects with peers and those who spoke about teamwork did so in relation to the work carried out among the mem‑ bers of their subject group, which reinforces the idea of a lack of an inter‑disciplinary conception (Conceição et al., 1999). The field of dentistry, marked by startling tech‑ nological evolution in recent years which is increas‑ ing, usually places its trust in specialists within the field to teach, in being a professional area. The teachers start their activity as university teachers without having been previously prepared for this: they were either experts in their area of knowledge, or they showed, as students, good performance which enabled them to get into university. Perhaps for this reason these teachers feel more attached to their field of knowledge rather than as belonging to the class of teachers. When questioned what their profession was, one of the teachers from the more experienced group of teachers and seven from the younger group of teach‑ ers answered a dentist, which can be justified by the importance attached to the career of a dentist which in most cases was the main professional activity. All the teachers interviewed stressed a strong re‑ lationship between their dentist’s career and their teaching career, and their discourses showed that this mutual influence brings changes in the activities in the two directions: practising dentistry enriches the teaching activity by experiencing real‑life exam‑ ples, hence the teaching is not merely a question of reproducing the knowledge produced by others, and the teaching practice influences the dentistry activity as the former calls for the need to be con‑ stantly up to date, which benefits the clinical activ‑ ity. However, this clinical activity, in being carried out in parallel with the teaching activity, may con‑ tribute to the non‑professionalisation of the teach‑ ing and conflicts of identity (Howell & Karimbux, 2004; Masella & Thompson, 2004).

When asked to opt between an academic or clin‑ ical career, seven teachers answered that they would choose teaching as their single activity but in the right conditions, especially financial and the possi‑ bility to continue practising dentistry in the univer‑ sity. Poor working conditions, low salary compared to the private sector and family issues are pointed out as reasons that may lead teachers to ponder abandoning their career. Most of the teachers currently channel most of their efforts towards the teaching activity, while a smaller group state their main activity is as part of the management bodies. They all wish they had more time to do research, although none mentioned the teaching practice as a possible source of research. The activities that provide the least satisfaction for the teachers are bureaucratic issues, the time these tasks take up and the management activities which they feel they are not prepared for. Despite stating they have had little or even no training for the teaching activity (only three teachers had received pedagogical preparation but after hav‑ ing started their teaching careers), during their dis‑ course the teachers stated some differences between their first teaching experiences and their current practice, all of them perceiving the teaching prac‑ tice as a producer of knowledge, and most of them (9 teachers) believing that they are a better teacher today than when they started their activity. All the teachers acknowledge the need for specific training to exercise teaching, and imagine training of this kind in the institution that is structured, and in the opinion of most, brief but compulsory, theoretical/practical or administered by a mentor, of didactic and pedagogi‑ cal content, given to all the teachers of the institution, in line with the specificity of the institution. In this study we also tried to identify in the teachers interviewed what contributed towards the commitment to professional development and what hindered it. It seemed that the biggest constraints derived from extrinsic factors outside the control of the teachers, namely the excessive umber of stu‑ dents, lack of material and human resources and funding problems. The difficulty in articulating the activities and the excessive amount of management tasks also seemed to hold back the development of the teachers. As for the factors that induced profes‑ sional development there was a desire to improve


125

oneself and one’s performance and the pleasure and satisfaction obtained from the teaching activity. Stages of the Career Analysis of the individual careers of each of the inter‑ viewees, in attempting to reconstruct them through the different moments and situations evoked during the interview, enabled the identification of three ma‑ jor stages: the start of teaching; preparation for PhD and post PhD. Starting the teaching profession (Table 1) is generally viewed as easy. In the group of teachers studied we can conclude that the beginning of their teaching career was considered a period of “dis‑ covery” and to a lesser extent of “survival”, as de‑ scribed by Huberman (1989), which may contribute to a positive process of professional socialisation. The fact that 12 of the teachers considered the start of their teaching careers as an easy phase may be justified by the security in their sense of mastering the curricular content and also because they were going to teach aspects related to their profession. The lack of difficulties may also be related to the fact that eight teachers started their careers giving practical lessons, some with the aid of more experienced teachers and the other five had already acquired some professional experience. Another revealing aspect of a relatively smooth beginning has to do with the conception of a positive image of the students, as they were highly motivated due to the recent completion of their de‑ gree and their enthusiasm in starting work, but also another factor could be the maturity they showed.

The teachers, despite experiencing a positive start, mentioned that the lack of pedagogical train‑ ing and lack of knowledge and preparation for the demands of an academic career were constraints holding back professional development. However, these aspects were surpassed owing to their liking of the teaching profession and the desire to better themselves which motivated them to come up with strategies to get over the difficulties. It is common to find feelings of lack of prepara‑ tion mentioned by some teachers at the start of their careers in the literature (Feixas, 2003; Huberman, 1989; Loureiro, 1997). This is linked to the insecurity of the first years of activity, generated by the difficul‑ ties in communication, feeling of unease when facing the students, lack of knowledge about the career and their need to affirm themselves in the working world. In the PhD preparation stage we can demarcate two different career paths (Table 2): those who opt to prepare their PhD while they are assistants and those who do so as teachers. The former do not experience so many difficulties as the latter as they have fewer teaching responsibilities and have better conditions to carry out research. Training abroad was pointed out as essential to prepare for the PhD. Some teachers also considered the support of their supervisor and department positive in preparing their PhD. Among the negative aspects were the fact that doing a PhD was compulsory if they did not want their contract to be ended by the university, the solitary nature of preparing the PhD and lack of support from the supervisor.

table 1 Start of teaching career easy (n=12)

difficult (n=1)

Positive aspects

Negative aspects

Positive aspects

Negative aspects

Knowledge of environment Mastery of curricular con‑ tent Support from older teachers Starting with practical les‑ sons Few responsibilities Possibility to deepen knowl‑ edge Possibility to build career Liking for teaching Positive image of the student Work experience

Lack of knowledge of de‑ mands of academic career Lack of preparation for demands of career Lack of pedagogical prepa‑ ration

Liking for teaching Contact with the students Work experience

Difficulties in communicat‑ ing Lack of support Lack of training opportuni‑ ties in Portugal Family reasons Lack of pedagogical prepa‑ ration

126


In the group of teachers who obtained their PhD when they were already practising teachers, they usually did so for their own reasons, with this preparation viewed as a challenge and a goal to achieve. On the negative side were extrinsic reasons, on the whole linked to the background in which this preparation was carried out. These teachers were pioneers in obtaining the PhD in this area, as at the time there were not suitable conditions to carry out the research. Furthermore, as they had many teaching and administrative re‑ sponsibilities, they also did not have much time for this preparation. We cannot forget that only very recently was the Dentistry Faculty integrated into the University, around fifteen years ago, only from that date onwards subordinated to the legislation in force. Hence, the creation of a body of teach‑ ing staff only took place from this date onwards, which provided greater fluidity in career progres‑ sion for most of the teachers who meanwhile took PhDs, either because vacancies became available, or through the retirement of older teachers. As such, most of the teachers interviewed stated that immediately after their PhD, they took charge of the management of one or more subjects, which translated into significantly more responsibilities. Preparation of the PhD coincides, for most teachers, with aspects linked to the previous stage, and can be considered a transitional stage (Sikes, 1985). Ten of the thirteen teachers refer to obtaining the PhD as the most salient event of their academic career, and consider it a turning point.

As became evident, the PhD constituted a change in the professional career of the teachers in‑ terviewed. At this stage, as Table 3 shows, we find several phases. The post‑PhD stage is the period that merits the strongest views of the discourse of the most expe‑ rience teachers. It is also in this stage that we can see both common and divergent traits. The first phase, affirmation, was felt by ten of the teachers interviewed who prepared their PhD when they were still assistants. Taking on new responsibili‑ ties also brings with it enthusiasm in wanting to do new things, in trying out new pedagogical strate‑ gies, more security with the students, which seems to fit into the perspective of the teacher focussed on the teaching (Feixas, 2003) and seeking affirmation within the group he belongs to, the stabilisation phase of Huberman (1989). The negative aspects are not widely perceived by most, perhaps because of lack of knowledge about the constraints that the new responsibilities can bring. Three of the teach‑ ers interviewed are currently in this phase and have started teaching relatively recently The characteristics of the next phase, diversifi‑ cation (Huberman, 1989), or stabilisation and ma‑ turity (Sikes, 1985), in which the teacher becomes a valuable member in the institution he works for, showing confidence in his actions and responding and/or seeking new challenges, was highlighted in the discourse of ten teachers. Currently five teach‑ ers seem to be in this phase, continuing to show much endeavour in their teaching activities, seeking

table 2 PhD preparation As assistants/invited assistants Easier (n=9) positive aspects Negative aspects Few teaching responsibi‑ lities Time for research Training obtained abroad Departmental support Goals to be achieved Supervisor’s support Good conditions to do re‑ search

Compulsory nature Loneliness lack of supervisor’s support

positive aspects

As teachers Less easy (n=3)* Negative aspects

Challenge Desired goal Personal project Liking

Lack of conditions to do research Lack of support Many teaching and adminis‑ trative responsibilities Lack of time Need to pave the way

* one of the teachers had a PhD awarded through equivalence because of training abroad.


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table 3 Post PhD Positive aspects

Negative aspects

Affirmation (n=3)

Greater investment in teaching Able to take part in the institutional decisions Security Try out new methodologies

Less investment in research Excessive number of students Lack of physical and material conditions

Diversification (n= 5)

More attention given to curricular aspects More concern about the students’ learning Less monitoring of younger teachers Security Possibility to continue clinical activity

Less investment in research More management responsibilities Less contact with the students Excessive number of students Lack of physical and material conditions Difficulty in staying up to date Lack of administrative support Part‑time teaching

Questions raised (n= 2)

See people interested in learning More monitoring of younger teachers Liking for teaching

Lack of time for family Lack of time for other activities Difficulty in articulating the activities

Serene (n=1)

bitter (n=2)

See projects completed Obtain recognition by the professional class Start new projects

Tiredness Saturation Lack of conditions to prepare the students well

Disinvestment (n=3)

to develop more active teaching methods, focus‑ ing on their concerns about the students’ learning. They also carry out management tasks, which they view as using up time that could be spent on more productive tasks, especially research. They believe they have evolved positively as teachers through the accumulation of experience and by trying to better themselves through self‑training. They consider the experience gained in dentistry as an important con‑ tribution to their evolution as a teacher, as well as the influence of the teaching activity on their den‑ tistry work. Despite these positive aspects it is obvi‑ ous that they feel constraints, which derive essen‑ tially from external origins. Obstacles to the teachers’ development pointed out include the increase in administrative and man‑ agement responsibilities and the great difficulty in articulating these tasks with other functions, namely because the teaching is being carried out as a com‑ plementary activity of the dentistry profession. Also considered negative is the fact that no time is avail‑ able for research and they do not have more time for student contact, and they regret the fact that research is the facet that has the greatest weight as regards career progression. 128

The biggest constraints are linked to the educa‑ tion system and the lack of funding, as well as the sharp rise in the number of students which prevents the development of teaching methods that are more in line with active learning by the students. Anoth‑ er aspect brought to the fore is the students’ lack of motivation towards the degree nowadays, with some teachers going so far as to suggest the students should be selected depending on their vocation for the profession. Although on the whole all the teachers were sat‑ isfied with their career and were able to manage the day‑to‑day frustrations and problems appropriately, two teachers raised doubts about the profession (Huberman, 1989). These teachers, due to the ma‑ jor difficulties felt in articulating an academic career, a clinical career and their family life, were consid‑ ering leaving the profession. However, they admit they had not already done so because they enjoyed and gained satisfaction from their academic career. Some traits of the disinvestment phase (Huber‑ man, 1989) were found in three teachers who were nearing retirement age. Two of the teachers showed signs of a more bitter disinvestment, marked by neg‑ ative aspects of tiredness or saturation, once again


caused by excessive responsibilities in one case, and discontent with the working conditions for teachers in the other. One teacher was in the serene disin‑ vestment phase, and was extremely happy with the recognition attained and the projects that had been carried out, and was enthusiastically looking for‑ ward to starting new projects.

CONCLUSION Clearly the evolution process of higher education has affected the way teachers exercise their activity, leading to reformulations of their professional iden‑ tity. The way teachers articulate their different pro‑ fessional roles as dentists, teachers, researchers or managers, entailing different demands and values, gives rise to conflicts of roles that may generate dif‑ ferent identity configurations. Despite the fact that most of the teachers studied, on the whole, represented their career in a posi‑ tive light without major obstacles, they pointed out moments of conflict, either linked to motivation or their satisfaction levels with the academic activity. This bears out the dialectic process experienced by individuals undergoing development, which is a process marked by ongoing tensions and disputes

between personal values, feelings and the roles and responsibilities to be fulfilled teaching the degree and in the institution they work for. It is pointed out that the younger teachers seem to have had a generally easier career path, especially at the start of their career, possibly justified by the background of development that marked an era of expansion of the Faculty up until the mid 1990s, the support they received from foreign institutions and the experience acquired from the older teach‑ ers of the institution in their academic preparation and setting up of senior staff that, to a certain ex‑ tent, may have contributed to aiding their career progress. The “pioneering” teachers who began their teaching activity when the Faculty was created experienced greater difficulties, perhaps because they had to pave the way along roads that hitherto had not existed. The group of teachers studied present different ca‑ reer paths marked by circumstantial events that made progress easier or more difficult. The results ob‑ tained in this group of teachers lead us to agree with Lawrence and Blackburn (1985, cited by Villar An‑ gulo, 1993, p. 141) when they state “there is no single theoretical model that can represent the diversity of interests and professional activities that characterise university teachers, or a segment of them.”


129

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Schrubbe, K. F. (2004). Mentorship: a critical com‑ ponent for professional growth and academic success. J Dent Educ, 68, 3, pp. 324‑328. Shulman, L. S. (1986). Those who understand: knowledge growth in teaching. Educational Re‑ searcher, 15, 2, pp. 4‑18. Sikes, P. (1985). The life cycle of the teacher. In S. Ball & I. Goodson (eds.), Teachers Lives and Careers. London: The Falmer Press, pp. 27‑60. Simões, G. (1998). A avaliação do desempenho do‑ cente: contributos para uma análise crítica. Dis‑ sertação de Mestrado. Lisboa: FPCE‑UL (poli‑ copiado). Sparks, D. & Loucks‑Horsley, S. (1990). Models of staff development. In W. R. Houston (ed.), Handbook of Research on Teacher Education. New York: McMillan, pp. 234‑251. Steffy, B. E.; Wolfe, M. P.; Pasch, S. H. & Enz, B. J. (2000). The Life Cycle of the Career Teacher. Cal‑ ifornia: Kappa Delta Pi and Corwin Press, Inc. Tavares, J. (1999). Formação do professor universi‑ tário em Portugal. Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del Profesorado, 34, pp. 209‑218. Villar Angulo, L. M. (1993). Modelos de desar‑ rollo profesional del profesorado universitario. III Jornadas de Didáctica Universitaria – Eval‑ uación y Desarrollo Profesional. Las Palmas: ULPGE, pp. 137‑173. Wilkerson, L. & Irby, D. (1998). Strategies for im‑ proving teaching practices: a comprehensive ap‑ proach to faculty development. Academic Medi‑ cine, 73, pp. 387‑396. Zabalza, M. A. (2002). La Enseñanza Universita‑ ria: el escenario y sus protagonistas. Madrid: Narcea AS Ediciones. Translated by Thomas Kundert


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Wallace, Susan & Gravells, Jonathan (2005). Professional Development. Lifelong Learning Sector: Mentoring. Ex‑ eter: Learning Matters Overall, the aim of this study is to set out, in both theoretical and practical terms, exactly what may favor an effective imple‑ mentation of a mentoring program for supporting the pro‑ fessional development of teachers, who have become mem‑ bers of Further Education¹ (FE) institutions for the first time. The study of mentoring programs in a specific context is the first significant indicator of how these programs have been studied and their practice developed. Indeed, the pro‑ motion of new skills among particular groups of individuals by means of these intervention models is always referred to in a contextualized manner (Denisson, 2000; Healy, 1997; Pereira, 2005), given that it is a primarily relational process and, thus being, significantly determined by context. As for Structure, the work under study informs and stimulates reflection, alternating information with specific tasks aimed at the author, followed by a discussion which may be furthered through the consultation of bibliographical references indicated in each chapter. The term mentoring is the point of departure leading to progressive reflection, which is the aim of the authors. Starting with Definition One of the challenges presented to studies in this area is to develop a clear understanding of how and why the term mentoring is used, since it can often be very similar to others, such as tutorial and advising (Denisson, 2000; Pereira, 2005), coaching and education (Healy, 1997), of‑ ten giving rise to confusion.

The authors say that what distinguishes mentoring from other types of support and/or education relations is its purpose: first of all, it functions in transition pro‑ cesses — helping an individual to move from one state to another. In the case of FE, the new teacher is supported during the transition from one level of professional de‑ velopment to another. From a European perspective (represented by the au‑ thors), mentoring is a process geared towards personal development and not merely towards the acquisition of new knowledge (sponsorship model — tradition in USA). In other words, in addition to the assimilation of knowledge, skills and behaviors are also acquired. Fur‑ thermore, a third function, the teaching of learning through learning, is also acquired along with an under‑ standing of the emotions and psychological challenges raised by the transition process. The focus on transition provides the mentoring pro‑ gram with the potential for mutual learning, since the supporting agent has already been through a similar experience, thus, being in a position to increase his/her tolerance and involvement in work‑related tasks. In comparison with other support and/or education‑ al relations, the authors defend that mentoring, in fact, includes many of them. They are defined on the basis of four distinct functions put forward in Clutterbuck’s model (1985, quoted by Wallace & Gravells, 2005): coaching — to observe what the mentee does and to sug‑ gest ideas; looking after — to make the mentee under‑ stand that the mentor is close to hand and available to give help; establishing a communication network— to use information and communication technologies, such as email and blogs; advising — to listen and enquire about the mentee’s transition process from time to time (the activation of one function over another stems from an intentional process of providing help).

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In accordance with this model, the difficulty in defin‑ ing the mentoring process is related to the inclusion of different roles which may be present to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the stage of the relationship be‑ tween the mentor and mentee and the needs of the latter. The agents of this process The examples presented in this study identify an interac‑ tion between two agents: the mentor and mentee. It is, therefore, a form of peer work, where each member has a very important role. Let us begin with the mentor who may be distinguished from the mentee for being older and/or more experienced; for the amount of involvement in the relationship and for the way he/she guides and supports interaction. It has been suggested that the mentor can increase his/her effectiveness if committed to learning more and developing further. Conclusions suggest that the action of the mentor should be responsive and make use of the different types of help at his/her disposal: it depends on the relationship and depends on the mentee… If we put ourselves in the context of adult learning (FE), the mentee has as much responsibility as the one who is teaching. In these circumstances, the characteris‑ tics of the mentee, such as having responsibility, respect‑ ing the role of the mentor, being receptive to help and being reflective, are crucial to the development of a more productive relationship. How to develop the relationship between agents More than the characteristics of each member, regulation of the relationship can determine the effectiveness of the process. Healy (1997), along the same lines, defends that mentoring differs from supervision in the sense that it involves reciprocity and heightens the qualitative trans‑ formation of both parties. The authors view the relationship as being central to the mentoring process, comparing it with any other meaningful relationship established between individu‑ als. We are referring to issues based on trust; confiden‑ tiality; honesty; coherence; genuineness and suitability of physical space. In an even more specific way, aspects such as taking support relations into consideration, the importance of developing active hearing, effective ques‑ tioning, reflection, also on an emotional level and the handing back of clarifying summaries on the mentee’s development are reinforced in order to stimulate self ‑awareness. Picking up on the idea that mentoring is a process geared towards personal development, more differen‑ tiated support skills are implied in the relationship, such as requiring the mentee to reflect and question him/herself, thus, facilitating self‑knowledge and self ‑questioning. 134

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The motto is to help more than to guide: to challenge and look after; to bear emotions and thoughts in mind; to explore and establish commitments. The same is requested of the mentor: to develop self ‑reflection so as to increase sufficient knowledge of his/ her fears and projections, in order to prevent them from hindering the task. The relationship, per se, can and should be reflected on by both, while taking into account issues regarding the limits of the relationship, through the discussion of expectations and permanent dialogue between peers. Step by Step Mentoring While stressing the centrality of context and relationship in the developmental process of a mentoring program, the authors refer to the difficulty in structuring a step by step action guide. Indeed, the development/evolution is‑ sues of a program are determinant in an intentional pro‑ cess, such as mentoring, and it is on this level that the authors use two learning process analysis models which complement each other (Alred et al., 1998; Honey & Mumford, 1992, quoted by Wallace & Gravells, 2005). The mentee is regarded as going through a new expe‑ rience in which he/she will be supported by the mentor in the exploration of his/her relationship with the new role, so as to move on to a new understanding of the pro‑ cess. At this stage, the mentor is presented as someone who stimulates the questioning of experiences and ori‑ entates plans of action (Alred et al., 1998, quoted by Wal‑ lace & Gravells, 2005). In view of the plan of action, it may be considered that a learning experience cycle is initiated, made up of action (having experience), applications (planning the following stages), reflections (reliving the experi‑ ence) and theorizations (conclusions of experience) (Honey & Mumford, 1992, quoted by Wallace & Gravells, 2005). In accordance with these models, the importance of planning is stressed. The authors mention that without planning, mentoring runs the risk of becoming a very therapeutic conversation but one which bears little im‑ pact on learning. Evaluation of the mentoring process Evaluating a program/process implies beginning with the identification of what is intended to be produced/ attained so that the impact of such intervention may be evaluated at the end (Fernández‑Ballesteros, 2001). If mentoring is looked upon as a support process during a phase characterized by new learning experi‑ ences, the aims of such learning must be identified and, consequently, clear objectives must be defined. Both the mentor and mentee must know what these objectives are, evaluative feedback must be requested of both and a sys‑ tematic monitoring system needs to be established.

The authors underline the importance of a cyclic evaluation process in which several evaluation methods should compete: interviews, comparison between plans and results; diaries and registers; discussion groups; sta‑ tistical analysis of certain variables (drop‑outs; successful promotions or accomplishments; complaints; positive feedback; mentees who become mentors, among others). Even though there is mention of the fact that men‑ toring is also a process of development for the mentor and learning institution/organization, such aspects of the process have not been taken into consideration by the authors in the programs’ evaluation indications. Mentoring: such an important matter in FE According to the authors, in this context there is pres‑ sure for change, for dealing with unpredictability in or‑ der to deal with a professional career in a more indepen‑ dent and autonomous manner. This implies that the re‑ sponsibility of professional development depends more on each individual than on his/her hierarchies. Mentoring is particularly valuable as a source of pro‑ fessional development for those who work in FE, partly because it makes tacit knowledge explicit; it encourages people to look for their experiential knowledge and to use it to improve their learning as professionals. Comparing the results of traditional training courses with mentoring experiences, better results and higher transference of learning have been found in mentoring in comparison with the afore‑mentioned courses. Indeed, mentoring presents advantages in relation to traditional training in the following fields:

Endnotes 1. In Portuguese, the term Further Education is equiv‑ alent to adult education institutions based on alternative educational programs. Bibliographical references Dennison, S. (2000). A Win‑Win Peer Mentoring and Tutoring Program: A Collaborative Model. The Jour‑ nal of Primary Prevention, 20, 3, pp. 161‑174. Fernández‑Ballesteros, R. (ed.) (2001). Evaluación de programas: una guía prática en ámbitos sociales, educativos y de salud. Madrid: Editorial Síntesis, S.A. Healy, C. C. (1997). An Operational Definition of Men‑ toring. In H.T. Frierson Jr., Diversity in Higher Education. Londres: Jai Press Inc, pp. 9‑22. Pereira, A. S. (2005). Para obter sucesso na vida aca‑ démica: apoio dos estudantes pares. theoria poiesis praxis. Aveiro: Universidade de Aveiro.

Célia Figueira [email protected] Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon

· better preparation for the ambiguity and complexity associated with the teaching activity; manager and team leaders in FE; mentoring may offer support in the development of strategies for managing demand conflicts; · mentoring processes are also coherent with the im‑ portance attributed to soft skills and emotional intelli‑ gence: empathy and relationship with mutual respect. In short Reading Professional Development. Lifelong Learning Sector: Mentoring leads us to acknowledge the unequivo‑ cal value and credibility of mentoring programs as flex‑ ible practices, adjustable to transition processes in con‑ texts characterized by change. These programs tend to stimulate autonomy and the personal/professional devel‑ opment of the “learner” of a new activity which demands frequent adjustments to new challenges. The benefits for the mentors and education establishments are yet to be explored, but are expected to be in abundance.


Figueira, Célia (2008). Review of “Professional Development. Lifelong Learn‑ ing Sector: Mentoring”, by Susan Wallace and Jonathan Gravells [2005]. Ex‑ eter: Learning Matters. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 133-136. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt


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The crisis of modernity and curricular innovations: from discipline to control Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon, 1 February 2008

Alfredo Veiga‑ Neto If this crisis of reason is essentially contemporary, it is be‑ cause its origin lies in the implosion of the project ground‑ ed completely on Philosophy, in acknowledging that the “original” does not exist, and therefore, the “truth” nec‑ essarily multiplies. (...) Perhaps the “good Europeans” breathe a sigh of relief given this natural death of Platonism (Moura, 1996, p. 94).

Amongst all the changes that the curriculum has under‑ gone since it was invented at the end of the 16th century, we are today witnessing one of the biggest and most radi‑ cal changes in the four components that comprise this school artefact: the planning of the aims, the selection of content, putting this content into action in school and the assessment. These components, in recent decades, have been subject to a successive plethora of new analyses and new proposals. While some of them are of an extremely technical nature, others of a humanist character and oth‑ ers clearly of a political and critical perspective, the fact is an abundance of alternatives in the curriculum field have been put forward to educators, planners and managers of education policies. Whether saying how our curricu‑ lar practices should be carried out, whether presented as panaceas to save education and society, whether de‑ nouncing the reproductivist role of the modern school curriculum, such analyses and correlative curricular pro‑ posals always search for innovation and seem to multiply infinitely. Arguing that such transformations in school educa‑ tion — and especially those called curricular innovations — are “symptoms implicated” in the contemporary ex‑ acerbation of what is usually called the “crisis of moder‑ nity”, I shall briefly discuss one of the curricular changes or transformations that is ongoing today. More specifi‑ cally, I shall deal with the change of emphasis in the cur‑ ricular logic: from the emphasis on discipline to the em‑ phasis on control. This change is intimately linked to the

relations between the liquidity of the post‑modern and the flexibility with which the curriculum is today dealt with and thought out. I therefore view the curricular transformations as manifestations — within the scope of school education — of the profound, fast and wide‑ spread changes that are occurring in passing from the modern to the post‑modern — in terms of politics, cul‑ ture, economics, thinking and society. As we know, this passage from the modern to the post‑modern has been understood as a profound crisis of reason, also called by some a paradigm‑breaking crisis. This text¹ is both general and somewhat provocative; I shall not detail the processes mentioned above: I will only set down some of the discussions — now taken up again in the register of this (so‑called) crisis of moder‑ nity — that myself and “my” research group² have been working on in recent years³. I hence intend to continue contributing to shaping the problem and a better under‑ standing of some of the ongoing processes in contem‑ porary school education, within the scope of discipline, control, curricular architecture and (the meaning and uses) of school time and space. I also intend to establish herein the initial discussions and theoretical bases for a differentiation that I believe will be very productive and which I am currently developing⁴. This is a differentia‑ tion between leniency and flexibility, such that one can say: while modern discipline functions to produce docile bodies (Foucault, 1989), post‑modern control functions to produce flexible bodies. It is easy to understand how this is linked to the promotion of the new forms of asub‑ jectivity and subjectivisation in today’s world. I shall begin with a prior note and clarification of two aspects. I shall then briefly discuss the concept of crisis and post‑modern liquidity as the end manifestation of the crisis of modernity. Based on this, I shall deal with the current shift in the curricular field — from the emphasis on discipline to the emphasis on control — understood 137

as the mark of its connections with post‑modern liquid‑ ity and the correlative curricular flexibility. Finally, I shall very briefly suggest that these shifts and transformations are in the production circuit of new subjectivities. Al‑ though this is an important and extremely interesting is‑ sue, I will not elaborate on it in this text. A NOTE; TWO CLARIFICATIONS We shall now move onto the prior note and two initial clarifications. Prior note: when I refer in general to “school edu‑ cation in modernity”, I am assuming neither that the school institution is unique nor that the practices and knowledge it puts into action are homogeneous, equal in all and any social, cultural and economic instance. But, despite the broad variety of school practices and knowl‑ edge, the different kinds of schools, the different profiles and aims depending on the social strata they are geared towards, it is easy to understand that they all share com‑ mon presuppositions, targets and logic. Therefore, just as “The State is a practice” (Foucault, 2006, p. 324), so is the school. And as such both can acquire various forms and configurations, without modifying what they are. Even in the face of large polymorphisms, one knows when one is dealing with the State and state issues; like‑ wise, one knows when one is looking into the school and school practices. In analytical terms, one can say that all forms of school education maintain, within themselves, what Wittgenstein called “family similarities”. There is an identity relation. But here identity should not be con‑ fused with likeness, as the linguistic definition of identity is, at the limit, recognition through similarity. As argued by Foucault (1987), identity does not imply permanence; and it can only be detected through non‑identity⁵. First clarification: in referring to the transformations in the educational background, I take them only as chang‑ es and not as theoretical and practical moves forwards (or backwards). Hence, it is not a question of viewing them as desirable or undesirable, necessary or unneces‑ sary, positive or negative, good or ruinous. It is clear that many of the new theories and proposals have resulted in progress being made in pedagogical knowledge, if we take progress to mean an increase in quality and in the detail of what is known and discussed. Many of the new theories and proposals have also led to improvements in the functioning of schools, more educational and even social equity and justice. But none of this serves as the starting point or the driving force behind the research. I adopt a descriptive and analytical perspective that does not allow me to ground the arguments and the problem on any prior judgement, or on any assumption outside the event itself. It is a way of looking at things — one can 138

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say: a method (Veiga‑Neto, 1996) — which assumes the existence of only one a priori; knowledge, the historical a priori. Second clarification: in referring to the “symptoms implicated” I point out a situation that can be charac‑ terised as a logical implication between the related as‑ pects. The relationships between, on the one hand, the transformations that are occurring in school educational practices and the respective theories, and on the other hand, the social and cultural transformations that seep from the school itself, are not mechanical, linear or cause‑and‑effect. As is very common in Social Sciences, we are faced with a situation that Deleuze called imma‑ nent causality⁶. As such, it is not a question of viewing the school only as something produced by the society it is immersed it, but also and at the same time, of view‑ ing it as a producer of this society. Following Varela e Avarez‑Uría (1991), we note how school has done (and to a large extent continues to do) much more than disci‑ pline the individuals that attend it and much more than teach certain areas of knowledge to these individuals. Throughout Modernity school has established itself as a piece of huge social and cultural machinery, i.e. a huge set of “machines” that, operating in articulation among one another, plays a crucial role in the political, cultural and economic formation of western society. This machinery, as well as inventing specific spaces for the education of children and the young, has been decisive for the invention of knowledge and its respective specialists, charged with saying how to educate, teach, monitor and regulate these children and youths. And as they took increasing responsibility for these tasks, school institutionalised itself, in other words it was structured in terms of human and material resources and discourses, carving out an unparalleled place for itself in Modernity. And, as an institution, it is constituted as a condition for the possible invention of pedagogical knowledge and concepts of childhood and subject (Narodowski, 2001), for the stabilisation of the concepts of civility and civilisa‑ tion (Varela & Avarez‑Uría, 1991), for the establishment of liberal governmentality (Marshall, 1994; Veiga‑Neto, 2000a) and even for the implantation of the modern na‑ tional States as political models (Foucault, 1999, 2006). CRISIS Insofar as “modernity itself is defined as crisis” (Hardt & Negri, 2003, p. 93), there is nothing new in simply stat‑ ing that today we are living a crisis of modernity⁷. This is the sense behind the words of Bauman (1998, p. 20): “modernity can be defined with the epoch, lifestyle, in which putting into order depends on dismantling the ‘traditional’ order, inherited and received; in which ‘be‑ ing’ means a continuous new start.” Therefore, it is this

constant starting and restarting that, in part, gives us this sensation of crisis. What one has to do is examine the roots of insepa‑ rability between modernity and crisis, which may con‑ tribute to understanding how we are living not simply a crisis, but rather the (large and terminal) crisis of the modern world. It is with this goal that I now quickly and in an extremely simplified manner undertake a historical exercise. Modernity began as the radical rejection, in cultural, political, economic and social terms, of the transcend‑ ent and sacred values of the medieval age. Hence, being modern implied, in the Renaissance, the destruction of the “relation with the past and [the declaration of ] imma‑ nence of the new paradigm of the world and life” (Hardt & Negri, 2003, p. 92). It is this stress on immanence that allows the theorists of the Empire to talk about first mo‑ dernity. But, against it, straight away powerful religious and political forces are organised, interested in recom‑ posing the medieval transcendence — sacred, pastoral, authoritarian — that is lost through the action of secular thinking, of new life practices and renaissance aesthet‑ ics. This is how, in the fifteen hundreds, the second modernity arises and is established, as the first modern counter‑revolution, in which order strives to beat the event, willpower strives to beat desire, administration strives to beat the unpredictable. This has to do with the secularisation and humanisation of time: losing sacred‑ ness, as it was experienced and understood throughout the Middle Ages, time is now left in the hands of man, master of his own destiny. And in being his own master, he is also responsible for himself. It is easy to understand that all this is in the chain of conditions making it possible to instigate historical thinking and, correlatively, the (what we call) “sensation” of crisis. It is the very manifestation of the gap between attempts to predict and master the event and its precisely unpredictable nature. In other words: the crisis corre‑ sponds to the gap between what we think and plan will come to pass and what actually ends up happening. Our sensation of crisis is the magnitude of the difference be‑ tween the expected, dreamed, desired and the obtained, updated, achieved. But, despite the victory of transcendence, in spite of Descartes’ efforts — the first major intellectual of the second modernity — immanence remained forever in the shadow of transcendence, as shown in philosophy such as Spinoza’s, the political proposals of the anar‑ chic movements, or thinking such as Nietzsche’s. And because immanence is always in the shadow, it shades transcendence. Being modern, more than marking life in a given time, hitherto meant living in the shade of the conflict born out of forgetfulness; knowledge, the forget‑ ting that a desacralized time, made human, has no place for transcendence. To sum up, the crisis has become pre‑

cisely the manifestation “of the uninterrupted conflict between the immanent, constructive and creative forces and the transcendent power that aims to restore order. This conflict is the key to the concept of modernity, but has been effectively dominated and toned down” (Hardt & Negri, 2003, p. 94). Hence, in the terms of reposition‑ ing the platonic arc, “in the 17th century Europe became feudal again” (id.). These questions lead us to ask: is the crisis the dark and negative side of modernity? I suggest following the contributions of Hannah Arendt, when she shows us that it should not be viewed as something which is in itself negative (Arendt, 1997). If we examine the etymology of the word crisis, we see that in its Greek origins it does not have a negative con‑ notation, but rather defines the taking of a position, a judgement or decision able to separate the true from the false. In Greek, krisis, eo¯s is both the ability to dis‑ tinguish, separate, as well as to debate, dispute; the verb from which this word derives is krínó and means the very action of judging (to make a better decision). The Latin form crisis, changed its meaning to signify the moment of the decision whose objective is the undertaking of a sudden change in the course of an event, an action, an illness etc. The words derived from crise‑ such as crítica, critério, endócrino — do not have negative meanings; on the contrary they evoke even a degree of productivity. As Bornheim explains (1996, p. 49), “in all this there seems to be a trail of negativity — quite the opposite: there is the strength to choose, judge, discern, debate; these are words linked to the strength of thought and therefore to the creation of philosophy, science.” Therefore, accord‑ ing to Arendt, crises are critical moments which provide us with the chance to reflect, in order to act to try and change the course of events; hence crisis has, in itself, a positivity that we should not waste. This begs a question: where does the current idea that crisis is negative, something ruinous, a problem to be avoided come from? In a very simplified way one can say that the negativ‑ ity attached to crisis grew based on medical knowledge and practice. Initially linked to the moment the doctor should intervene (positively) against an ailment for the benefit of the patient, it seems there was immediately an inversion in the meaning of the word: in a short time cri‑ sis began to describe the undesirability of the processes of degeneration, decadence and death. It was thanks to the use of biological metaphors, so present and potent in the 19th century, that this negative meaning of crisis — as something undesirable — was transferred to the field of Social Sciences, especially Economics. In Marx, for example, crisis is the sudden breach of a contradiction. The crisis sets off a historical process that had remained blocked by a contradiction. As such, according to Marx, crisis gets history working. This means that “crises and sísifo 7 | conferences

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their violence are inserted at the core of a certain dialectic process. Hence, it is therein clarified what kind of nega‑ tivity inhabits crisis, its intelligibility.” (Bornheim, 1996, p. 50). But, even in this case, there is something positive in the Marxist crisis: despite dealing with a violent break away, it is on the road of dialectic resolution and, there‑ fore, on the road to the confirmation of the solution to an impasse, on the road to unblocking a historical process. But, while modernity is permanent crisis, this does not mean that there has been a constant intensity of this permanence. In contrast, given the combination between the acceleration of human time — in connection to ad‑ vanced capitalism (Harvey, 1996; Virilio, 2000) — and the rebelliousness of the event — which insists in being “creative” and not obeying us — the (sensation of) cri‑ sis tends only to increase. As the world tries to be more administered and controllable — and as a consequence there is an intensification of the desire and attempt to predict and master the event — a bigger gap seems to grow between what one wants to happen and the stub‑ born and uncontainable event. Hence, in recent decades, we have been experiencing the highest and most intense — and (for some) almost unsupportable — levels of this sensation. Following in the wake of the accumulation of so many crises, it seems that in recent decades the “delicate balance on which the modern world was always teetering” has been shattered (Veiga‑Neto, 2006b, p.6). In the battle between the forc‑ es linked to transcendence — up until now more power‑ ful — and the growing forces of immanence, now the bal‑ ance seems to be leaning towards immanence. What is happening in society, in an increasingly intense manner, is the repositioning of immanence and a correlative de ‑transcendence. Now, quickly emerging from the shad‑ ows, immanence is starting to implode the “project of an absolute foundation of Philosophy” (Moura, 1966, p.94) and shows us that the big origin and the big single truth were platonic myths that adorned our understanding. As we well know, Lyotard (1988, p. xv) proposes calling post‑modern this new “state of culture after the transformations that affect the rules of the game of Sci‑ ence, Literature and the Arts, based on the end of the 19th century.” We can call this new state post‑modernity, con‑ temporariness, late modernity, liquid modernity, hyper‑ modernity, etc, it matters little. What is of most interest is that everything goes on (and goes by us) as if modernity — understood as ethos, as a way of being and thinking in the world — is left behind. At several points I have made recourse to the meta‑ phor coined by Bauman (2001), when he identifies, at the root of this major crisis, the accelerated liquefaction of the contemporary world. As the sociologist explains, fluids “do not fix space or freeze time,” i.e. “they do not fix themselves very much to any form and are constantly ready (and able) to change” (Bauman, 2001, p. 8). While 140


our interaction with solids and the description of them are independent of time, with liquids exactly the oppo‑ site is the case, as they are always liable to change form. Therefore, while “solids suppress time, for liquids, on the other hand, it is time that is important” (id.). It is this timelessness of solids that enables us to un‑ derstand what some call “desire for solidity” or “search for solidity”: it is solidity that stabilises us in time, thus making it easy for each person to find himself, inasmuch as, through the memory he retains of himself he sees himself as one and the same over time. The search for solidity is, therefore, in the circuit of the processes that invented the modern concept of subjectivity and the in‑ stitution of the modern subject itself: an individual who is able to be a subject although, at the same time, he is asubjected to himself. Hence, that desire for solidity is at the basis of the modern myth of the single, fixed, undivi‑ dable, original subject. The combination between liquefaction and accel‑ eration and beyond this the acceleration of liquefaction itself are implied in the major crisis of modernity. It is liquefaction that is at the root of the phenomenon that is typically post‑modern called dissolution, blotting out or deleting of borders: liquids do not have borders or lim‑ its, but are moulded into the place or the conditions in which they are found. Likewise, flexibility — a property today deemed im‑ portant and desirable in itself — derives from the liquid nature of post‑modernity. The same can be said of vola‑ tility and the correlative phenomenon of discarding, both crucial for the practice of hyper‑consumption (consum‑ erism). Words such as these — liquefaction, acceleration, deleting of borders, flexibility, volatility — so common in contemporary discourses, point towards the irreversible impermanence and instability of the post‑modern world and towards the end of the myth of the modern subject as a stable and indivisible singularity. They are also words that serve to describe the new contemporary subjectivi‑ ties in ethical, political, economic, cultural, social terms, their relationships with Nature and so forth. CURRICULAR SHIFTS: FROM DISCIPLINE TO CONTROL It is almost banal to state that school has been function‑ ing, over the last four centuries, as the most important in‑ stitution able to shape individuals in terms of discipline. The vast majority of us learn to be disciplinary (and, at the limit, disciplined), thanks to the actions of the ma‑ chines — such as the curriculum, the panoptic, the sym‑ bolic forms etc. — which make up this huge school ma‑ chinery. As shown in detail by Michel Foucault, school has constituted, at the end of the day, a crucial institution for the implantation of the disciplinary society that we

know today⁸. Although such statements seem obvious, they are necessary to denaturalise school education, the disciplinarian logic, control and even the modern sub‑ ject. They are also important to better understand the shifts that are discussed herein. At this point I believe it useful to comment on some issues regarding the curriculum, as a machine and school artefact invented at the end of the 16th century. Insofar as the curriculum was the artefact that in disciplinary terms articulated school practices and knowledge, one can say that, from its creation onwards it was closely linked to the production of the subject and Modernity itself. Without exaggeration, one can say that the curriculum has functioned as the main school artefact involved in the production of the modern subject. As an important part of the episteme of order and representation, the curricu‑ lum machine has been one of the conditions making it possible for this modern form of being in the world that was established based on renaissance Humanism. As an organised set of items of school knowledge, the curriculum encompassed a disciplinary logic, undertak‑ ing a notable development, both in terms of the corpo‑ ral axis — body‑discipline — and in terms of the axis of knowledge — knowledge‑discipline. In either case the disciplines are divisions and re‑divisions — of knowl‑ edge and behaviours — that establish special, specific fields, of permissions and prohibitions, such that they delimit what can be said/thought and done (“against” what cannot be said/thought and done). The more this is naturalised, automatic and implicitly carried out, the more the disciplines “serve” the transcendence plan. To give an example: for structuralism, disciplinary order is understood as the very manifestation of transcendence of an underlying structure. An emphasis on the discipli‑ nary aspect may mean an investment in transcendence... As I explained elsewhere (Veiga‑Neto, 1996, p. 246), the connection between the two disciplinary axes occurs precisely at the point in which the knowledge ‑discipline creates, we can say, mental conditions to enable the possibility whereby, thinking topologically, each person views as natural the walls that are imposed or which he/she is subject to. In naturalising these walls, the knowledge ‑disciplines “function as codes of permission and prohibi‑ tion” (Elias, 1989, p. 529); it is in this sense that I say that they function as structures or a background framework.

On this point, to deal with disciplinarity it is worth mak‑ ing use of the Foucaultian concept of device, in order to be able to talk about the device of disciplinarity. Foucault used the word device, to mean a whole set of discursive and non‑discursive practices whose elements are hetero‑ geneous but which remain connected in a network of re‑ lations. Such elements are of different order and differing nature: discourses, institutions, theories, regulations and

laws, scientific findings, social practices, philosophical proposals, architectures, etc. In other words, Foucault called device the network of relations that keep certain practices and correlative institutions articulated among one another and whose rationality plays strategic func‑ tions, i.e. functions whose main aim is to lever or main‑ tain the power of some over others, the action of some over the actions of others. To the extent that the curriculum was invented and perfected placing disciplinarity as the epistemological and practical cornerstone, it can be understood as an important part of the device of disciplinarity. As such, the curriculum embodies, either through its content or its form, an element that, in modern school, is instituted with and institutes disciplinary thinking. Therefore, the curriculum can be understood as the institutionalised and school branch of the procedures and mechanisms of objectivation and subjectivation (Popkewitz, 1994). Viewed as part of the disciplinarity device, one un‑ derstands how the curriculum manages to function, organising certain schemes of intelligibility. It is these schemes that “lead to automatic frameworks that dis‑ pense with the need for most explanations and justifica‑ tions — which otherwise would be necessary — when we communicate in an increasingly complex world with ever broader and more varied fields of knowledge” (Veiga‑Neto, 1996, p. 296). It is so because, as Lenoir ex‑ plains (1993, p. 72), disciplines function “as institution‑ alised formations that organise schemes of perception, observation and action and which function as tools of knowledge and communication.” Therefore, “as incor‑ porated practical operators, they are political structures that mediate between the political economy and the production of knowledge” (id.). As Foucault explained (1992, p. 188), discipline makes the body the target of “a miniscule system of material coercions,” not exactly to subjugate it, but to “simultaneously provide growth of the dominated forces and increase the force and ef‑ fectiveness of those who dominate.” It is here, accord‑ ing to philosophy, that there is the “invention of a new mechanic of power, with specific procedures, completely new tools and very different apparatus” (id.). But if all this came to pass pretty effectively for a long time, it is clear we are now going through critical mo‑ ments for the disciplinary devices; and consequently, also for the curriculum machine. In the general back‑ ground of contemporary educational crises, the crisis of disciplinarity comes to the fore. From all quarters one hears: “Down with the disciplinary knowledge!” and “Pupils no longer know what discipline is!” It is therefore a crisis that is borne out in the axes both of knowledge ‑discipline and body‑discipline. Hence, a crisis that shows itself precisely as a liquefaction and dissolution of borders signals a big blow for the disciplines, given that they necessarily “depend” on the existence of limits and sísifo 7 | conferences

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hierarchical divisions. The greater the solidity, the better for the disciplines — in both of its two axes. Faced with such crises, several “solutions” are invent‑ ed. In the former axis we have good examples with inter, contra, multi and trans‑disciplinary pedagogies (Veiga ‑Neto, 1996) and the thematic transversality in the cur‑ riculum. In the latter, faced with reports and denounce‑ ments concerning the rise in school violence, techniques of control and disciplinary containment in school are re‑ fined — which often lead to the reappearance of old dis‑ ciplinary practices, only accentuated and exacerbated. It is exactly because it follows a disciplinary logic and because disciplinarity is in (profound) crisis that the cur‑ riculum is at the mercy of the widespread crisis of mo‑ dernity. As a modern disciplinary machine — and there‑ fore thought‑out and organised as a hierarchical, solid, reliable, stable and lasting artefact — “dragged down” by the crisis of disciplinarity, it also falls into crisis. Dis‑ cipline transports to the curriculum the crisis that it is itself suffering from. As such, one can understand the majority of the new curricular proposals as attempts to de‑disciplinarize the curricula, so as to immunise them from the crises that assail the disciplines. The reasoning is simple: if the curriculum, in being disciplinary, contributes to bringing the crisis in‑ side the pedagogical practices, then with the elimination (or waning) of the disciplines, the curriculum is maintained but the crisis itself is kept at bay (or played down). With regard to the curricular architecture, the the‑ matic transversality serves as a good example of these attempts to de‑disciplinarize. But even so, one has to recognise that it is still a palliative procedure, inasmuch as the transversal themes do not discard or get rid of, in themselves, the disciplines. In another aspect, the knowl‑ edge, from a more functional and not exactly architec‑ tural viewpoint of the curriculum, the emphasis is on the procedures of control. In this case it is not a question of intervening in the two first components that comprise the curriculum — as we saw earlier, the planning of the goals and the selection of content — but rather in the two other components — the ways through which the con‑ tent is put into action and is assessed. It is precisely here that the control techniques in school are intensifying. It is necessary to clarify the meaning attributed to the word control in this discussion. Originating in medieval Latin — contra (the opposite) + rotu˘lus (roll of writings, list) — the French form contrôle — contre (the opposite) + rôler (roll of writings, list) — from which derives the Portuguese word, meant the registers that were stored in duplication, written on rolls of papyrus, parchment or paper. These rolls could be unrolled at any time, in or‑ der to check what was written against other registers. To control hence began to mean inspect, subject to exami‑ nation, check, compare, exercise a restrictive or contain‑ ment action. 142


Therefore, control does not imply, necessarily, a con‑ tinuous action but rather and necessarily a continued, infinite action of registers and storage. As such, it is the opposite of vigilance, which is imposed in the most con‑ tinuous, intensive, ostentatious and premature way pos‑ sible, and ends up “incorporated” by those undertak‑ ing it; the result of this process is well known: in being objects under vigilance, each one ends up transformed into subjects that watch over themselves — and for ex‑ actly this reason they are able to exercise self‑government over themselves. Control, even if it is a “threat” to us, is sporadic and discontinuous as regards the collection, processing and storage of information. Vigilance, disciplining and subjectivisation go in one direction; control, information and (also) subjectivisa‑ tion go in another... If panopticism — to the extent that the panoptic is able to carry out hierarchical, individual‑ ised, microphysical and continuous vigilance⁹ — has be‑ come the great architectural machine of disciplining, in modernity we can symmetrically think of the data bank as the great architectural machine of control, in the post ‑modern. Having discussed the differences between, on the one hand, vigilance and disciplining, and on the other hand, control and information, what movements are taking place within (and in the scope of) each one? As suggested by Michel Foucault and developed by Deleuze (1992, p. 220), “control societies are replacing disciplinary societies.” This does not mean to say that the disciplines will disappear or that control is some‑ thing new. What is happening is a shift in emphasis, in which the disciplinary logic is overridden by control techniques, all in order to keep social risks at minimally safe levels. Of course we continue to be monitored; pan‑ opticism itself, even when taking on new forms, is still everywhere¹⁰. What is quickly changing are the goals of this new vigilance: they are no longer disciplinary, apart from to contain and register information about our ac‑ tions; certainly not on rolls of parchment, but on mag‑ netic rolls, optical disks and databases so that one can, at any time in the future, check, inspect and examine. Various interconnectable systems of control prolif‑ erate in these new societies which manifest themselves materially, for us, in the infiniteness and redundancy of reports, forms, files, hierarchical passwords, cards, reg‑ isters, portfolios, records (in databases) and an endless number of other documents. They are all widespread and easily affordable thanks to telematic resources, and rain down on us, steal our time and keep us captive, scru‑ tinised and accessible at any instant. Towards them we can adopt a docile and resigned attitude, supplying all that is asked of us in a disciplined manner; but we can be flexible and strategically enter the game. In this case we shall react with new tactics for each incursion of the mechanisms of control, constantly assessing the balance

between what is lost and what is won in which we acqui‑ esce (or not) to each new demand. The extent to which each person is either more docile, disciplined, solid or more flexible, (un)controllable and liquid will depend on the relations between his own subjectivity and the de‑ mands of the system. I hope it has become clear just how deep the implica‑ tions of this are for the curriculum. In the same way, as I have already mentioned, that the focus on transcendence resulted in the emphasis on disciplinarity, now the focus on immanence is resulting in the emphasis on control. This functions as a condition enabling the weakening of — or the reduced importance attached to — planning of the aims and selection of content — and the correla‑ tive strengthening of the ways in which the content is put into action and is assessed. As such, more and more dis‑ courses on self‑learning are multiplying, teaching meth‑ odologies are being invented, the focus is shifting to what could be the most important thing in school educa‑ tion, assessment processes are multiplying, institutions and people are being classified and ranked. Such prolif‑ erations and inventions, in turn, feed from the intercon‑ nectable control systems that I listed above. A coherent structure in constant movement is hence formed; a struc‑ ture in a network, which, forcibly trapped in it, nobody can escape from — pupils, teachers, managers. On this point I again bring into play the confronta‑ tion between immanence and transcendence. As I have already related elsewhere (Veiga‑Neto, 2006b, p. 18), we can find in the very definition of civil society — increas‑ ingly impotent to “account for the mediation between the ‘many’ immanents (capital) and the ‘single’ tran‑ scendence (State)” — the roots of passing from a soci‑ ety with the emphasis on discipline to a society with the emphasis on control. “In a society that is increasingly (immanentized), there is a growing importance of all the social bodies that continually and intimately operate in the production of subjectivities” (id.). Hence, while the school was for a long time the main institution sys‑ tematically involved in education and the production of subjectivities, it is now losing ground to other bodies in society. This is so expressive that it even opens up inter‑ esting avenues of studies for the new field of pedagogical knowledge called Cultural Pedagogies. A final comment: while disciplining leads to states of lasting docility, control seems to stimulate flexibility, as it provokes those subject to it to come up with tricks and plans of escape, avoidance and (at the limit) refusal. Therefore, a docile subject is an easy subject to handle/ guide because he has learned, interiorised and “auto‑ mated” certain mental‑corporal behaviours that are to a greater or lesser extent permanent. The docile subjects, having been objects of disciplinary strategies, make them part of their soul, so as to submit to them themselves; they can be self‑governed. A flexible subject is different:

he is permanently tactical. Therefore, in searching for greater efficacy to achieve his aims, the flexible subject presents adaptable behaviours and is always prepared to change direction, in order to better prepare for the changes. Docility, in being stable and enduring, is the order of modern solidity; flexibility, in being adaptable, stealthy, is the order of post‑modern liquidity. The question which arises from here onwards is to examine, in detail, how the school machinery is institut‑ ing new processes of subjectivation and producing new subjects. As such, researching the details of the transfor‑ mations that are occurring in the machines, artefacts and devices which, at the same time are transforming them‑ selves, also transform (directly) the subjects that they take for themselves and (indirectly) society. Endnotes 1. This text was written to be presented at Symposium no. 43 – Curricular innovations: epistemological and cul‑ tural breaches – during the 14th National Meeting of Edu‑ cation Didactics and Practice (XIV ENDIPE), held in April 2008, in the city of Porto Alegre, RS. 2. Comprising a Group of Studies and Research into the Curriculum and Post-Modernity, in which colleagues linked to the Universidade Luterana do Brasil and the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul have taken part. For further details on the group’s production, see: Acorsi (2007), Coutinho (2002, 2003a, 2003b), Klaus (2004), Noguera (2007a, 2007b), Noguera & Marin (2007), Oliveira (2007), Saraiva (2007, 2006a, 2006b), Moraes (2007). 3. See, mainly, Veiga-Neto (1996, 1997, 2000a, 2000b, 2002a, 2002b, 2004, 2005, 2006a). 4. Here one must mention the discussions I have held with Antônio Luiz de Moraes, my supervisor in the PostGraduation in Education (Master’s) Programme of the Universidade Luterana do Brasil. I would like to express my gratitude especially to him for the richness of his input. 5. For greater clarification, I transcribe an extract in which Foucault (1987, p. 37) deals with this issue: “Par‑ adoxically, defining a set of announcements in which the individual is present would consist of describing the dis‑ persion of these objects, grasping all the nuances that sep‑ arate them, measuring the distances between them – in other words, formulating their law of division.” 6. As I have mentioned several times, I am using this expression in the sense that Deleuze (1991, p. 46) gave to immanent causality: the cause “that is updated in its effect. In other words, the immanent cause is one whose effect updates, integrates and differentiates”, whereby there is a “correlation, reciprocal presupposition between cause and effect, between the abstract machine and the specific agencies.” sísifo 7 | conferences

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7. I draw attention to the tautology. Perhaps more than not constituting any innovation, through the redundancy of the announcement it does not even make much sense that we are now in times of crisis... 8. �� For those less versed in the matter, it is worth point‑ ing out the following: saying that modern society is disci‑ plinary does not imply saying that it is disciplined. 9. As Foucault showed (1989), in panopticism it is of little importance whether the vigilance takes place contin‑ ually or intermittently. What is important is that it exists and shows itself as a continuous promise (or threat…). 10. �� The descriptions and analyses of the new configu‑ rations that panopticism has taken on today are extremely interesting. One talks about post-panopticism, hyperpan‑ opticism, synopticism etc. These concepts have huge edu‑ cational implications. An initial discussion can be found in Bauman (2001). Bibliographical references Acorsi, Roberta (2007). (Des)encaixes: espaço e tempo na escola contemporânea. Dissertação de Mestrado. Canoas: ULBRA. Arendt, Hannah (1997). Entre o passado e o futuro. São Paulo: Perspectiva. Bauman, Zygmunt (1998). O mal‑estar da pós ‑modernidade. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Bauman, Zygmunt (2001). Modernidade líquida. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Bauman, Zygmunt (2007). Los retos de la educación en la modernidad líquida. Barcelona: Gedisa. Bornheim, Gerd (1996). Crise da idéia de crise. In Ad‑ auto Novaes (org.), A crise da razão. São Paulo: Com‑ panhia das Letras, pp. 47‑66. Elias, Norbert (1989). El proceso de la civilización: in‑ vestigaciones sociogenéticas y psicogenéticas. México: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Coutinho, Karyne Dias (2002). Lugares de criança: shopping centers e o disciplinamento dos corpos infan‑ tis. Dissertação de Mestrado. Porto Alegre: UFRGS. Coutinho, Karyne Dias (2003a). Educação como mer‑ cadoria: o público e o privado no caso dos shopping centers. Campinas: Educação & Sociedade, 24, 84 (set.), pp. 955‑982. Coutinho, Karyne Dias (2003b). Shopping centers e governamentalidade neoliberal. Lisboa: A Página da Educação, XII, 129 (dez.), p. 29. Deleuze, Gilles (1991). Foucault. São Paulo: Brasiliense. Deleuze, Gilles (1992). Conversações. São Paulo: Trinta e Quatro. Foucault, Michel (1987). A arqueologia do saber. Rio de Janeiro: Forense‑Universitária. Foucault, Michel (1989). Vigiar e punir. Petrópolis: Vozes. 144


Foucault, Michel (1992). Soberania e disciplina. In Mi‑ chel Foucault, Microfísica do poder. Rio de Janeiro: Graal, pp. 179‑191. Foucault, Michel (1999). Em defesa da sociedade. Curso no Collège de France (1975‑1976). São Paulo: Martins Fontes. Foucault, Michel (2006). Seguridad, territorio, po‑ blación. Curso em el Collège de France (1977‑1978). Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica. Hardt, Michael & Negri, Antonio (2003). Império. Rio de Janeiro: Record. Harvey, David (1996). Condição pós‑moderna. São Pau‑ lo: Loyola. Klaus, Viviane (2004). A Família na Escola: uma alian‑ ça produtiva. Dissertação de Mestrado. Porto Alegre: UFRGS. Lenoir, Timothy (1993). The discipline of Nature and the nature of disciplines. In Ellen Messer‑Davidow; David Shumway & David Sylvan (eds.), Knowledges: historical and critical studies in Disciplinarity. Char‑ lottesville: University Press of Virginia, pp. 70‑102. Lyotard, Jean‑François (1988). O Pós‑Moderno. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio. Marshall, James (1994). Governamentalidade e educa‑ ção liberal. In Tomaz Silva (org.), O sujeito da educa‑ ção. Petropolis: Vozes, pp. 21‑34. Moraes, Antonio L. (2007). Disciplina e controle na esc‑ ola: do aluno dócil ao aluno flexível. Projeto/Proposta de Dissertação de Mestrado. Canoas: ULBRA. Moura, Carlos Alberto (1996). A invenção da crise. In Adauto Novaes (org.), A crise da razão. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, pp. 83‑95. Narodowski, Mariano (2001). Infância e poder: confor‑ mação da pedagogia moderna. Bragança Paulista: Universidade São Francisco. Noguera, Carlos E. (2007a). De los “Curriculum stud‑ ies” a la Pedagogía, la cultura, y la sociedad. Reflex‑ iones sobre el giro pedagógico contemporáneo. In Anais do V Congresso Internacional de Educação. São Leopoldo: UNISINOS, pp. 119-132. Noguera, Carlos E. (2007b). De la “pedagogía moderna” a las tradiciones pedagógicas de la Modernidad. In Anales del VIII Congreso Iberoamericano de Historia de la Educación Latinoamericana. Buenos Aires: Socie‑ dad Argentina de Historia de la Educación, pp. 55-67. Noguera, Carlos E. & Marin, Dora (2007). La infancia como problema o el problema de la infancia. Bogotá: Revista Colombiana de Educación, 53, pp. 84-91. Oliveira, Sandra (2007). Aprender por toda a vida: Tramas de Efeito na Educação de Jovens e Adultos. Dissertação de Mestrado em Educação. Canoas: PP‑ GEDU/ULBRA. Popkewitz, Thomas (1994). História do currículo, regu‑ lação social e poder. In Tomaz Silva (org.), O sujeito da educação. Petropolis: Vozes, pp. 173‑210.

Saraiva, Karla (2006a). O Ciberespaço como um Empíreo Educacional. In Luís Henrique Sommer & Maria Isabel Bujes, Educação e Cultura Contem‑ porânea: articulações, provocações e transgressões em novas paisagens. Canoas: Ulbra, pp. 93‑106. Saraiva, Karla (2006b). Outros tempos, outros espa‑ ços: internet e educação. Tese de Doutorado. Porto Alegre: UFRGS. Saraiva, Karla (2007). A fabricação dos corpos nos chats. In Maria Lúcia Wotmann et al. (orgs.), Ensaios em Estudos Culturais, Educação e Ciência. Porto Alegre: UFRGS, pp. 135-149. Varela, Julia & Avarez‑Uria, Fernando (1991). Arque‑ ología de la escuela. Madrid: La Piqueta. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (1996). A ordem das disciplinas. Porto Alegre: UFRGS. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (1997). Currículo e interdisciplin‑ aridade. In Antonio Flavio B. Moreira (org.), Currí‑ culo: questões atuais. Campinas: Papirus, pp. 59‑102. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2000a). Educação e governa‑ mentalidade neoliberal: novos dispositivos, novas subjetividades. In Vera Portocarrero & Guilherme Castelo Branco (orgs.), Retratos de Foucault. Rio de Janeiro: NAU, pp. 179‑217. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2000b). Espacios que producen. In S. Gvirtz (org.) Textos para repensar el día a día escolar: sobre cuerpos, vestuarios, espacios, lenguajes, ritos y modos de convivencia en nuestra escuela. Bue‑ nos Aires: Santillana, pp. 195‑212. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2002a). De geometrias, currículo e diferenças. Campinas: CEDES, Educação e Socie‑ dade, XXIII, 79, pp. 163‑186. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2002b). Espaço e currículo. In Alice C. Lopes & Elizabeth F. Macedo (orgs.), Dis ciplinas e integração curricular: história e políticas. Rio de Janeiro: DP&A, pp. 201‑220. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2004). Cultura e currículo: um passo adiante. In Antonio Flavio Moreira; José Au‑ gusto Pacheco & Regina Leite Gracia (orgs.), Cur‑ rículo: pensar, sentir e diferir. Rio de Janeiro: DP&A, pp. 51‑55. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2005). Princípios norteadores para um novo paradigma curricular: interdisciplin‑ aridade, contextualização e flexibilidade em tempos de Império. In Ilma P. A. Veiga & Marisa Lomônaco Naves, Currículo e avaliação na Educação Superior. Araraquara: Junqueira & Marin, pp. 25‑51.

Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2006a). Tensões disciplinares: re‑ compondo antigos temas. In Aida Maria M. Silva et al. (orgs.), Novas subjetividades, currículo, docência e questões pedagógicas na perspectiva da inclusão cul‑ tural. Recife: ENDIPE, pp. 137‑159. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2006b). Educação e Pós ‑Modernidade: impasses e perspectivas. Rio de Ja‑ neiro: Educação on line (PUC‑Rio), 2, 2, pp. 13-38. Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2006c). Dominação, violência, poder e educação escolar em tempos de Império. In Margareth Rago & Alfredo Veiga‑Neto (orgs.), Figu‑ ras de Foucault. Belo Horizonte: Autêntica, pp. 13‑38. http://www.maxwell.lambda.ele.puc‑ rio.br/cgi‑ bin/ db2www/PRG_1188.D2W/INPUT?CdLinPrg=pt Virilio, Paul (2000). A velocidade de libertação. Lisboa: Mediações. Conference given at the Faculty of Psychology and Edu‑ cational Sciences of the University of Lisbon, 1 February 2008 Alfredo Veiga‑Neto [email protected] Professor of the Post‑Graduation Programme in Education (Master’s) of the Universidade Luterana do Brasil (ULBRA) — and Invited Professor of the Post‑Graduation Programme in Education (Master’s and PhD) of the Univer sidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS).


Veiga‑Neto, Alfredo (2008). �� The crisis of modernity and curricular innova‑ tions: from discipline to control. Conference given at the Faculty of Psychol‑ ogy and Educational Sciences of the University of Lisbon, 1 February 2008. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 137-146. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt


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Other articles

Hypotheses in Human Sciences — considerations on the nature, functions and uses of hypotheses José D’Assunção Barros [email protected] Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Juiz de Fora, Brazil) and Universidade Severino Sombra (USS) de Vassouras (Brazil)

Abstract: This article reflects on the use of the hypothesis in scientific research and in the elaboration of texts in Human Sciences. It aims to present, in the first part, the nature and importance of the hypothesis in Social and Human Sciences, bringing examples from History, Sociology, Urbanism and other fields of knowledge. Hypotheses are discussed as necessary resources for the social and humans sciences that are based on problems. The article points out the functions of the hypothesis for research in particular and for Scientific Knowledge as a whole. The overriding goal of the arti‑ cle is to make a contribution to students and professors of the social and human knowledge fields, giving some practical suggestions and means for understanding and clarifying how hypotheses can be used in these fields. To clarify the explanation, the main example present in the text refers to a historical problem related to the Conquest of America in the 16th century, aiming to show that, in the human sciences fields, a single problem may have many different hypotheses and solutions. Key words: Hypothesis, Human Sciences, Scientific Knowledge, Methodology Teaching.

Barros, José D’Assunção (2008). Hypotheses in Human Sciences — considerations on the nature, functions and uses of hypotheses. Sísifo. Educational Sciences Journal, 07, pp. 147-158. Retrieved [month, year] from http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt

147

One of the key questions in teaching Social Sciences is to enable the student to understand the intersection between technical and methodological resources, and their practical application in Research. Aspects such as the use of Hypotheses in Social Sciences are not easy to teach, unless focusing directly on the practical side of Research, hence the entire effort of systematisation that aims to bring examples to the fore that make it easier to learn these interrelations makes an important contribu‑ tion to the Education Sciences as regards their more practical and operational dimension. This article, as well as discussing aspects of Teaching of Scientific Method‑ ology, is especially geared towards students who are tak‑ ing their first research steps in social sciences. The aim, more specifically, is to outline details that will help them understand and clarify pertinent aspects concerning the use of Hypotheses in Social and Human Sciences (His‑ tory, Sociology, Anthropology, Geography, Urbanism and others). We start by saying that, in an academic research project, and in a text aimed at presenting the results of this research, the Hypothesis can play a crucial role. To back up this proposition we firstly look at the origin of the need to use it in human sciences. Scientific research in the West, and it is no different with the social and human sciences, has been built ba‑ sically around the attempt to solve well defined “prob‑ lems”, which generally constitute the starting point of the research process. History, from the moment it took on the project to become a science, has been no differ‑ ent, nor have the various human sciences such as Sociol‑ ogy, Anthropology, Geography, Economics and others. To give the example of History, this need to define the problem has been increasingly evident in western his‑ toriography — above all from the 20th century onwards, when it surpassed the Narrative or Descriptive History 148

of the 19th century in favour of a “Problem‑History”. It makes no sense, for today’s professional historiographer, to simply narrate a sequence of events or describe a cer‑ tain historical scenario, if this narrative or description is not framed inside a problem. To frame a problem is to launch inquiries, propose wide‑ranging articulations, connect, build, deconstruct, try to discern in a new way, and a series of operations that make one focus on the collated material and compiled data. To frame a problem, down to the smallest degree, is to raise a question about something that has been em‑ pirically proven and about a reality that has been empiri‑ cally proven or about a reality that has become evident to the researcher. The formulation of hypotheses in the scientific re‑ search process is precisely the second part of this modus operandi inaugurated by the formulation of the problem. Before all else the hypothesis corresponds to a possible answer to the formulated problem — to a supposition or provisional solution through which the imagination an‑ ticipates knowledge, which is subsequently verified (to be confirmed or rejected). The hypothesis is in truth a resource of human reasoning when faced with the need to overcome the impasse produced by the formulation of a problem and the aim to acquire knowledge that has not yet been obtained. It is the guiding thread for thought, through which one attempts to find a suitable solution, at the same time as inappropriate solutions to the problem are progressively discarded. One can say that the Hypothesis is a provisional as‑ sertion that, far from being an evident proposition in itself, may or may not be truthful — and which, within a scientific elaboration, should be necessarily submitted to careful procedures of verification and demonstration. It is one of the links of the argumentation or research processes (in scientific research it is generated based on

sísifo 7 | josé d’assunção barros | hypotheses in human sciences — considerations on the nature…

a proposed problem and triggers a process of demon‑ stration after it has been stated). This is why, etymologi‑ cally, the word “hypothesis” literally means “underlying proposition”. What is “underlying” is precisely a state‑ ment that shall be backed up by others, or by an articu‑ lated series of statements, so that the Hypothesis plays the role of a kind of guiding thread for the building of knowledge. Despite its provisional nature, the Hypoth‑ esis is the basis of scientific argument and undertakes a set of functions within research and development of sci‑ entific knowledge, as shall now be discussed. THE FUNCTIONS OF THE HYPOTHESIS IN RESEARCH The Hypothesis plays several roles in Scientific Re‑ search, both as regards specific research that is specifi‑ cally undertaken, and as regards scientific knowledge in general. Table 1 lists some of these functions. The shad‑ ed parts include the functions of a given research or its Planning. The non‑shaded parts include the functions

that the Hypothesis plays in relation to scientific under‑ taking in general. First, the Hypothesis establishes a “more defined di‑ rection for the Research” that is being carried out. This may take the form of fixed aims related to stages to be completed, or may be incorporated into specific meth‑ odological procedures. In other words, it has a “guiding function” (1). Therefore, in an investigative sequence the researcher may use successive hypotheses, discard‑ ing those that do not back up the demonstration or those that are not supported by the sources in the articulation of the empirical data. Each hypothesis formulated, at times may dictate the stages in tackling the problem to be solved, in the same way that each hypothesis implies specific methods for its investigation. A hypothesis is a guide precisely because it articulates the different dimensions of the research, functioning as an authentic nodal point in which one finds the topic, theory, methodology and materials or sources of the re‑ search. A good test to check if we are on the right track as regards the formulation of hypotheses, is to associate each hypothesis to its possible verification procedures,

Table 1 Functions of the Hypothesis in Research and Scientific Knowledge

7. UNIFYING FUNCTION Organise or unify already acquired knowledge

1. GUIDING FUNCTION Lending direction to the Research ——————————————————

——————————————————

• Fixing goals related to stages to be fulfilled during the research.

(including generalisations built on “empiri‑ cal uniformities” that may have been found in different research)

• Affecting the specific methodological procedures.

2. DELIMITING FUNCTION Restricting the field of research ——————————————————

(the Hypothesis helps

HYPOTHESES

to demarcate the Topic)

THEIR MAIN FUNCTIONS

6. MULTIPLYING FUNCTION If potentially able to be generalised, allows applicability adapted to other research ——————————————————

(making it possible, as such, to push forward or enrich scientific knowledge)

3. INTERPRETATIVE FUNCTION Propose a possible solution to the Problem investigated

4. ARGUMENTATIVE FUNCTION Trigger inferences and function as starting points for deductions

5. COMPLEMENTING FUNCTION Filling in gaps in knowledge ——————————————————

(by proposing provisional explanations)

——————————————————

(channelling of the hypothetical-deductive me‑ thod of reasonin )


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methodologies to be used, materials based on which this verification can be drawn, as well as the basic the‑ ory and its articulation with the topic. To understand better: if there are no suitable sources and methodolo‑ gies to prove the hypothesis, it will be of no use, as it shall be no more than mere conjecture. If there is no theoretical articulation, this is also a sign that some‑ thing is wrong (at least one has to define all the impor‑ tant terms included in the hypotheses). Likewise, if the hypothesis is not articulated to one of the aspects of the topic, or is irrelevant to it, or the topical boundaries of the Research are not well defined in relation to what the

research intends to verify, something is wrong. There‑ fore, to avoid the traps of investing in a useless, unar‑ ticulated or irrelevant hypothesis — i.e. a hypothesis that does not suitably fulfil its “guiding function” — an excellent strategy is to imagine a table associating the hypotheses to the methodological procedures, sources and related theoretical aspects. We can say, for exam‑ ple, that the research is carried out around three or four hypotheses, each one with their own procedures and possibilities for documental proof. The table to articu‑ late the hypotheses with other aspects of the research could be something like this:

table 2 Table to register the articulation of the Hypothesis with other dimensions of the research Sources to be used for proof

Methodologies to be used

Theoretical articulations (e.g. concepts with which the hypothesis dialogues)

Articulations with the topic (e.g. factors taken into consideration)

Hypothesis 1 Hypothesis 2 Hypothesis 3 Hypothesis 4

We will return to this table later on, giving a specific ex‑ ample. For now we return to the multiple functions of the Hypothesis in research. As well as lending the research a direction, outlining in advance the methodological pro‑ cedures and technical and documental resources that will be employed, the hypothesis fulfils the purpose of “restricting the field of research”, imposing a more spe‑ cific boundary to the Topic. As such, the hypothesis serves as a “delimiting function” (2). Hence, for example, studying the Conquest of Ameri‑ ca (historical process that took place from the 16th centu‑ ry onwards, with the Spanish and Portuguese expansion through the great navigations) constitutes an extremely broad, even vague, topic. To get over this unsatisfactory situation of the researcher faced with a wealth of plen‑ tiful possibilities — and to draw up a specific research topic — it is necessary to delimit within the theme a problem and hypothesis system. We now put forward some specific examples. In the History of the Conquest of America, one of the most intriguing and fascinating question historians have faced is to try and understand how empires as well organised as the Aztecs or the Incas, inhabited by millions of natives, were defeated by just a few hundred Spanish soldiers in such a short space of time and with such apparent ease¹. Abundant hypotheses have been proposed as pos‑ sible answers to this riddle, “ranging from the inferior‑ ity of the weapons of the indigenous (Las Casas), to the political divisions inside these empires (Bernal Díaz, Cieza de León); from the strategic military mistakes to explain the defeat of Atahualpa in Cajamarca (Oviedo), 150

to the sophisticated explanations of modern scholars that consider the defeat of the Indians a consequence of their inability to decode the signals of the conquerors (Todorov)” (Bruit, 1994, p. 18). The mere delimitation of the above‑mentioned prob‑ lem implies an initial diminishing of the broader topic of the Conquest of America. With a problem formulated, the historian drops this vague and ample theme of the Conquest of America as a whole, and starts to focus on something much more specific. Next, the choice of one or several combined hypotheses with provisional solu‑ tions or paths for research will further break down the topic. As such, when Todorov formulated the hypoth‑ esis of a rapid and dramatic defeat of the Mexican na‑ tives as a consequence of their “inability to decode the signals of the conquerors” and assimilate the radical alterity with which they were faced upon the arrival of the Spanish, he was ploughing a path through a forest of possibilities. This path would lead the Bulgarian scholar to research into aspects related to the imagination, in contrasting the visions of the world of the conquerors and the conquered, the signalling systems in confronta‑ tion. In the same way, this transversal demarcation in the theme would lead to the possibility of using methodolo‑ gies that dialogue with the linguistic, the semiotic, an‑ thropology or even psychoanalysis, which are precisely the fields of knowledge that bring to the fore discursive, symbolic and behavioural aspects. Likewise the choice of sources that should include texts from which it is possible to also access the dis‑ course of the native Mexicans, arose here as practically


a natural consequence — leading Todorov to examine with special attention the sources such as those that were produced by the Aztec natives in the period immediately subsequent to the Conquest (reports produced by the Aztecs in the period immediately after the Conquest; Mexican songs from the period, other sources). On the other hand, it was necessary to compare these sources — representing the Aztec point of view, although in some cases with mediation — with sources representing the Spanish conquerors’ point of view, such as the famous “Letters from Hernan Cortês to the King of Castile”².

This combination of sources would allow a better under‑ standing of the “cultural shock” between the two civilisa‑ tions, and the reactions of the parties involved in relation to this confrontation (Todorov, 1993). Suitably articulating the aspects mentioned above, the illumination of a pertinent problem regarding the Conquest of America, based on a well selected and in‑ novative hypothesis, led Todorov to produce one of the most interesting books on the subject written in recent times. As an example, the following table could be drawn up for the Hypothesis proposed by Todorov:

table 3 Articulation of Todorov’s hypothesis with other dimensions of the Research Hypothesis

Sources

Methodology

Theoretical Articulation

The rapid and devastating subjuga‑ tion of millions of Aztecs by just a few hundred Spanish conquerors is ex‑ plained, above all, by the inability of the Aztecs to assimilate the “cultural shock” produced in the confrontation between the two civilisations, and by their inability to decipher the codes of the conquerors.

. The Sahagun’s Infor‑ mants . Mexican Songs . Letters from Hernán Cortês . Chronicle of Bernál Díaz

. Semiotic Analysis . Comparative Approach

Conceitos de . “cultural shock” . “alterity”

The example discussed certainly offers us a good exam‑ ple of the “guiding” and “delimiting” functions of a re‑ search hypothesis. These functions are articulated natu‑ rally with the basic function of the Hypothesis which is to “propose a possible solution for the researched Prob‑ lem”, and which we can call “interpretative function” (3). In this respect it is necessary to remember that a scien‑ tific problem, above all in the human sciences area, does not always have a single solution. This may happen with mathematic problems, but not with social studies that in‑ volve complex questions of interpretation and readings produced in the interaction between the subject and the object of knowledge. A PROBLEM AND ITS DIFFERENT HYPOTHESES We resume our example using the problem of the Con‑ quest of America. Table 4, on the following page, seeks to map out the proposed problem — that of the subjugation of millions of Mesoamerican natives organised into devel‑ oped empires such as that of the Aztecs, in such a short space of time by just a few hundred Spanish conquerors. One asks what is the factor or combination of fac‑ tors that led to this occurrence, which had such a major impact on the subsequent destiny of the continent. In the table the Problem is presented on the top side of the image, while the shaded items below lists the different

hypotheses that are presented as viable answers for the imagined question, or at least paths of possible in‑ vestigation. One simply inserts one of the alternatives listed below, and we therefore have several possibili‑ ties for the same problem. The circle on the top frames the proposed problem, which is also the first part of a hypothesis to be drawn up. Several possible answers to the problem are listed below, which constitute the second part of the proposed Hypothesis. Hence, one of the several hypotheses shown in the diagram (To‑ dorov’s hypothesis which we have already mentioned) could be written as follows: the subjugation of millions of Mesoamerican natives, or‑ ganised into centralised and developed empires such as that of the Aztecs, in such a short space of time by just a few hundred Spanish soldiers, … is down to essentially the difficulty of the Aztecs in dealing with alterity and the cultural shock produced by their coming into contact with their conquerors.

Hypotheses are often drawn up using this method, espe‑ cially those that aim to find out the relations between an event or phenomena and the dominant factors that made it possible. The problem itself can appear in this case as the first half of the hypothesis, and the provisional solu‑ tion or anticipated answer may correspond to the second half. However, the important aspect to point out — as shown in the example — is that numerous historians have


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table 4 The Conquest of America: One problem and several hypotheses

The ubjugation of Mesoamerican empires that were extremely organised, inhabited by millions of natives, in such short space of time by just a few hundred Spanish conquerors,

1. The courage, determination and skill of the Spaniards

IS DOWN TO

6. Cultural shock between the Spanish and Mesoamericans, which counted against the latter due to less ability to deal with alterity

2. Superior weapons of the Spaniards

3. Superiority of the Spaniards in military strategy

4. Political divisions within these empires that benefited or were skilfully exploited by the Spaniards

proposed several hypotheses regarding the problem of the Conquest of America, such as these or others, and even more frequently combinations of hypotheses that aim to provide a complex or multi‑factorial explanation to the problem. To back up the hypotheses proposed, these historians have come up with wide‑ranging argu‑ ments, supported by several sources, analysing them using various methodologies and tackling the problem based on specific theoretical frameworks. To tell the truth, the formulation of several explicato‑ ry hypotheses regarding the Conquest of America began immediately after the epoch of the events. Bernal Diaz, who made up part of the Cortês expedition, provided the starting point with the hypothesis that attempted to explain the success of the Conquest in terms of the extreme skill and courage of the Spanish conquerors, 152

7. Disease transmitted by the Spanish to the natives who had no organic resistance to it

5. The mythology of the Mesoamerican people, which leant itself towards viewing the Spanish conquerors as Gods

which is understandable given that this historian and participant in the expedition had no option other than to defend the point of view of the Spanish conquerors. Much later, in the 19th century, this hypothesis was vig‑ orously recuperated, essentially trying to praise the con‑ querors, especially with the sector of historiography that became known for producing a “History of Great Men” — this history in which the great historical figures were the people chiefly responsible for the events. Hence, Wil‑ liam Prescott, a historian who wrote about the Conquest of America in 1843 (Prescott, 1909), would attribute the success of the company that led the Conquest of Amer‑ ica to the achievements of Cortês and his men, and even in the 20th century, when The History of Great Men was subject to bruising criticism, this hypothesis would still be reformulated several times³.


As for the “weapons superiority” hypothesis (2) — which to some degree should enter any analysis about the Conquest of America — it cannot possibly alone ex‑ plain the speed of the process and the intensity of the devastation, let alone the fact that the Spanish had to confront an enormous disproportion of millions of Az‑ tecs against just a few hundred Spanish soldiers. This hypothesis, important but not sufficient, is difficult to be convincing when not articulated with others, such as for example point “4”, which suggests that “internal politi‑ cal divisions within the Aztec societies benefited or were exploited skilfully by the Spaniards.” Indeed, there are possible nuances within this same hypothesis. When one says that the Spanish knew how to exploit the divisions in the Mexican societies and reciprocal rivalries among the peoples of the region, it puts the Spanish conquerors at the centre of the stage, as the main actors, and writes a history from the European point of view⁴. When one proposes that there had been a prior indigenous civil war that had weakened the Aztec empire, and that this had created the conditions for the Spanish to impose their domination, the role of the Spanish conqueror shifts to one of a somewhat coercive party, and makes the Aztecs and their indigenous enemies the main actors of the plot. The history is told from the Aztec point of view, and the arrival of the Spaniards is pushed into the background as an external event — not the opposite way round⁵. We have already mentioned Todorov’s celebrated hypothesis about the cultural shock, whereby the meet‑ ing, although having a huge impact on the two civilisa‑ tions, would benefit the Spanish at the end of the day. After all, the Aztecs up to the moment of the arrival of the Spaniards in America had not encountered peoples other than those relatively similar to themselves. The Spanish, on the other hand, had met populations very distant from European peoples, such as Asians, Africans and Islamists. The Spanish, one can admit, had undeni‑ ably greater experience of alterity. We shall possibly never arrive at a single explanation concerning the Conquest of America that is considered more pertinent than all the others. In truth, the elabora‑ tion of historical knowledge consists precisely of this per‑ manent re‑examination of the past based on given sources and certain points of view. Hypotheses in History or in the Social Sciences cannot be dressed up as absolute truths (if truths of this kind exist), because there is an obviously broad area of interpretation to be filled in by the historian or sociologist in their reflection on present‑day or past social problems. In time: what can be confirmed as un‑ disputable statements are determined data or empirical conclusions, but not the problem‑forming propositions that relate or interpret these empirical data⁶. To sum up, we have seen up to now that hypotheses have important functions to carry out in channelling a spe‑ cific research. They simultaneously fulfil the roles of guide

(serving as guides for the investigation), delimiter (restrict‑ ing the object of the research) and interpreter (proposing provisional solutions to a problem). But as well as this hy‑ potheses also carry out an important argumentative func‑ tion within a specific scientific assignment (4). Hence, in accordance with the “hypothetical ‑deductive” reasoning method, hypotheses should act as triggers of inferences — whereby their consequences generate new propositions, and these new propositions alongside the original hypothesis will also produce new inferences. This formation of an articulated series of statements, in which every one precedes others in a logi‑ cal manner, comprises what is called “demonstration”. It is in fact this “argumentative function” of the Hypothesis which authorises its etymological sense of “underlying proposition” — of a proposition that underpins the oth‑ er. All hypotheses in general entail what we can call an “inference empowerment” (capacity to give rise to other propositions). It is this inference empowerment of hy‑ potheses, in articulation with empirical checks, that feed the scientific discourse. The “argumentative function” of the hypothesis is carried out, on the other hand, not only based on exam‑ ining its consequences, but also through the articulation of these examinations with other hypotheses, so that two or more hypotheses combined can also produce new in‑ ferences. An example of logical articulation of hypotheti‑ cal statements is presented in the work Suicide by Émile Durkheim (Durkheim, 1999). The problem is constitut‑ ed around an investigation into the social dimension of suicide, examining it not only as an individual event, but also as a social phenomenon that is expressed through the individual. The motivations and implication of sui‑ cide for human experience have to be investigated. First‑ ly, the hypothesis is presented that suicide is motivated by unalleviated tensions and anxieties (a). A hypothesis is subsequently proposed that will immediately converge towards the problem: the “social cohesion” of a group provides mechanisms to alleviate or fight against the tensions and anxieties experienced by some individuals (b). Consequently, the hypothesis is drawn up that given kinds of social groups possess more social cohesion than others (one kind of religion when compared to another, for example) (c). Hence, it will be possible to predict a lower suicide rate in groups of greater social cohesion when compared with less cohesive ones (d). Naturally this chain of inferences based on converg‑ ing hypotheses was backed up in this brief summary in an exclusively argumentative manner. In any research, the “logical demonstration” should come enveloped by an “empirical verification”. The empirical support should precisely back up each of the statements with concrete data. One can, for example, propose a method to meas‑ ure aspects regarding the “social cohesion” in a specific human group (members of a Catholic community, for


153

example). Afterwards, the suicide rates in this group should be quantified. These two operations should then be repeated for another kind of group to enable a perti‑ nent comparison (the members of a Protestant commu‑ nity, for example). Comparison of the indices obtained for each group, both those indicating “social cohesion” and those shown in suicide rates, will confirm or refute the idea that the suppositions proposed effectively pro‑ duce a pertinent articulation (the articulating hypothesis that “social cohesion” is inversely proportional to the “quantity of suicides”). The next three functions to be commented on (Table 1, non‑shaded part) are the role of the Hypothesis not only within a single research project taken in isolation, but within the broader scope of science. We shall discuss, on the one hand, the potential of some hypotheses to fill gaps in knowl‑ edge, and on the other hand which, for some reasons, end up acting as an interconnection among various research projects — be they examination of their possibilities in other research, be they the capacity to bring together a series of empirical data produced by different researchers. Firstly we consider that well‑grounded hypotheses, even if they cannot yet be fully proven or refuted, can play a significant role in “filling gaps in knowledge”. The hypothesis has a kind of complementing function (5). Es‑ pecially for distant periods in the past, when the sources and information available become scarce, the historian may be charged with filling in the silences and emptiness in documentation, until his provisional interpretation is replaced by another one that can be more solidly backed up. Likewise, the social scientist can instigate similar procedures to fill in the social silences of his time, or the difficulties in gaining access to sources and data. This role played by the hypothesis in order to fill in the empty spaces of knowledge is not foreign to Science in general. It is known, for example, that intriguing “black holes” exist in cosmic space, but as at the moment there is no better way to understand these astronomic phenom‑ ena, or to devise experiments to test the nature of “black holes”, scientists often formulate provisional theories on the matter. Speculation in the form of hypotheses is also commonplace as to the “origin of the universe” (such as the celebrated Big Bang Theory). The gaps in knowledge concerning the “origin of Man” has generated successive hypotheses in Science and Religion: man as a direct crea‑ tion of God (Genesis), man as an evolutionary descend‑ ent of apes (Darwin), man as a descendant of the “missing link” that gave rise simultaneously to the human branch and the branch of the other primates (rectifications on the Theory of Evolution), man as belonging to an independ‑ ent evolutionary chain from the ape (recent research). In each of these cases a hypothesis fills in the gap left by doubts about the origin of man. Another kind of hypothesis that transcends the mere scope of research where they were generated refers to 154

those that, once proposed, reveal a potential “applicabil‑ ity to other research”. The hypothesis here carries out a multiplying function (6). When a well grounded argu‑ ment is laid down for a specific case study around a given hypothesis, proving its pertinence, this hypothesis may prove to be applicable to other studies, whereby other possible research and scientific knowledge in general takes advantage of the hypothesis. As such, in develop‑ ing the hypothesis of the overriding importance of the “cultural shock” in the subjugation of the Aztec socie‑ ties, Todorov paves the way for the same hypothesis to be applied to understand the subjugation of the Inca society, brought about by Pizarro in the region of Peru, or other similar situations. Of course, for each case the singularities involved must be respected, which should be an important reminder as regards the possibilities of importing one hypothesis from another field of research. Finally, a last function of the hypotheses, on a broader scale, is that they can serve to organise or unify acquired knowledge, including through generalisations to explain certain “empirical uniformities” that may have been found in different research. We a talking here about a unifying function (7). One example is the case in which an expli‑ catory hypothesis contributes to lend meaning either to a given set of data, or a set of other hypotheses. The follow‑ ing example clarifies this use of the explicatory hypothesis. Several research projects about urban growth, tak‑ ing American cities as the field of study, have led certain scholars from the so‑called Chicago School and other so‑ ciologists to perceive a certain pattern of growth of cities, especially as regards the distribution of the population (Burgess, Park & McKenzie, 1925). Upon analysing the perceived empirical uniformities, some authors aim to formulate hypotheses that correlate these phenomena — among them Ernest Burgess, who wrote his celebrated hypothesis of “concentric circles”. To back up his original hypothesis Burgess idealised his famous “ideogram of urban development”, whereby growth occurred around a nucleus of focal points that comprise predominantly commercial and industrial ac‑ tivities. The scheme is naturally valid in terms of typically American modern cities (but not in terms of European cities, for example), and is based on processes of “ethnic succession” and “residential invasion”. The basic idea is that the city organises the population based on concen‑ tric zones, with the high society living in the peripheral suburbs, and in this case social progression would evolve from the centre to the periphery, so that each social group gradually abandons areas closer to the centre and makes incursions into more socially valued zones. What Burgess did in this case was to build — by means of a suitable hypothesis — a generalisation that encom‑ passed the various perceived “empirical uniformities”. In other words, the sociologist from the Chicago School organised the reality in the form of what can be called a


“complex ideal type”. Goode and Hatt (Goode & Hatt, 1968, pp. 77‑83) draw attention to the fact that this kind of hypothesis should not entail absolute generalisations. It should be made clear from the start that the perceived pat‑ tern based on a given recurrence of cases occurs in certain conditions (and not in others). On the other hand, Lakatos and Marconi (2000, p. 149) point out in pertinent fashion that the main role of hypotheses of this kind is to “cre‑ ate tools and problems for new research.” Therefore, the hypothesis of “concentric circles” proposed by Burgess would give rise to others, such as the “multiple circles” proposed by Harris and Ullman and the “axial growth” proposed by Hoyt. It was from the transformations and rectifications in the original model proposed by Burgess that the so‑called “socio‑cultural ecologists” like Hoyt (1939) proposed the image of a city divided into triangu‑ lar sectors — like slices of a cake — noting that in several cases interior triangular sectors lose social prestige as they move outwards to the periphery. The “multiple nucleus” Hypothesis, on the other hand, questions the very idea of a “single centre”, which corresponds to a visualisation model that does not al‑ ways match urban life. Therefore, Harris and Ullman (1945) sought to point out the composite nature of the city, which would be founded on differentiated nucle‑ uses. They aimed to conciliate them as such, essentially contesting the original idea of Burgess about concentric evolution and the growth proposal by triangular slices put forward by Hoyt. This example helps us to understand that hypothe‑ ses also play a significant role as organisers, even if pro‑ visional, of the very empirical data produced through scientific knowledge. They function, in this case, like compartments that hold these data in an organised and coherent manner, or like “creators of meaning” that give new meanings to the knowledge built from sev‑ eral different research projects. Therefore, some hy‑ potheses widely transcend the more restricted scope of a single piece of research, and create larger units between various research projects. It does not matter that in a second phase these hypotheses are replaced by new hypotheses. What is important is that through them, scientific knowledge can transit freely, and be re ‑elaborated constantly. It is precisely when given hypotheses bring together in larger and coherent sets a plethora of facts, empirical uniformities and results obtained from research — and especially when the relations proposed for these facts are shown to be sustainable or valid — that a theory can be drawn up⁷. Based on these proposed relations and the initial hypotheses, new hypotheses are deducted, such that a new theory becomes consolidated (including the elaboration of new concepts, whenever necessary). We again cite the example of Charles Darwin’s “The‑ ory on the Origin of Species”. What the English natural‑

ist did was precisely to bring together a series of facts and data built from the observation of nature under the guidance of some new hypotheses, such as the “struggle for existence” and “natural selection”. Subsequently, as a sector of scientists deemed his systematised observa‑ tions valid (although they did encounter resistance), the set of proposed hypotheses made the leap to the status of “theory” — considered here as a coherent set of hy‑ potheses and concepts that came to constitute a certain scientific vision of the world. This was also what the sociologists from the Chicago School did in gathering their hypotheses, deductions and explanations for certain empirical uniformities into a theory of “Urban Ecology” — which includes aspects of transposition to the social field of certain aspects from the “Theory on the Origin of Species” proposed by Dar‑ win. It is hence understood that one theory can give rise to another, through the incorporation of new hypoth‑ eses or new examinations of hypotheses, or through the transfer of certain hypothetical and conceptual systems to other fields of application (from the nature field to the social field, for example). Indeed, one should remember that an announced the‑ ory should always be considered in relation to the theory it articulates with. A pronouncement that at a given moment, or within a given theoretical reference, can be considered a hypothesis, at another moment can be considered a law, and at a third moment can be deemed conjecture. Hence, the hypothesis of “natural selection”, for example, is con‑ sidered law inside Darwin’s “Theory on the Origin of Species”, and is considered a principle that should be combined with other factors in the “Synthetic or Mod‑ ern Theory of Evolution”, and is considered conjecture or a refuted hypothesis in the “Theory of Intelligent Bio ‑molecular Design” by Michael Behe (Behe, 1997). As well as the uses discussed in this article about re‑ search hypotheses, which in historiographical and socio‑ logical practice have acquired so much relevance, the table of functions listed earlier aimed to highlight the decisive role of hypotheses in Scientific Research in general — both as regards a specific project carried out (a Thesis, an es‑ say, a Research Project), or as regards the broader aspects of knowledge. The focus on Human Sciences sought to bring this set of observations to the specificities of History, Sociology and other fields of knowledge. Endnotes 1. �� Fernández‑Armesto discusses this matter in his arti‑ cle “Aztec’ Auguries and Memories of the Conquest of Mexico” (1992). See also Restall, 2006. 2. Among �� the sources produced by the Aztecs them‑ selves at a time close to the Conquest are, for exam‑ ple, the statements produced under the guidance of the


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Franciscan Bernardino Sahagun, who in 1579 coordinated the work in náuatl of the first version of these sources that became known as Sahagun’s Informants. These reports were published and have even been translated into Portu‑ guese (Leon‑Portilla, 1987). Five years later, Sahagun pro‑ duced a new version, rectifying the previous one, which is a less authentic discourse from the strictly Aztec point of view, which should be attributed to the Franciscan inter‑ ests at that time, well articulated with Spanish sectors linked to the Conquest (On this matter see Cline, 1988). Hence, the differences between one and other allow one to glean ideological aspects produced in the interaction between the Church and the Spanish Crown. Also the Letters from Hernan Cortês to the Spanish King — reports that recount the point of view of the conquerors — have been published (Cortez, 1996). Also harmonised with this point of view are the chronicles of Bernal Díaz, who took part in the Cortês expedition and published Histo‑ ria Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España (1632). For more support of the Aztec point of view one can look at the Cantares Mexicanos, produced at the same time (Bierhorst, 1985). 3. As is the case of Hugh Thomas’ book entitled Mon‑ tezuma, Cortês e a Queda do Velho México (Montezuma, Cortês and the Fall of Old Mexico), which — in basing its analysis on Spanish sources, without filtering their point of view — ended up reinforcing this same hypothesis of placing emphasis on the skill of the conquerors as the overriding factor that ensures the speed with which the Spanish subjugate the Aztecs (Thomas, 1995). 4. This is the point of view transmitted by Bernal Díaz, when he approaches the question of the Spaniards’ alliance with the indigenous peoples who were enemies of the Aztecs. 5. This is the point of view, and the narration, which appears in the indigenous songs (Bierhorst, 1985). 6. Therefore, �� it is undisputable that millions of Mes‑ oamerican natives were subjugated by the Spanish in the first decades of the 16th century. But the reasons and impli‑ cations behind this fact will always be re‑discussed. 7. It is in this sense that Goode and Hatt state that the hypotheses can form a link between facts and theories (Goode & Hatt, 1968, p. 74). Bibliographical references Barros, José D’Assunção (2007). O Projeto de Pesquisa em História. 4ª edição Petrópolis: Editora Vozes. Behe, M. (1997). A Caixa Preta de Darwin: o desafio da Bioquímica à Teoria da Evolução. São Paulo: JZE. Díaz del Castillo, Bernal (1632). Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España. México D. F.: Editorial Pedro Robredo. Bierhorst, J. (1985). Songs of Aztecs. Stanford: Stanford University Press. 156

Bruit, H. (1994). O Trauma de uma Conquista Anun‑ ciada. In P. Gebran & M. T. Lemos (orgs.), América Latina: Cultura, Estado e Sociedade. Rio de Janeiro: ANPHLAC, pp. 15‑30. Burgess, E. W.; Park, E. & McKenzie, R. D. (1925). The City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Cline, S. (1988). Revision Conquest History — Saha‑ gun revise book II. In Jorge K. Alva (org.), The Work of Bernardino Sahagun — pioneer of etnographer of sixteenth‑century aztec Mexico. Austin: Texas Univer‑ sity Press, pp. 93‑106. Cortez, H. (1996). A Conquista do México. Porto Alegre: LPM. Durkheim, É. (1999). O Suicídio. São Paulo: Martins Fontes. Fernández‑Armesto, F. (1992). Aztec’ Auguries and Memories of Conquest of the México. Renaissance Studies, 6 — 3, 4, pp. 287‑305. Goode, W & Hatt, P. K. (1968). Métodos em Pesquisa Social. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional. Harris, Ch. & Ullman, E. L. (1945). The Nature of Cit‑ ies. Annales of American Academy of Political and So‑ cial Science, CCLII. New York, pp. 15‑42. Hoyt, H. Y. (1939). The Structure and Growth of Resi‑ dencial Neighbourhoods in American Cities. Washing‑ ton: U. S. Government Printing Office. Lakatos, E. M. & Marconi, M. de A (2000). Metodologia Científica. São Paulo: Atlas. León‑Portilla, M. (1987). A Visão dos Vencidos. Porto Alegre: LPM. Merton, K. (1970). Sociologia: teoria e estrutura. São Paulo: Mestre Jou. Prescott, W. (1909). Conquest of México. Londres: Dent. Restall, M. (2006). Sete Mitos da Conquista Espanhola. Rio de Janeiro: Civilização Brasileira. Thomas, H. (1995). Montezuma, Cortês and the Fall of Old Mexico. New York: Simon and Schuster. Todorov, T. (1993). A Conquista da América — a questão do outro. São Paulo: Martins Fontes.

José D’Assunção Barros gained a PhD in Social History at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF) in Brazil. He is a professor at the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (Juiz de Fora, Brazil) and the Universidade Severino Sombra (USS) de Vassouras (Brazil). Among his most recent books are O Campo da História (Petrópolis: Vozes, 2004), O Projeto de Pesquisa em História (Petrópolis: Vozes, 2005) and Cidade e História (Pe‑ trópolis: Vozes, 2007). He has also published a book in the area of Scientific Methodology geared towards History and Social Sciences, where he discusses aspects related to Research, such as that presented in this article (Petrópolis: Vozes, 2007).




i s s n 1 6 4 6 ‑ 6 5 0 0

Sísifo, educational sciences journal: Instructions to Authors

1. Sísifo is a university journal on Educational Sciences and in electronic format, published by the Educational Sciences R&D Unit of the University of Lisbon;

2. Sísifo is a free access journal, available at http://sisifo.fpce.ul.pt 3. Sísifo journal is published in two languages (Portuguese and English), translations being due to the Journal; 4. Each issue will have an editor who is entitled to get an expert review to ensure articles’ quality and scientific integrity, together with the Editorial Committee; 5. The core of each issue is devoted to a thematic dossier. Sísifo journal accepts academic works in the form of articles, notes and book reviews on Educational Sciences. Eventually articles previously published in foreign languages will be accepted provided they are unedited in Portuguese; 6. Submissions should be sent by e-mail to [email protected]; 7. Articles cannot exceed 40.000 characters, including spaces, footnotes and bibliography (except tables and charts); research papers, notes and review articles cannot exceed 30.000 characters; and individual reviews 10.000 characters. 8. Articles should include an abstract of 1.200 words, 4 key-words and a short biographical sketch of the author(s) (affiliations, primary research interests, most recent publications and contacts – telephone and e-mail); 9. Norms for in-text citations and references: (author, date) or (author, date, page/s); if there is reference to more than one item by a specific author they should be listed chronologically and by letter (Bastos, 2002a), (Bastos, 2002b) if more than one item has been published during a specific year. If there is more than two authors, quote the first name and use et al. in the text and the reference list: (Bastos, et al., 2002); 10. Footnotes should be used sparingly and only to add text that you feel is important to the argument but would break up the flow of the argument if included as text; A bibliography should be placed at the end of the text containing only the sources cited in the text in alphabetical and ascending chronological order when there is more than one item by a specific author; 11. Bibliographical criteria:

a. Books: Bastos, C. (2002). Ciência, poder, acção. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. b. Collected works: Bastos, C.; Almeida, M. & Feldman-Blanco (orgs.) (2002). Trânsitos coloniais: diálogos críticos luso-brasileiros. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. c. Classics, namely translations, mention date of 1st edition and name of translator: Espinosa, B. (1988 [1670]). Tratado teológico-político. Translation by D. P. Aurélio. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda. d. An article in a journal: Cabral, M. V. (2003). O exercício da cidadania política em perspectiva histórica (Por‑ tugal e Brasil). Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais, 18 [volume number], 51 [issue number], pp. 31-60. 157

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e. An article in a collected work: Bastos, C. (2002). Um centro subalterno? A Escola Médica de Goa e o Império. In C. Bastos; M. V. Almeida & B. Feldman-Blanco (orgs.), Trânsitos Coloniais: diálogos críticos luso-brasileiros. Lisboa: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, pp. 133-149. f. An article in an online journal: Hidi, S. (2006). Interest: A unique motivational variable. Educational Re‑ search Review, 1 [volume number], 2 [issue number], pp. 69-82. Retrieved [month, year], from http://www. sciencedirect.com/science/article/B7XNV-4M21TB1-2/2/ccf7573a154cffb09d7b1c057eff198d [source]. g. An online document: Wedgeworth, R. (2005). State of Adult Literacy. Retrieved [month, year], from http:// www.proliteracy.org/downloads/stateoflitpdf.pdf [source].

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