Pedagogical support policy in higher education: a case study

Abstract

Pedagogical support actions in higher education are recent in the history of Brazilian universities, being instituted through the National Student Assistance Program - PNAES, in the 2010s. The program designates to universities the responsibility for student assistance by promoting ten areas, including the pedagogical support. With this responsibility, the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) created in 2013 the Institutional Program for Pedagogical Support for Students (PIAPE), which has developed support and pedagogical guidance for undergraduate students on the five campuses of the institution. With almost ten years of activities carried out, it was observed the need to evaluate the program´s actions and results for its improvement. For the development of the research, a formative evaluation was conducted, guiding the collection and analysis of program data, enabling its evaluation. The research context is PIAPE and its actors, so the documentary research was carried out through the program’s guiding documents; the student evaluations collected by PIAPE were considered; and a focus group with the management team was responsible for identifying limitations and possibilities of the program. The research demonstrates that PIAPE has been an important pedagogical strategy to support students and the professors’ teaching work, and contributes to the improvement of academic performance. This study also enables understanding the function and possibilities of pedagogical support in higher education, as well as providing a methodology for evaluating pedagogical support actions that can be replicated in other institutions.