Pedagogical Practice in Engineering Courses: Students’ Contribution

Abstract

The objective of this article was to identify Brazilians engineering students' perceptions about the relevance of pedagogical knowledge and its implications for the professional preparation. The interest in the study was due to the urgency to promote actions which can contribute to the improvement of higher education, as well as the lack of studies highlighting the students' perceptions and experiences in relation to what they consider a good class and good teaching/learning strategies used by teachers. The approach used was qualitative. The sample consisted of nine students from the 4th and 5th years of the Mechanical and Civil Engineering courses of a public university in south Brazil. The data was collected through individual semi-structured interviews. The main results allowed to reflect on how teaching and learning strategies influence to define what students consider a good class and what characterizes a good teacher. Evidence also suggests that there is a predominance of lectures through slides projection in which students do not actively participate during the classes, and as characteristics of a good teacher emerges: teachers' mastery of scientific knowledge, mastery of the pedagogical knowledge (didactics), ability to contextualize the content, to relate theory and practice, and the ability to motivate and develop good relationship with students.