Concepções e práticas de professores da educação superior acerca da interdisciplinaridade

Abstract

This research sought to understand how teachers involved in the projects developed by the Project Basead Learning (PBL) methodology conceive and experience interdisciplinarity. This research was carried out in the Course of Materials Engineering of the Academic Unit of São Bento - UASB of a Federal Institution of Higher Education located in the capital of Pernambuco. This is a qualitative research, called a case study, focused on methods and data collection techniques that included the following instruments: documentary analysis, semi-structured interview and participant observation. Data analyzes were performed using the principles of content analysis. It was verified that, despite the interdisciplinary intentionality described in the IFES official documents, it does not conceptualize it, it maintains the curricular matrix in the disciplinary models and proposes an active learning through the PBL methodology, which is currently the space destined to the experiences of interdisciplinary projects. Additionally, it was noticed that the project proposed in the Materials Engineering course through the PBL was configured as a multidisciplinary proposal that sought to solve a problem and for this resolution, used some knowledge of other areas of knowledge. The survey of teachers' conceptions showed that the concept of interdisciplinarity is seen in a varied way, oscillating between an integration, encounter, interaction and relation between the disciplines. The results show that teachers, despite recognizing the importance of interdisciplinarity in the teaching-learning process and the training of the engineer, show that practicing it has been a difficult task in the context of the case studied. The obstacles faced by teachers in practice revolve around the following aspects: absence of the dialogical relationship between the subjects involved; curricular structure based on the disciplinary models; inadequate physical structure and the absence of teacher training for the development of an interdisciplinary practice. Teachers also recognize the positive aspects of the development of an interdisciplinary pedagogical practice, such as: active learning, improvement in the students' learning process, integral formation of the subject, possibility of allying theory to practice, etc. This research also brings some elements of reflection brought by teachers in order to help improve the process of development of interdisciplinarity in the studied context, among them: restructuring of the curricular proposal of the Engineering courses of the Institution, partnership between university and companies, spaces for planning pedagogical and teacher training. It is concluded, therefore, that despite the difficulties faced in the development of an interdisciplinary proposal, it reveals itself as a tool capable of improving student learning and performance, demonstrating the relevance of its use in higher education. In addition, it promotes an organizational climate of partnership and sharing, in an environment marked by isolation, competition and vanity.