Metodologia de projetos: vivências, resoluções de problemas e colaboração na experiência educativa.

Abstract

The present work presents a qualitative investigation which had the aim of analyzing the outcomes of a teaching-learning methodology, based on the development of projects, in a classroom of Module II, at the Electronics Course of Pelotas’ Federal Centre for Technological Education (CEFET-RS). The research involved the study of such a methodology - under the light of Vygotsky’s and post-vygotskyan’s Socio-historical theory - presenting it as a way to overcome the problems identified in the so-called traditional teaching methodology (based simply on information transmission). Data collection for the case-study was carried out through the use non-structured observations, semi-structured interviews with students and teachers, and analysis of the following documents: final self-evaluation and work produced by the students along the development of the educational experience – Activities Notebooks, in which all steps of the activities carried out were registered; speeches aimed at presenting both the projects and the electronic systems that were created; scientific papers describing such systems; and the created system’s prototypes themselves. The analyses of the teaching-learning process indicated that the pedagogic practice under investigation was characterized by the following aspects: approximation between school and extra-school experiences, based on the everyday experiences of students and on problem-solving activities; work directed to students’ Zone of Proximal Development, emphasizing the importance of social interaction for learning; collaborative knowledge construction process which emphasizes the essential role of classmates and teachers for students’ intellectual development; and stress on an active attitude on the part of students, involving dialogue, doing and reflexive conscience. The general evaluation of the learning process taken place, by teachers and students, revealed positive perceptions, stressing its meaning and motivation; the construction of new and transformed understandings about electronics; learning beyond academic topics; and autonomy development in the students.