Teaching Learning Process
The teaching-learning process used in the GPCM's interdisciplinary Curricular Activities aims at building the competence profile of the future master in clinical management.
In this sense, it is anchored:
• in constructivist theories (social interactionist);
• in scientific methodology;
• in application projects aimed at intervention in reality.
The use of active teaching-learning methodologies promotes an active and co-responsible posture of the learner concerning their learning and allows the experience of processes of exchange and collective construction of knowledge. As active methodologies, the program uses problem-based learning and problematization.
Learning is triggered by problems in the format of problem situations - PS elaborated by the teachers. The PS bring a prevalent and relevant health situation to be processed. The professional practice narratives elaborated by the students are also used as triggers of the teaching-learning process.
Both PS and narratives are processed according to the constructivist spiral, an educational methodology that brings together elements of problem-based learning, problematization, and the scientific method.
All activities are evaluated by all people involved. The evaluation of the student's performance is a referenced criterion, based on the competence profile.
The formative assessment is performed verbally at the end of each activity and uses the concepts ‘satisfactory’ and ‘needs improvement’. The summative evaluation of the student's performance uses the concepts ‘approved’ or ‘failed’. Master's students self-evaluate their performance and evaluate the performance of their peers and teachers. All evaluate the educational activity and the program. The assessment formats are quantitative and qualitative, allowing a specification of strengths and aspects to be improved.
Constructivist Spiral
The scheme of the teaching-learning process in the form of a spiral seeks to represent the movements developed in the group's collective work, to identify previous knowledge, and to produce new syntheses and new meanings.
Picture 1 Constructivist spiral of the teaching-learning process.
(i) Movement: identifying the problem and formulating possible hypotheses
The movements of problem identification and formulation of possible hypotheses are favored by the explanation:
• ideas, initial associations, and experiences;
• perceptions, feelings, and values;
• the phenomena and mechanisms that underlie possible explanations;
• hypotheses.
Identification of problems, initial explanations, and hypothesis formulation in situations related to care management allow exploring the contexts of care management and health education. These movements are fundamental for the clarification of prior knowledge and the identification of the present skills and learning needs of each resident/student and group. The group may be encouraged to spell out assumptions, conjectures, and propositions. The identification of learning boundaries in the problem explanation process guides the elaboration of learning questions that aim to overcome them.
(ii) Movement: seeking new information
The search for new information should be performed by residents by the way and where they consider it most appropriate. The program offers a set of bibliographic references that are available as a collection in the form of books and scientific journals. Access to remote-based databases is also encouraged, as well as facilitating the desired expansion of research, favoring residents' freedom to select and choose sources of information. Master's students have reserved and protected periods during the week considered spaces for self-directed learning, in which they can dedicate themselves to the search for new information.
(iii) Movement: building new meanings
The discussion of the problem or narrative situation and the learning questions, in light of the new information brought by the group, should consider the nature, relevance, and evidence that allow analysis and criticism, both of the sources and the information itself. The construction of new meanings occurs by the confrontation between the previous knowledge of the group and the new information considered valid.
(iv) Movement: evaluating the process
The evaluation of the teaching-learning process is permanent, and formative evaluation plays a decisive role in improving this process. In addition to self-assessment and peer assessment, facilitators and master's/residents assess each other to improve the teaching-learning process and small group work.