A importância das atividades complementares na formação do aluno da graduação

Abstract

Inserted in the “Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching” research, this study aims to encourage discussion of prospects of professional-citizens’ graduation processes through Complementary Activities. College education employs comprehensive programs focused on the students’ qualification through standardized curricular activities and faculty-supervised independent and autonomous activities, namely Complementary Activities. Complementary Activities embody a dynamic mechanism that enables curricular flexibility, empowering students to develop beyond theoretical subjects specified on their syllabus but still under faculty’s supervision. However, relaxing curricular framework demands laboring and challenging organizational adjustments to the university body. Consequently, the main objective of this study consists in stimulating dialogue regarding the importance of Complementary Activities on the development of undergraduate students, approaching its legal and formative dimensions. The legal dimension addresses disciplinary and regulatory variables, whilst the formative component contemplates social normative demands. Applying qualitative and quantitative methodology, this author investigated two institutional casestudies including Inep’s databases analysis (Enade/2012), on-site observation, interviews with teachers-supervisors, and questionnaires submitted to a sample of 397 students (law school students from one of the institutions). Collected data and categorized results were counterpoised to current publications concerning the effects of Complementary Activities on undergraduate students’ advancement. This study revealed that Complementary Activities not only enable personal growth, but also promote professional training of undergraduate students. However, the study also showed that few teachers and students acknowledge such potentialities. In accordance to the literature assessment, institutional documents, educational policies, and the perceptions of faculty and students, this study validates the intentions of official agencies to qualify the graduation process through curricular innovation. Nonetheless, as its implementation requires unabridged institutional commitment, greater attention is assigned to legal issues, which comprise administrative, bureaucratic, and regulatory issues. Therefore, many potential benefits of this proposal such as fostering professional skills and competencies, turn out thwarted or hindered when the formative dimension is not prioritized. More than certainties, this study expects to create discussion in order to “awaken” educational institutions about this inconsistency. Overall, in order to pursuit excellence, the institution that teaches should also learn.