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Session code: 1-3-A203

Title: BEING A UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR - A PROJECT THAT NEVER ENDS

Contributer/s: NEWTON CESAR BALZAN

Abstract : Being a University Professor - a Project that never ends

This work resulted from a study of the areas of the Exact Sciences, Engineering, Humanities and Applied Social Sciences. It is part of a wider research project that was developed during the period of 1998-2003, entitled The Question of Quality in Higher Education in a Society Engaged in a Process of Accelerated Change - critical revision and proposals for its development. Having as it obligatory point of referecne the contemporary socio-cultural context of which the areas of konwledge referred to above are an integral part, its principal objective is to investigate the educational quality of the same areas. The study's subjects were renowned national and international professionals in the four areas, and also teachers and students of the courses offered by PUC-Campinas in the Exact Sciences, Engineering , Humanities and Applied Social Sciences. Interviews were made during 2001 and 2002 with 37 well-known professionals, and questionnaires were apllied to teachers and sutdents of the Unversity in April, September and November of 2003. The results indicate that the opinions of the students, teachers and famous professionals presented few divergences, which were principally complemention; emphasis was given to determined topics even though they were dealing with supposedly distant areas like Exact Sciences and Engeneering on the one hand and Humanities and Applied Social Sciences on the other. The cosmopolitan and the local views are integral part of the four groups. The same ocurred about the necessary learning during the teachers' life.

Key words: teacher education; higher education; cosmopolitan and local views; wide learnig ; auto-learnig.