University teaching: training or improvisation?

Abstract

This paper focuses on the theme of the training of higher education professors. The action research was conducted by means of a partnership between the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná (Catholic University of Paraná), Brazil and the Universidade de Lisboa (University of Lisbon), Portugal, through an experience of the research group “Educational Paradigms in Teacher Education”, a project developed in the Seminar for the Advancement of the Pedagogical Theory and Practice in Teacher Education. The action research has had the involvement of four PhD students, one of them from Universidade de Lisboa, coordinated by two scholars, along fifteen meetings, which allowed for recording of the process of higher education professional training. It aimed at the pedagogical training of teachers through a methodology that met the paradigm of complexity, with activities that were based on the production of knowledge. We developed a process that extended the research field because it was conducted through meetings attended by all the persons involved in the research and, concomit antly, these researchers used a virtual environment (Eureka), which made their continuous contact possible. This research process, throughout the sessions, proved to be a collaborative space for learning about teaching and for sharing the knowledge that was produced, contributing to a conscious and responsible training of those involved, such as researchers and teachers in higher education.