Continuing Education of the UNAE: A model that contribute to the
Educational Transformation of Ecuador
(Studies on Education)
Authors: Oscar Antonio Martínez
Molina
Universidad Nacional de Educación, UNAE
Cuenca, Ecuador
Madelin Rodríguez Rensoli
Universidad Nacional de
Educación, UNAE
Cuenca, Ecuador
Wilfredo García Felipe
Universidad Nacional de Educación, UNAE
Cuenca, Ecuador
Abstract
This paper presents the
Model that contributes to the educational transformation of Ecuador: Continuing
Education of the National University of Education, designed with the objective
of satisfying the needs of teachers based on training strategies aimed at the
improvement and transformation of education from the reflection of their
pedagogical practice, from a cooperative and collaborative approach.
Participatory action research was carried out with the objective of improving
and learning from one 's experience from reflection - action. Finally, phases
for the operation of Continuing Education with society are included.
Keywords: continuing education; research; teacher; educational
model.
|
Date Received: 04-09-2017 |
Date Acceptance: 06-11-2017 |
Resumen
En este trabajo se presenta el Modelo que aporta a la
transformación educativa del Ecuador: la Educación Continua de la Universidad
Nacional de Educación,
diseñado con el objetivo de satisfacer las necesidades de los docentes a partir
de estrategias formativas dirigidas al mejoramiento y transformación de la
educación desde la reflexión de su práctica pedagógica, desde un enfoque
cooperativo y colaborativo. Se realizó una investigación acción participativa
que tienen el objetivo de mejorar y aprender de la propia experiencia desde la
reflexión – acción. Finalmente,
se incluyen fases
para el funcionamiento de la Educación Continua con la sociedad.
Palabras clave: educación continua;
investigación; docente; modelo educacional.
|
Fecha de Recepción: 04-09-2017 |
Fecha de Aceptación: 06-11-2017 |
“It is
necessary not to transmit the idea (...) that change is easy; Change is
difficult, but possible. We must insist on the possibility of change, despite
the difficulties. The question is how to transform difficulties into
possibilities. Therefore, in the struggle to change, we can not only be patient
or impatient, but patiently impatient”
Paulo
Freire (1997)
1.
Introduction
Contemporary society is faced every day with a
vertiginous scientific - technological advance, which demands new challenges from
Higher Education aimed at the implementation of new methods that favor the
transformation and pedagogical professional updating of the teacher.
Consequently, education demands to be conceived from a critical-reflexive
approach in the unity of the cognitive-affective, to achieve an understanding
and action according to the social transformations of each context. Therefore,
achieving a balance in the relationship university - school institutions, from
transcendental values such as equality, equity, solidarity and respect for
diversity is a priority for education.
The Ecuadorian State assumes, as one of its main
responsibilities and goals, the transformation of the educational system at all
levels, up to the standards of efficiency and quality that make education a
true instrument of equity, sustainable development and quality of life for all
the citizens of the country. Public policy on education is described in the
National Plan for Good Living and in the Ten-Year Education Plan 2006-2015, the
Organic Law of Higher Education, General model for the evaluation of careers
for accreditation purposes issued by the Council of Evaluation, Accreditation
and Quality Assurance of Higher Education (CEAACES). The National University of
Education (UNAE), corresponds to the development of these educational policies.
The precepts established in the Constitution of the
Republic and the National Development Plan are aimed at: "Strengthening
higher education with a scientific and humanistic vision, articulated with the
objectives of Good Living". In this regard, the university has the
responsibility to strengthen the capabilities and potential of citizens, hence
the training of professionals demand a change that meets the requirements of
the XXI century, scientific advances, universal thinking, with renewed
approaches and perspectives that articulate the new and the context in which
the university is located, UNESCO (2000). Hence, in the last decade, Higher
Education in Ecuador has undergone changes in the psychopedagogical conceptions
that it assumes, which demands from the teacher a deep reflection of its daily
actions and an efficient improvement of the teaching - learning process in
accordance with the time, space and place that he has lived.
Therefore, the country focuses its efforts to achieve
a quality education throughout life that guarantees equality, equity and
inclusion, constituting the right to education, an essential component of Good
Living. According to Delors (1996):
Education
throughout life leads directly to the notion of educational society, that is, a
society in which multiple possibilities of learning are offered, both in school
and in economic, social and cultural life (...) update the knowledge and skills
(...) to perfect their art and to take advantage of the experiences made in the
different spheres of life (...) (p.37).
That is, education
is a continuous and permanent process, throughout life, and must be developed
in a participatory manner, not only in academics, but in all spheres of action
of the individual. Many authors approach this process from the terms education
/ training - continuous / permanent, but according to the same objective, the
constant elevation of the teaching professionalism to improve the performance.
2. State of the art - Background
In this
framework of new perspectives on vocational training, permanent education is
defined by (Fullat, 1975): as an integral education that covers all life and
all possibilities of the human being. On the other hand, (Ludosjoski, 1981):
identifies it with the integral improvement and without solution of continuity
of the human personality, from its birth to its death; while (Fonseca, 1984a):
considers it the pedagogical principle by means of which it is indicated that
the educational process is continuous throughout the life of individuals and in
all circumstances. It involves constant training, updating and improvement
actions.
Fonseca, (1984b): ensures that permanent education is
not in itself an educational modality, on the contrary, it is a communicating
vessel and constitutes a guiding principle that guides the educational system
and drives it to search for new alternatives or pedagogical resources that
allow to offer formation to the man according to his diverse evolutionary
stages.
The Ministry of Education of Ecuador addresses this
issue from continuing education and proposes that:
It is based on the premise that learning is not
static, therefore, it requires a permanent process of strengthening
professional skills and enrichment of their pedagogical practices, to achieve
the quality standards we seek in Ecuadorian education. (National Directorate of
Continuing Education, 2015, p.1).
Continuing training for teachers in Ecuador was
the object of direct attention of the Ministry of Education until the end of
the last century, from where training courses were designed and delivered in
order to overcome the teaching staff of the different educational levels. In
this same period, the universities assumed some training responsibilities, in
particular with the organization of courses of diploma, specialization and
masters. Although without a national planning process.
In the context of the National University of
Education, the term continuing education is assumed, as one of the forms that
has been gaining space in the reconceptualization of the role of the
university, understood by (Fonseca, 1984c): as the set of oriented activities
to extract from the daily experiences new formative elements that enable the
individuals to carry out tasks and functions in accordance with the social
evolution, and the needs of their formation.
This means that the design of programs aimed
at raising the professional competence of teachers who work in educational
institutions across the country, to update, renew knowledge, skills, attitudes,
values, emotions, is becoming increasingly important. acquired, in order to
improve the skills that constitute new demands of the labor and professional
market. This implies a transition from a traditional school to an innovative
one, that responds to the needs of its context, in which dialogue and
reflection are essential ways for the members of the educational community to
understand the protagonism of their activities. students and therefore higher
levels of development are achieved in this sphere of great social significance.
In this analysis, what was related to
educational experiences mediated by technologies from the Postgraduate Studies
Unit, continuous teacher training and factors associated with educational
policy, postgraduate studies in Ecuador and their articulation in the National
Science System were of interest. and Technology, as well as the quality
assurance mechanisms. To this is added, reference has been made to the need to
guide changes in the postgraduate course to promote the adoption of pedagogical
models that stimulate creativity and innovation, to turn the student into the
main protagonist of the teaching-learning process.
Therefore, the search of how to face
continuing education in the UNAE from the problems that historically had
characterized this process, became an epistemological challenge in its
implementation process. Promote learning that encourages the analysis and
critical reflection of the teacher's own practice to transform it into a close
relationship with the theory that sustains it, involves the generation of
epistemes to achieve an epistemological positioning in the construction of
knowledge, understanding and gradual construction of the knowledge.
It is important to emphasize that the Continuing Education Programs that
are implemented must demonstrate the complexity of this process from a
collaborative and individual practice, from the transcription of the
representation of each reality. Hence, it must be implemented from socializing
workshops that are focused on a process of dialogue and reflection on issues
related to education in the context.
The generation of a methodology for the identification from primary sources
of the needs of teachers, based on the professional problems of pedagogical
practice, their experiences, and experiences that promote from collaborative
work and reflection, analysis of their own practice, is a priority for the UNAE
Continuous Education Coordination that favors not only the identification of
the weaknesses, but also the strengths in the direction of the teaching and
learning process that they carry out, with a view to updating and closing the
knowledge gaps in the pedagogical and didactic field in educational contexts.
To update teachers in the pedagogical and didactic foundations that sustain
a teaching and learning direction of excellence based on the reflective
investigation of the educational problems of their professional performance,
from a systemic and interactive approach, and having as a premise the
problematization of their Educational practice through the critical reflection
of the pedagogical activity constitutes a basic objective of Continuing
Education in the UNAE.
The school institutions where teachers work must be the learning scenarios
that will contribute to the transformation of educational institutions, which
implies the presence of a motivated group to face complex situations from the
research, that share interests, concerns and search for solutions starting from
of the problems of his pedagogical practice. A collective committed to the
understanding of knowledge and the implementation of ideals and values, which
investigate, reflect, with an integrated vision of knowledge that leads to the
diversification of activities in the teaching and learning process.
3. Guidelines
Taking into account
these arguments, they are declared as guidelines to be taken into account for the
implementation of continuing education programs by UNAE, the following:
1.
Provoke the integration
between educational institutions, the university and related careers to promote
the identification of the problems of professional practice and their insertion
in continuing education programs, in which motivation and communication
predominate as a way to enhance leadership and Decision making by consensus.
2.
They conform to the dynamics
of inquiry and transformation, recognized as forces or factors that interact in
interpersonal relationships, taking into account the individual factors,
constituted by the personality of each participating individual, their previous
experiences, their ideology, their values, their expectations and needs, their
motivation, as well as the history and mode of constitution of the group
itself, the interactions, subgroups and relations with other groups.
It is important to take up in this case, the role of the teacher in the
teaching - learning process, because through its pedagogical and scientific
preparation it manages to extend outside itself, all the elements that allow
the unfolding of the process the rediscovery and reconstruction of knowledge by
of student; of its personal characteristics, the communication relationship in
its different types of function (informative, affective and regulatory) that
allows an atmosphere of cooperation and collaboration, of joint activity in the
classroom.
The tutor must be characterized by the authenticity, security, respect and
motivation towards the activity; with an adequate action generating emotional
wellbeing in the participants, interaction, exchanges, and in the framework of
a climate of respect in the classroom.
It is assumed as a life project, "the extent to which we consciously
assume our ideals and plan our personal path to reach them. It will therefore
be a high expression of our conscience and a product of the development of our
personality." (Pine, n.d.). The author himself suggests that the
possibility of creating efficient projects and life plans is closely linked to
the self-knowledge and the environment that the subject reaches, the quality of
their self-reflection and the level of self-determination developed.
The elaboration of the life projects in integration with the one of the
accompaniment, the autonomous work and the participative self-reflection
workshops is developed, which facilitates identifying the needs and
potentialities from the work in group. In the case of the participatory
self-reflection workshop, we start from the individual commitment, in which a
collaborative environment of the participants is created in a way that
encourages and encourages dialogue and group reflection, based on the change
whose fundamental strength is the attitude towards the problems that must be
overcome and that in turn imply a personal and group growth of all the
participants. It is also important to assess, as a result of the identification
of the needs and potentialities, the professional problems that the members of
the participating educational community will face.
Reflecting during the action consists of asking what is going on or what is
going to happen, what we can do, what needs to be done, what is the best
tactic, what guidelines and what precautions should be taken, what risks exist,
etc. [...] Reflect on the action ... that's something else. It is taking the
action itself as an object of reflection, either to compare it with a prescriptive
model, to what we could or should have done more or what another practitioner
would have done, whether to explain it or make a criticism (Perreneud, 2010,
pp.30-31).
Thus, reflection on the action makes it possible to assess what has been
done in the school against the prescribed to define its viability by favoring
the reorientation of one's actions in a justified way based on the observation
of what happened and stimulating the development of metacognition when is aware
of what has been done and what has affected it.
The foregoing has given rise to the consideration of the necessary presence
of this type of exercise in higher education, as reflection and reflective
practice promote the potential for deep and meaningful learning. According to
Brockbank and McGill (2002): socio-educational knowledge only comes to have an
internalized and real meaning when the participant of the transforming process
applies that knowledge to himself and relates it, in some way, to his
experience. When the conditions for reflective exercise have been generated, a
type of essential learning is favored in continuing education, who learns is
the main protagonist of their learning process, since it finds meanings for the
knowledge that is generated in their experiences from the activities that favor
it and in its interaction with tutors and other participants.
Methodology that requires the participation of groups for inquiry and dialogue,
in which the collective reflection of the participants was developed in order
to achieve the transformation of education in the region. Participatory action
research aims to improve and learn from one's own experience from
reflection-action, in which group participation and ethical commitment sustain
the whole process, with an approach that meets the characteristics that
characterize each one of them. its terms: research, action and participation.
Therefore, reflection, systematic execution of the tasks to be carried out,
control and criticism of knowledge and experiences must prevail, providing new
knowledge and ways of understanding the problems of the context to be faced.
In the framework of the previous observations Stenhouse, cited by Gómez and
Salinas (2011), reference that the socio-educational environment is framed by
the:
Triad that raises the nature of knowledge, nature of teaching, nature of
learning, evidence a strong relationship between epistemology, didactics and
curriculum placing the classroom as the social arena where the hypotheses that
guide and challenge the action of teachers are put to the test researchers
(p.3).
This triad is visualized in
the development of Research, Education and Action whose purpose is to teach
people to discover their own potential to act, freeing them from previous
states of dependency and passivity, and lead them to understand that the
solution lies in the effort collective that they themselves can take to change
the state of things, which goes from the diagnosis to the transformation of the
practical and critical conception of Continuing Education.
Establish interrelations between the potentials (strengths and weaknesses)
of human, historical, social and economic resources as elements of integration
to the contents that are addressed in the continuing education programs, with a
marked systemic approach.
7.
Establish the accompaniments in the own
learning scenarios, which will contribute from collaboration, group work, and
respect for the diversity of criteria, to pave the way for the construction of
knowledge with an interdisciplinary approach.
In assisted teaching, socializing workshops should
favor analysis and reflection, but also the reorganization of the tutor's
action from the feedback. With the socialization of each group, and the
assessments that are made, it is essential to organize the time established to
achieve logic in its entirety, without barriers that break the dynamics of
participation.
The evaluation will be formative, part of the
diagnosis, aimed at identifying weaknesses and individual and collective
strengths, which will favor the feedback of the process. Self-evaluation,
co-evaluation and hetero-evaluation will be implemented, taking into account
the established criteria for this and from the group work, the reflection
spaces and the portfolio of anecdotal records that facilitate the description
of the reflections made in the different contexts where it will intervene in
group.
It is important to emphasize that the development of
the practical relationship - theory - practice, will be done from the problems
that each group identified. The analysis of the different contents, the search
and evaluation of the theory will be propitiated from an integral approach,
taking into account the relationship that can occur between the categories that
are identified as problems.
8.
Continuing education from the
formation of a center and / or communities of practice.
The term community of practice
was coined by Wenger (1998): in his work of observing and analyzing the
knowledge that is disseminated from a scientific community and seeking to
enhance this aspect at a corporate level as an institutionalization of the old
«storm or brainstorm» or informal exchanges. The purpose of a community of
practice is to make explicit the informal transfer of knowledge, offering a
formal structure that allows acquiring more knowledge through socialized
experiences within the group, in accordance with the training program of
Continuing Education. For this reason, the group's own identity is reinforced
by enhancing learning as a process of shared participation and leadership;
facilitated by the exchange of experiences and motivation.
The community of practice is
not a scientific community as such, since its approach is not science but the
experience of the practice and the shared management of knowledge. This
knowledge management is always done in a collaborative way and in a continuous
process of establishing strategies of participation, leadership, identity and
use of knowledge.
The community of practice as well as any collaborative work group has its
own characteristics that in the case of the UNAE in the development of
Continuing Education define and characterize it as a community, responding to
those who are associated, why they do it, with what motivation, in what field
or context and what is the nature of this relationship, constitute criteria
that make it possible to analyze the meaning and purposes of these forms of
collaborative work.
4. Methodological design
Consequently, the phases for the operation of
Continuing Education are summarized in:
Phase
1: Approach to the
context. Identification of needs of the educational community.
Phase 2: Diagnosis of the territory from reflection spaces.
Phase 3: Design and implementation of the processes to be executed.
· Implementation of the Continuing Education program.
· Implementation of the Lesson Study among the teachers participating in
the program.
· Monitoring of the actions derived from the CE in the school in the
community and in the University.
Phase 4: Presentation of partial
results.
Phase 5: Impact study. Is in organization.
·
Development
of scientific workshops for the dissemination of new experiences derived from the
EC and redesign of the EC strategy.
As a summary, the integrative and inclusive model of
Continuing Education of the UNAE is represented and its implementation in
coordination with the MinEduc and the Teachers Network.
Figure 1. Inclusive and inclusive model of
Continuing Education of the UNAE and its implementation in coordination with
the MinEduc and Teacher Network.
SEE IN THE ORIGINAL
VERSION
Source: The Authors (2017).
Complying
with the phases of the model and declared stages implies learning to identify
the barriers that constitute human resistance to the changes, which will lead
to a reduction in the inertia and frustration of the efforts that will be
invested to carry it out. Identifying the needs from the diagnosis, as well as
the strengths of the teachers who participate will be what will bring about the
change needed to promote a program from an innovative model that respects
individuality and cooperation, in which the experiences of the pedagogical
practice implemented by them in the school institutions where they work, they
constitute premises for the identification of the topics to be developed.
5. Conclusions
The
fundamental premise in Continuing Education in the UNAE is the requirements
established by the pedagogical model of the National University of Education,
unique in Ecuador, and which has the great mission of "contributing to the
formation of human talent in the educational system for the construction of a
just, equitable, free and democratic society, generating educational models of
excellence characterized by scientific rigor, focus on rights and
interculturality " (UNAE, 2014, p. w.n.). In addition, the idea that
"two facts surround and cross the origin of UNAE, the change of time, and
the global importance of teacher training for the transformation of education
in any country and specifically in Ecuador" (Álvarez, Quinn, Pérez, Prats,
Didirksso, Peñafiel and Fernández, 2015, p.12).
6. References
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Ecuador: Universidad Nacional de Educación.
Brockbank,
A., & McGill I. (2002). Aprendizaje
reflexivo en la educación superior. 2ª edición. ISBN: 9788471124524, págs. 312.
Madrid, España: Ediciones Morata.
Delors, J. (1996). Compendio.
La educación encierra un tesoro. Francia: Ediciones UNESCO, pág. 37.
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Continua (2015). Proyecto Sistema
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págs. 170.
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Wenger, E. (1998). Communities
of practice and social learning systems: the career of a concept. New York: Cambridge University Press Recuperado de: https://wenger-trayner.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/09-10-27-CoPs-and-systems-v2.01.pdf
Oscar Antonio Martínez Molina
e-mail: oscar.martinez@unae.edu.ec
Born
is San Cristóbal, Táchira state, Venezuela. Bachelor of Education Education and
Professional Guidance Mention (Universidad de Los Andes, Táchira Extension). Master of Science in
Higher Education, Mention Andragogy (UNELLEZ). Doctor in Education Mention Suma
Cum Laude (Universidad de Málaga, Spain), Postdoctor in Free Studies at
Universidad Fermín Toro. Diploma in Open and Distance Education (Universidad
Fermín Toro). Master's Degree Advanced expert in E-learning at the Fundación
para la actualización tecnológica de Latinoamérica (FATLA). Advanced level in
Educational Technology advanced level in the Fundación para la actualización
tecnológica de Latinoamérica (FATLA). Retired Professor of the Universidad
Nacional Abierta. Academic Title Holder. Director of doctoral and master's
theses. Responsible for COBAIND's research teaching-learning line.
Representative of the Spanish Academic Editorial Convention-COBAIND.
Coordinator of the line of research in Education at UNEFA Barinas. President / Founder of the Consejo Barinés de Investigación
y Desarrollo. Research
Professor of the Innovation and Research Stimulus Program in category
"A-2". Teaching research at the Universidad Nacional of Ecuador.
Madelin Rodríguez Rensoli
e-mail: madelin.rodriguez@unae.edu.ec
Born in Cuba. Principal Investigator Teacher 1 of the
UNAE, Ecuador. PhD in Pedagogical Sciences. Master in Educational Research.
Bachelor of Education, Specialty Biology. Accredited as Associate Researcher 1
by SENESCYT. She has participated as a director and researcher in research
projects. Currently Director of Continuing Education and Director of research
project and master's and doctoral thesis. He has published in indexed journals
and in Congresses. Member of the Editorial Board of the Revista Panorama
Médico, IPLAC and Gaceta Médica Espirituana. Member of the Referees Team of the
Scientific Magazine. She has participated as an external evaluator in
accreditation processes Cuba and Ecuador.
Wilfredo García Felipe
e-mail: wilfredo.garcia@unae.edu.ec
Born in Cuba. Teacher Main Researcher 1. PhD in Pedagogical
Sciences. Master in Advanced Education. Licensed in social sciences. Accredited
as a researcher by SENESCYT in Ecuador. Currently Co-Director of the Research
Project. Director of thesis and thesis of Masters and Doctorate. Has fulfilled
responsibilities as a teacher - researcher and directives in different levels
of education. I have published articles derived from research projects in
indexed journals, as well as book chapters. He has participated in research and
collaborated in projects on educational management, in International
Congresses. Director of doctoral theses and master's degrees with topics
related to Teaching and Pedagogy.
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- Original Version in Spanish -
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29394/Scientific.issn.2542-2987.2018.3.8.8.159-180