Politécnico do Porto launched the challenge and the teaching community responded with 75 oral communications and 35 posters. Transversal interventions to the different valences of all schools crossed in order to discuss and define different strategies for the development of a training committed to the dynamics of a society in permanent mutation and increasingly innovative.
This joint initiative of P.PORTO Presidency with the Schools Pedagogical Councils determined as thematic lines the evaluation of learning; pedagogical training of teachers; the teaching-learning relationship with research, the formal and non-formal learning networks and the future professional activity of students; integration of new digital technologies; enhancement / promotion of pluri, multi and interdisciplinarity; virtual mobility; inclusive education and internships.
Rui Ferreira, Vice-President of P.PORTO recalled in his opening speech how "for 22 years, in the first internal forum, issues such as distance learning, exchanges, mobility or Today, pedagogical training and innovation are part of the program of this presidency and are reasons for reflection with particular urgency. "
Present at the opening session was also João Rocha, President of Politécnico do Porto, and Olga Paiva, Vice-President the Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP). João Rocha emphasized the topic of the forum as one of the pillars of the presidential agenda: "The academic success of our students is our great challenge. It's our mission to evaluate innovative approaches that answers positively to technological and social development." "We know how slow it is to carry these procedures into the classroom," he said, recalling the difficulties of updating curricula. "Those should be more dynamic and adapt to the reality of the labor market. Our mission is to ensure the future of our country, "he concluded.
The opening conference was by Licínio Lima of University of Minho. Named Current Dilemmas of Higher Education: Between the Competitive Meritocracy and the Discourses of Inclusion, the conference gave the motto to many of the reflections and debates that were being developed during these two days.
Rui Ferreira summed up these days of reflection as a sign of permanent and necessary unrest. "It is fundamental not to slow down this debate", he emphasizes, "and the Politécnico do Porto, perhaps because it is a young institution, feels the need to reflect and respond to requests put to us: from science, to political and ideological thought, from government to institutions. It is important to maintain this uneasiness. "
