Communication and alignment of expectations in implementing a PBL proposal

Abstract

Communication is a factor that can influence the success of projects, especially when several partners are involved and their joint action is necessary to achieve results. The implementation of a curricular change is one of those situations, because it is planned by curriculum managers, but will have as a final focus the work done by the students, who are the agents in the learning process and will make use of the experiences and strategies created for the curricula. Although the curricula are created based on the needs raised with students and teachers, their implementation requires a clear communication of objectives, teaching and assessment strategies, in addition to constant monitoring throughout the process, so that any adjustments can be made quickly, correcting the route in case of failures. This communication should ensure consensus on the purposes and engagement in the learning activities. Five years after the start of the implementation of a curricular proposal in an engineering school, which introduced the use of projects in parallel to the course subjects, two surveys were carried out, one with teachers and the other with students, and both showed the existence of doubts about the purpose of the changes introduced, which can be attributed to ineffective communication. The curricular change is consolidated and is valued by both teachers and students, however better results could have been achieved if there was better communication, which would make the experience more successful and, even, making the participants the best disseminators of this experience. This work analyses the communication aspects of this curriculum, based on the data from the two surveys, to identify problems and suggest actions. © 2021 University of Minho. All rights reserved.