Os cursos profissionais nas escolas públicas

: o perfil dos alunos e as práticas pedagógicas

Abstract

The significant expansion, in the last decade, of vocational courses as an educational offer in public schools has caused some discomfort. On the one hand, students who attend this type of education have, for the most part, low levels of interest and motivation for studying. Secondly, teachers show some resistance in adapting pedagogical practices for this group of young people. The research carried out was aimed to analyze the students’ profile and their journey through school as well as teachers pedagogical practices carried out in two distinct geographic school contexts, in a rural area and a large urban centre. We used a mixed methodology, with questionnaires given to 117 students and semi-structured interviews carried out on 4 teachers. The conclusions show that the students’ profile is influenced by the social environment where they live, including the economic, cultural and social characteristics of the family. The individual characteristics of young people, the degree of commitment and interest, are also factors that can influence their attitudes towards school. In general, the students who attend vocational courses, who come from families with low economic and cultural levels, exhibit a school career marked by failure and little motivation for studying. As for pedagogical practices, we found that teachers also develop work that is very focused on themselves. However, they recognized that work that is reflective and collaborative positively influence teaching practices. To reverse the current situation in this type of education, it is imperative that pedagogical practices are renewed and adapted to each students’ profile and at the same time, encourage and strengthen their skills, to achieve academic success.

Date of Award	21 May 2015
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Célia Ribeiro (Supervisor)