Teacher training specialist welcomed at the Great Hall
On Thursday, May 10, the president of the Ibero-American Association of University Teaching (AIDU), Dr Miguel Angel Zabalza Beraza paid a visit to PUCRS. The Universidad de Santiago de Compostela (USC) professor, a world reference in curriculum and teacher training, came to Campus to find out more about the initiatives of the movement 360°. Zabalza has been partners with PUCRS for more than 20 years, and was invited to join research groups and take part in other activities related to Higher Education.
In the morning, the founder of the Ibero-American Congress of University Teaching (CIDU) went to the President’s Office and was welcomed by the President Br. Dr Evilázio Teixeira, the Senior Vice President, Dr Jaderson Costa da Costa, the Vice President of Undergraduate Studies and Continuing Education, Br. Manuir José Mentges, and School of Humanities professor Dr Maria Inês Corte Vitoria, who presides the 10th CIDU. The event occurs every two years and is in its 10th edition. This is the first time it happens in Brazil and PUCRS is very proud to be home to it. In Zabalza’s view, CIDU has paid a meaningful contribution, throughout its editions, to the construction of a pedagogical perspective of the work that has been done at Universities, as it seeks to teach the faculty the motivation techniques, assessment criteria and good planning that are to take place in the classroom.
In this coming October, Miguel Zabalza will be awarded a Honorary Doctorate, in recognition of the work that he has done with the research groups of PUCRS and his contribution to teacher training. In Br. Manuir José Mentges’ view, the work of Zabalza is very important for the movement PUCRS 360º, as a new attitude to curriculum and teacher training will serve as the foundations for changes. “The most important thing in a University that is on the brink of turning 70 years of history, as PUCRS, is the people. We’ve only been able to reach this far because we have invested in people training, especially faculty and staff”, says he.
Zabalza also made his presence felt at the last meeting of the Ciclo Preparatório PUCRS 2017-2018, which seeks to prepare the University’s academic community for the Third Regional Conference of Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (Cres) – Unesco Iesalc, which will occur in Córdoba (Argentina), in June.
