Constructing knowledge, integrating lives

Abstract

Fortaleza, discussed, through Workshops of its Pedagogic Project, a new conception of a curriculum that could allow the integration of knowledge and the use of an active learning methodology; that would take into account the Unified Health System (SUS) as the structural axis of the activities developed in its dental education; that could understand the relationship between teaching, work and community, thus allowing the student to understand the context formed by the labor market and by the social reality that he or she will experience in the future. The current proposal, implemented in the first semester of 2005, poses an enormous challenge as the teachers’ training is still based on graduate studies of specific areas. When the teacher is invited to give orientation to a general practitioner, flexibility is required so that not only specific guidance is given but also an integration of the different contents. Furthermore, students are little accustomed to a methodology based on problem analysis, which prevents the proposal from being fully understood. There is, thus, the need for constant training of faculty members in order to achieve the full use of a pedagogic methodology based on the construction of knowledge, in order to take full advantage of the benefits of an integrated curriculum. A technical training is also needed that might alow the acquisition of an interdisciplinary approach. A broader understanding by the student is required as well so that he or she may reach all the benefits of the present proposal.