Search

Critical thinking skills are essential for success in life and work, and it is essential that learning strategies enable the development of critical thinking skills from the early years of schooling. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of cooperative learning using the RoundTable and Think-Pair-Share methods in the development of critical thinking skills such as observation, inference making, interpretation, analysis, and argumentation, in 4th graders students. The study employed a quasi-experimental design with a pretest and posttest using equivalent experimental and control groups. Results show that the use of cooperative learning, compared to a more traditional teaching methodology, was more effective in developing the critical thinking skills under study.

Even though Critical Thinking (CT) is an important goal for higher education institutions and labour market professionals, studies dealing with employers’ perceptions on CT meaning and envisioning ...

Purpose The purpose of this research is twofold: identify and gain a better insight on factors that can influence high performance of Information Systems (IS) project teams from the perspective of IS professionals (i.e. team members and leaders), and thus contribute to the general discussion on high-performance project teams; and offer both IS project team members and their project managers some feedback on how to build and manage teams more constructively and to enhance team performance in today's demanding business environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors used an exploratory case study of a small-size holding company and a qualitative analysis of the data to address the research questions. Findings Results show a set of perceived factors that can influence high team performance in IS projects. Participants' perceptions barely coincide. For instance, mutual trust was the only factor suggested as facilitating high team performance by 5 participants (out of 13). Differences may be because of participants' characteristics (e.g. time on the job). All perceived factors are classified in the literature as nontechnical (i.e. having to do with behavioral and/or socio-organizational matters of project management). Originality/value This paper is among the very few empirical studies consolidating knowledge on high-performance IS project teams (e.g. it is still unclear if there are IS project team-specific factors that influence high performance). For the highly technical IS industry, this study came across human-centric factors transversal to different project teams., (undefined)

Teaching project management and industrial optimization to engineering students requires real-world experiences in which they can explicitly integrate, apply and develop work-ready skills, such as critical thinking, communication, and teamwork. This paper presents an exploratory case study research describing an online Project-based Learning (PjBL) experience aimed at tackling the challenge of decreasing the ecological footprint in the university campus generated by the local locomotion of students from university-home and/or home-university. The experience was implemented from February to June 2020, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 9 participating students enrolled in the ‘Industrial Management I’ course, part of the Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tras-os-Montcs and Alto Douro (UTAD), Portugal. We firstly describe the course in terms of the key driving question, the learning goals, the educational activities, the collaboration among students, the scaffolding technologies, and the tangible artefacts produced. We further discuss the preliminary results of the study by taking into account the main tangible learning artefact produced by the students - a carpooling model proposal for the UTAD student community - as well as the data collected from a post, self-completion questionnaire on students' perceptions about the PjBL experience. Finally, we outline implications for the teaching practice and some concerns that need to be addressed in future course editions.

The importance of developing higher order skills in higher education students is a recommendation of several international organizations, so that they are able to respond to the challenges of 21st century society. The literature mentions several methodologies with these potentialities, including Cooperative Learning (CL), especially in presential learning environments. This study aims at comparing the effectiveness of CL in the development of Critical Thinking (CT) skills of higher education students in Portugal in two learning environments: face-to-face and distance learning. A quasi-experimental study was implemented, with pre and posttest, using the Critical and Creative Thinking Test (1.Revista Lusofona de Educacao 44:173–189) with 32 students of the 3rd year of the Basic Education Program, distributed in two groups: 1) the presential group (academic year 2018/19) and 2) the distance learning group through synchronous sessions and virtual rooms in small groups (academic year 2019/20). The results show that there are no statistically significant differences in the total score of the Critical and Creative Thinking Test or with regard to the different skills assessed by the Critical and Creative Thinking Test: interpretation, analysis, explanation, evaluation, synthesis and creativity. In line with recent research, these results, to be confirmed at a larger scale, point out that CL is equally effective in promoting CT for students in face-to-face or in distance synchronous learning environments.

The 21st century challenges claim for a shift in engineering education to a broader socio-cultural understanding of the engineer’s role and responsibility in society, putting Critical Thinking (CT), teamwork and oral communication skills into the forefront. This paper proposes an innovative integrated model to design and deliver high-quality CT educational activities, based both on the use of the CRITHINKEDU educational protocol and the Paul-Elder CT framework, altogether with the combination of different active learning strategies, such as structured questioning, problem-based learning, role play, and cooperative learning. The model was tested during the ‘Critical Thinking Day’ workshop, which brought together 8 labor market professionals, 150 students and 25 teachers from different disciplinary fields and educational levels to critically solve real-world problem situations. The results of the post-questionnaire on participants’ perceptions showed that the experience impacted them positively, indicating great potential for its replication in the engineering educational context. Although future research is needed to validate the model, the study herein presented is the first attempt towards this achievement.

This book, which is in the hands of Augustin Santana Talavera, Eduardo Cordeiro Goncalves, and Xerardo Pereiro Perez (editors), aims to demonstrate, through the contribution of several authors, how governance is achieved in tourism in five main ways: associationism (association between different entities), promotion, decentralisation, network dynamics and tourism policy. The scale of the difficulties and challenges of sustainable tourism and the role that renewed governance can play in this context are as follows.

The relevance of critical thinking in the twenty-first century is indisputable. Although several authors discuss the need for preparing Health and Tourism students for careers in the twenty-first century some recognize the need to bridge the gap between the market needs – employers view – and the graduate profile – higher education institutions view. The CRITHINKEDU ERASMUS+ project started questioning professionals about their views about the critical thinking needs in their areas. This work reports the results from the Portuguese focus group interviews in Health and Tourism areas. After a qualitative analysis, the outcomes for the Health area presented more mentions in critical thinking skills than the Tourism area. In turn, the Tourism area had more mentions in the critical thinking dispositions.

Promoting students’ Critical Thinking (CT) in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) has been an essential and challenging goal in the 21st century. This exploratory research study attempted to characterize how CT is being fostered in Portuguese HEI. Semi-structured interviews were carried-out with 5 university teachers from different domains, focusing several topics: CT notion, CT aims, CT approach, interventions, teaching strategies, learning materials, assessment methods, challenges and barriers. Results highlighted the undervalue of CT dispositions by university teachers, the lack of clarity regarding the design principles and criteria behind effective CT instruction and assessment, and the need to change institutional culture and conditions towards the support of CT educational practices – this will also enable the long-term integration of CT across the curricula and the transferability of skills and dispositions to other contexts. In general, teachers agreed on the importance to be explicit and clear in their CT teaching practice, and on the use of authentic situations, dialogue and active learning strategies for the effective development of students’ CT.

Developing optimum solutions to engineering problems typically relies on structured and complex thought processes that require evaluation, interpretation and opinion. Well-developed critical thinking (CT) skills are essential for dealing with the multi-dimensional nature of these problems. CT in an engineering context is well reported in teaching and learning academic literature. However, much of this is framed within theoretical and conceptual frameworks. Practical approaches of how CT skills are best promoted in engineering curricula are less common. A state-of-art review of practical interventions that target the development of CT in engineering students is presented. The review draws on 25 selected peer-reviewed journal articles in established engineering databases and focusses on teaching strategies where their effects in promoting CT skills in students are measured. Considerable variability in the reviewed literature was apparent. CT interventions and strategies are often reported, but metrics of their success in enhancing students’ CT is often limited to qualitative, subjective inferences. To more robustly and holistically ensure that CT is clearly embedded in university curricula, there needs to be well-funded research programmes that allow different methods to be developed and trialled over extended periods in higher education engineering programmes. European Commission The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA)

This study examines the effects of cooperative learning interventions on college students’ critical thinking (CT) development. It presents the results of an investigation in which 19 students were assigned to work in a cooperative learning (experimental group) context, and 22 other students (control group) followed a lecture-based learning process. The development of the students’ critical thinking skills was subsequently assessed with a pre- and post-test. The results showed greater improvements in critical thinking skills among the students of the intervention group suggesting clearly that the effects of cooperative learning are very positive.

Against a background of growing concern with environmental issues, resource consumption and waste production in the construction sector, this article presents the results of a study on the implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) certification in Portuguese construction companies. It reports on how construction companies perceive motives, difficulties, benefits and effectiveness of implementing EMS certification. A questionnaire served as the basis for data collection. It was sent to all certified construction companies listed in the IPAC (Portuguese Accreditation Institute). Results show that reasons for companies to use environmental certification go beyond legislated environmental requirements. Although some differences can be noted between large and small companies, certification is regarded as a process in which the benefits outweigh the costs, particularly in relation to increased recycling of raw materials. There are significant difficulties in the availability of human and financial resources, mainly in smaller companies. The main factors to ensure effectiveness of environmental certification are the commitment and support of top management, the establishment of clear environmental objectives consistent with environmental policy, training, time availability and raising awareness among all employees., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Governance is a recurring issue in current tourism research. However, there are still few studies focused on autochthonous governance perspectives. In this sense, and considering the Douro region (Portugal), we analyse the experiences and understandings expressed by local agents about the tourism organisation and their projections on alternative paths to follow. Our main aims are to characterise the political-organisational ecology in which the (inter)actions of multiple tourism stakeholders are inscribed and to understand their willingness to integrate new governance processes. This analytical exercise is supported by data collected through semi-structured interviews and documentary research. These data point to the existence of structural gaps among the entities that intervene within the tourism system. Also, they reveal intra-regional dissensions that undermine any integrated tourism management processes. Aware of this scenario, local agents identify some possibilities to be considered for building a new coherent and sustained governance configuration for tourism in the Douro.

High performance teams present unique characteristics that make them distinct from the others, being one of the fundamental aspects the motivation of its elements. In this paper are presented the partial results of a case study focused on high performance teams of information systems projects. Specifically, it is identified a set of aspects that contribute to the motivation of the team’s elements, according to their own perspective. This work aims to provide a better understanding of the aspects that influence the motivation of the elements for high performance teams and thus contribute to the study and practice of information systems project management.

Critical Thinking (CT) education has been a field of growing concern within the Portuguese Higher Education (HE) context, in an attempt to meet the labour market needs and the most demanding and complex societal challenges. However, there is a lack of systematic literature review studies characterizing the different CT educational practices adopted by faculty teachers. Thus, this review intends to understand to what extent the Portuguese teachers in HE have been developing CT skills and dispositions in their students, in a continuous, explicit and effective way. Following the steps of review methods, 27 empirical studies complying with the inclusion criteria were analysed. Results show that CT educational practices are gradually increasing over the years, but they tend to be developed with an implicit, non-intentional and short-term basis, neglecting the development of CT dispositions in the classroom. Studies from different nature are needed (experimental, longitudinal) in order to assess the permanency or generalization of CT in students. Several difficulties were found and future work should stimulate the discussion on the ways to overcome them, guiding HE teachers and institutions in the development, support and evaluation of CT practices., A educação do Pensamento Crítico (PC) tem sido uma preocupação crescente no contexto do Ensino Superior (ES) português, tanto para satisfazer as necessidades do mercado de trabalho, como para responder aos desafios societais cada vez mais complexos. No entanto, há ainda uma carência de estudos sistemáticos de revisão da literatura que caracterizem as diferentes práticas educativas de PC adotadas pelos docentes universitários. Assim, a presente revisão pretende compreender em que sentido os docentes portugueses do ES têm desenvolvido competências e disposições de PC nos seus alunos, de forma contínua, explícita e eficaz. Seguindo as etapas de métodos de revisão da literatura, foram analisados 27 estudos empíricos. Os resultados mostram que, embora as práticas educativas de PC tenham aumentado gradualmente ao longo dos anos, as mesmas tendem a ser adotadas de forma implícita, não-intencional e em curtos períodos de tempo, desvalorizando o desenvolvimento de disposições de PC em sala de aula. Verifica-se a necessidade da existência de estudos complementares (experimentais, longitudinais), a fim de avaliar a permanência ou generalização do PC nos estudantes. Trabalhos futuros deverão estimular uma discussão mais aprofundada sobre como superar as dificuldades encontradas, orientando docentes e instituições de ES no desenvolvimento, suporte e avaliação de práticas educativas de PC., L’éducation à la Pensée Critique (PC) est un domaine de préoccupation croissante dans le contexte de l’Enseignement Supérieur (ES) portugais, pour répondre soit aux besoins du marché de travail, soit aux défis de plus en plus complexes de la société. Il existe cependant un manque d’études systématiques de révision de littérature qui caractérisent les différentes pratiques éducatives de la PC adoptées par les facultés. Ainsi, ce travail a l’intention de comprendre dans quelle mesure les enseignants portugais de l’ES développent des compétences et des dispositions de la PC chez leurs étudiants, d’une manière continue, intentionnelle et efficace. En suivant les étapes des méthodes de révision de littérature, 27 études empiriques ont été analysées. Les résultats montrent que, bien que les pratiques pédagogiques de la PC se développent, elles tendent à être adoptées implicitement, de manière non-intencionelle et sur des périodes de courte durée, minimisant le potentiel de développement de la PC. Il existe un besoin de plus d’études complèmentaires (expérimentales, longitudinales) afin d’évaluer la permanence ou généralisation de la PC chez les étudiants. Les travaux futurs devraient stimuler une discussion approfondie sur la manière de surmonter les difficultés rencontrées, orienter les enseignants et les établissements de l’ES dans le développement, le soutien et l’évaluation des pratiques éducatives de la PC., La educación en Pensamiento Crítico (PC) ha sido un campo de creciente preocupación dentro del contexto de la Educación Superior (ES) portuguesa, en un intento de satisfacer las necesidades del mercado de trabajo, y atender a los complejos desafíos sociales. Sin embargo, existe una carencia de estudios sistemáticos de revisión bibliográfica que caracterizan las diferentes prácticas educativas adoptadas por el profesorado. Por lo tanto, esta revisión intenta comprender en qué medida los profesores portugueses de ES han estado desarrollando habilidades y disposiciones de PC en sus alumnos, de manera continua, explícita y efectiva. Siguiendo los pasos de los métodos de revisión, se analizaron 27 estudios empíricos. Los resultados muestran que, aunque las prácticas educativas de PC han aumentado gradualmente, las mismas tienden a ser adoptadas de forma implícita, no intencional y de corta duración, desvalorizando el desarrollo de disposiciones de PC. Se observa la necesidad de más estudios complementares (experimentales, longitudinales), a fin de evaluar la permanencia o generalización del PC en los estudiantes. Los trabajos futuros deberán estimular una discusión más detallada sobre cómo superar las dificultades encontradas, orientando docentes e instituciones de ES en el desarrollo, soporte y evaluación de prácticas educativas de PC.

The use of argumentative strategies that promote the defense of well-grounded personal arguments contributes to the development of a critical, ethical and political thought that leads to responsible and socially committed people. Based on the quality of the produced arguments in philosophical essays, this work evaluates the potential application of a cooperative learning method – the constructive controversy – for the development of argumentative skills in secondary school students in philosophy. The quality of the arguments was evaluated through the analysis of a total of 144 philosophical essays produced by the students over a school year. The results point to the advantages of using this method over more traditional ones in the acquisition of argumentative skills.

Considering the results of research on the benefits and difficulties of peer review, this paper describes how teaching faculty, interested in endorsing the acquisition of communication and critical thinking (CT) skills among engineering students, has been implementing a learning methodology throughout online peer review activities. While introducing a new methodology, it is important to weight the advantages found and the conditions that might have restrained the activity outcomes, thereby modulating its overall efficiency. Our results show that several factors are decisive for the success of the methodology: the use of specific and detailed orientation guidelines for CT skills, the students’ training on how to deliver a meaningful feedback, the opportunity to counter-argument, the selection of good assignments’ examples, and the constant teacher's monitoring of the activity. Results also tackle other aspects of the methodology such as the thinking skills evaluation tools (grades and tests) that most suit...

Today's complex, unstable and competitive society raises several difficulties to organisations. In this context, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) and information itself have become resources of vital importance. The pressing need for Information Systems (IS) to meet several business requirements, in addition to the complexity involved in technology and business management, turns the IS Function one of the main areas of influence for success of modern organisations. Through its capacity of representing activities, management objects and corresponding relations, the Information Architecture of the Information Systems Function (IAISF), a technique derived from the well-known Information Architecture but exclusively focused on the Information Systems Function (ISF), allows not only the conceptualization and understanding of the ISF itself, but also of its interactions with other areas within organizations. This paper presents the main results of a case study related to the application of the IAISF technique in a computer service centre of a University.

The construction industry plays a very important role in the Portuguese economy. In 2009, it was among the top five economic sectors, representing 13% of total employment. Nevertheless, project failures are still frequent mainly due to inadequate management practices and to the intrinsic characteristics of projects of the construction industry. Even though Portuguese construction has improved in recent years, cost and schedule overruns, low productivity and final product quality problems are still common. In this context, project management is a crucial tool for improving construction operations and for the overall success of projects. The aim of this article is to contribute to the discussion on success evaluation factors in a field where little has been written – the construction industry. Through a survey of 40 medium and large Portuguese companies several factors were identified which are currently considered in the evaluation of project success, as found in the literature review. The results show that the traditional factors, often referred to as the “Atkinson elements triangle” (cost, time and quality), are still the most relevant for evaluating the success of a project, but others, such as customer involvement and acceptance, have gained importance in recent years.

Peer-assessed online collaborative writing is of growing importance for higher education. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of collected data, this work presents the results of a case study in a graduate civil engineering course at the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal. After an overall presentation of the learning activity, it examines students’ attitudes towards web-based peer assessment and identifies which factors are related to students’ use and appreciation of feedback. In addition, an analysis of the type of feedback is presented in an attempt to evaluate students’ written communication skills. The results of this study provide indications on how to improve the design and implementation of future web-based peer assessment tasks and raise questions on the effectiveness of peer/teacher grading in the use of feedback.

Effective team management is one of the key factors that allow companies to tackle the challenges of today's demanding business environment. Although high-performing teams have been studied for some time, very little has been written on them from the construction industry's perspective. Based on the conclusions of previous work and on a project involving 44 professionals of seven teams, this exploratory case study intends to evaluate if there is a gap between what team members and leaders perceive as being (a) the most important features for managing teams into high performance and (b) the features that are present in their teams. The present study shows that, although teams under investigation had some high-performing features at the leadership dimension, there is room for improvement, in particular when it comes to empowering team members, involving them in planning the work, and creating proper reward systems.

Educational policies keep stressing the importance of critical thinking skills for promotion of academic success in Higher Education, to facilitate transition into the labour market and to foster livelong learning. Curricula in Higher Education Institutions gradually meet this necessity, integrating strategies foreseeing the development of critical thought in students. However, at this level, we still commonly found teaching and learning strategies emphasizing a more or less passive knowledge transfer, focusing on the student’s ability to memorize information. Peer review and feedback, allied to cooperative work, are important components of active learning and development of critical thinking skills process. It is therefore important to understand the role and influence of feedback provision in peer review activities between cooperative groups. This study analyses the perceptions and attitudes of 27 students in two Masters Courses on the feedback given in peer review activities (between groups), based on their responses to a survey. Results showed, among other aspects, that collaborative work and feedback exchange between groups fostered the contact with different perspectives towards the same situation, and that its critical analysis allowed the students to enhance different skills, the most referred one being the critical thinking., As políticas educacionais têm vindo a enfatizar a importância do desenvolvimento de competências de pensamento crítico. Estas competências são cruciais para a promoção do sucesso escolar no Ensino Superior, para facilitar a entrada no mercado de trabalho e para apoiar a aprendizagem permanente. Os currículos das instituições de ensino superior têm vindo a responder a esta necessidade, contemplando estratégias para desenvolver nos estudantes a capacidade de pensar criticamente. Contudo, neste nível de ensino continuam a privilegiar-se estratégias que enfatizam a transferência de conhecimento mais ou menos passiva, com foco na capacidade do estudante memorizar informações. A revisão entre pares e o feedback aliados ao trabalho cooperativo são componentes importantes para uma aprendizagem ativa e para o desenvolvimento das competências de pensamento crítico. Por isso, é importante compreender o papel e a influência de dar feedback em atividades de revisão entre grupos cooperativos. Neste estudo analisam-se as perceções e atitudes de 27 alunos de dois cursos de mestrado sobre o feedback dado em atividades de revisão entre grupos de pares, com base nas suas respostas a um questionário. Os resultados mostraram, entre outros aspetos, que o trabalho colaborativo e o feedback entre os grupos promoveram o contacto com diferentes perspetivas em relação à mesma situação, e que a sua análise crítica permitiu aos alunos, no seu entender, melhorar diferentes competências, sendo a mais referida a do pensamento crítico., Les politiques éducatives récentes soulignent l’importance de développer des compétences de pensée critique. Ces compétences sont essentielles pour favoriser la réussite scolaire dans l’enseignement supérieur, faciliter l’entrée des étudiants dans le marché du travail et soutenir l’apprentissage continu. Les programmes des établissements d’enseignement supérieur essayent de répondre à ce besoin, en contemplant des stratégies éducatives qui visent à développer chez les élèves la capacité de penser de façon critique. Toutefois, à ce niveau d’éducation, on continue de donner la priorité à des stratégies qui mettent l’accent sur le transfert des connaissances, en privilégiant la capacité des élèves à mémoriser des informations. La révision par les pairs et la rétroaction (feedback) alliées au travail coopératif sont des éléments importants d›apprentissage et de développement actif des compétences de la pensée critique. Il est donc indispensable de comprendre le rôle et l’influence de l’apport du feedback aux activités de révision entre groupes coopératifs. Cette étude analyse les perceptions et les attitudes de 27 élèves de deux masters sur le feedback donné lors d’activités de révision par de groupes de pairs, issues de leurs réponses à un questionnaire. Les résultats ont montré, entre autres aspects, que le travail et le feedback collaboratifs entre les groupes ont favorisé le contact avec des perspectives différentes à l’égard de la même situation, et que son analyse critique a permis aux étudiants d’améliorer certaines de leurs compétences, la plus soulignée étant la pensée critique.

Motivation in work teams has a key role to play for the survival and competitiveness of businesses in the harsh environment of economic recession. This paper characterizes motivation in small and medium-sized construction companies in Portugal. It draws on data collected from in-person surveys which were carried out to employees of 32 companies. Results reveal the presence of some motivating factors specific to the profession such as the fact that the work requires a wide range of skills and is not very routine. Also, although employees in general feel a sense of equity and recognize that managers provide constant feedback, results show the need for improvement in motivation's management, particularly in regard to more autonomy and participation in setting goals.

Project management is increasingly considered a powerful tool to tackle the challenges of businesses in a globalized economy, where the need for innovation is decisive. At the same time it has emerged as a field of knowledge which has been expanding and studied under various perspectives. In this chapter the authors aim to contribute to the knowledge on project management practices in the manufacturing sector. The results presented here characterize project management practices in the Portuguese metalworking industrial sector. Data analysis from thirty companies show that risk and integration areas are often overlooked in project management and need to be promoted.

Background: Given the limited available time of in-service professionals, the balance between the perceived importance of the course content and training needs is essential for the acceptance and attractiveness of training courses aimed at them. Objectives: The goal of the paper is to contribute to the development of entrepreneurship and business training programs for European SME managers. Methods/Approach: In six European countries a survey focusing on SME managers’ views on the importance of individual items from a list of potential course content items, and their training needs was carried out, and followed by an analysis using exploratory and multivariate techniques. It was aimed at identifying homogeneous groups of managers with common training needs and perceptions of content importance. Results: Homogeneous groups of managers who assign the same importance to certain competences and who have common training needs are identified. Conclusions: Results of our research could help training institutions to develop courses aimed at SME managers. The balancing approach proved to be an interesting method of combining conflicting requirements for the training course curriculum development., This paper is based on work developed with support from the European Commission (Education and Culture Directorate-General, Lifelong Learning Programme). This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein. The development of this paper was partly financed by the ERDF - European Regional Development Fund through the COMPETE Programme (operational programme for competitiveness) and by National Funds through the FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) within projects "FCOMP - 01-0124-FEDER-022701" and "FCOMP-010124-FEDER-022692".

Taking in account the conclusions of our previous case-study in the civil engineering course at UTAD (University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal) this work presents the results of a case study in an energy engineering undergraduate course. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of collected data, it examines students' attitudes towards web-based peer assessment, distinguishing their role as reviewers or as feedback receivers. It identifies which factors are related to students' use and appreciation of feedback. Moreover, an analysis of the type of feedback is presented in an attempt to evaluate students' written communication skills. The results of this study allow deepening the reflexion on how to improve the design and implementation of future web-based peer assessment tasks.

As housing is an essential need, a dwelling should provide an assured quality of life and satisfy the expectations of its users. As a dwelling is a complex system, the construction of which involves the contribution of various specialists, the evaluation of its quality is a elaborated process. In the sequence of previous research on quality dwellings assessment methods, the objective of this paper is to present the proposal of an assessment system for the most important aspects of dwellings’ quality in Portugal which provides stakeholders with a simple and objective form for assessing the quality level of a dwelling to be designed, built, financed, bought or rented. After a thorough analysis of methods used to evaluate residential building quality in various countries, the most common elements were identified. This list was submitted to critical evaluation by Portuguese construction specialists, resulting in a final selection of evaluation aspects such as: housing operating costs, proximity to basic infrastructures, energy classification and rainwater reuse systems.

Peer-assessed online collaborative writing is of growing importance in recent research on higher education. Based on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative collected data, this paper presents the results of an exploratory case study in a graduate civil engineering course at the University of Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Portugal. After an overall presentation of the activity, it examines students' attitudes towards online peer assessment and identifies which factors are related to students' use and appreciation of feedback. In addition, an analysis of the type of feedback is presented in an attempt to evaluate students' written communication skills. The results of this exploratory investigation provide indications on how to improve the design and implementation of future peer assessment tasks and raise questions on the involvement of peer/teacher grading in the use of feedback.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the user's assessment of the level of quality of the library services of the Portuguese University of Trás‐os‐Montes e Alto Douro (UTAD) in order to identify its potential improvement. Design/methodology/approach – Following a literature review on library service quality assessment focusing on the ServQual, Lib Qual, or Biqual conceptual tools, a survey was designed and applied to a sample of the UTAD library's users, and then subjected to statistical analysis. Findings – The literature review on library quality service assessment points out an array of dimensions that must be taken into account. The conceptual tools recently developed for that assessment showed that the services provided by the UTAD library needed to be redefined in order to enhance its user's autonomy. The results of the survey follow the findings of the literature review and, in particular, show that for the UTAD case study: gender is an important variable to take into account; the access to new technologies and to its convenient use is of the outmost importance; and face to face relation between users and service providers must be deepened. Practical implications – The data survey clearly indicates the areas in which UTAD library has to direct its efforts in order to improve the quality of its services and meet users' expectations. Originality/value – The results opened up the way to future comparative investigations with other services provided by other university libraries.

In a dynamic and competitive world, understanding the knowledge, skills and competences that managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) require is an important endeavour, to ensure that both academic and business training institutions offer well formed programs/courses and curricula. Several studies, conducted by academic researchers and business associations around the world, focused on identifying managers’ skills and competences, but there isn’t an overall perspective on today’s requirements of European SME managers. This is a critical aspect because managers’ competences strongly influence enterprises’ competitiveness and, therefore, the economic competitiveness of countries themselves. To help overcome this problem, the authors conducted a study in six European countries through a literature review and several interviews with business associations’ executives. The result is a list of 34 competences, which the authors organized in four categories: personal; team management; business; and technical. These competences are presented and discussed in this chapterand show that an SME manager should be well prepared in a rich set of complementary areas to perform her/his job. The findings enable a better understanding of the profile of SME managers from the point of view of required competences, and may help in the design of new training programs to fulfil the identified needs.

The requirements of an increasing globalized and competitive economy lead managers to search for training solutions which can rapidly bridge the gap of their lacking skills, knowledge or competences. To assert with adequate training programs, in particular for SMEs managers, a study was conducted in six European countries with the objective of identifying the most relevant competences they need to fulfill. A literature review and several interviews with business associations’ executives resulted in a list of 34 competences which were organized in four categories: personal, team management, business and technical. These competencies were put at trial through a survey conducted among 154 SMEs managers who had to evaluate each proposed competence with the attribution of a relevance degree. Although we show that SME managers should be well prepared in a rich set of complementary areas to perform their job, it is clear that some of the competences are crucial for them to tackle today’s challenges. This paper presents a ranking of the competences by importance as perceived by managers. These findings can help training institutions wishing to design new training programs which more in line with managers’ needs.

New relations between small family farms and agro-industry. The case of the tobacco sector in misiones, Argentina. This paper illustrates organisational aspects of changing relationships between agriculture and agro-industry in the tobacco sector of Misiones, a region of small family farms in North-East Argentina. Institutional economics theory is used to explain how various institutions attempt to control tobacco growing and regulate competition in the interests of quality. A key figure, the instructor, plays a crucial role in these regulating mechanisms at the interface between producers and tobacco companies. This role is analysed in more depth to illustrate the technical, social and economic dimensions of the change to a new model of development in the tobacco sector., Cet article met en évidence la dimension organisationnelle qui est au centre des transformations et des nouvelles relations entre les agriculteurs et l'agro-industrie dans le secteur tabacole de Misiones, une région de petite paysannerie dans le nord-est de l'Argentine. En mobilisant certains outils de l'économie des conventions, il montre comment l'activité est désormais régie par tout un dispositif technico-économique et social inter-institutionnel qui régule les formes de concurrence au profit de la qualité. Le rôle d'un personnage clé, l'instructeur, "lieu" de compromis entre différentes conventions, industrielles et domestiques, est analysé tout particulièrement., Dominguez Caroline. Nouvelles articulations entre petite agriculture et agro-industrie. Le secteur tabacole à Misiones (Argentine). In: Économie rurale. N°223, 1994. pp. 39-45.

This article describes and analyzes how a big Portuguese car dealer group successfully used all the stages of a Six-Sigma DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) project to improve the warranty billing process (paid by Car Brands). It shows that the project allowed car dealers managers to understand that financial metrics in use did not control compliance standards for Car Brands, in warranty services, or assure a good cash-flow for the car dealers. Necessary changes and new metrics (% time compliance to do the service and bill it, % time compliance reception, % time to find a defective part in an audit) generated time benefits and consequently a more controlled cash flow. These new metrics may be common to any car dealer with warranty services.

Apresentado em "ProjMAN 2014 - International Conference on Project MANagement, Troia, Portugal, 15-17 Oct. 2014", In today’s demanding business environment companies must perform more efficiently. One of the most important ways to tackle this challenge is to enhance the human resources potential, through effective team management. High-performing teams have been studied for some years, with literature discussing their features from several perspectives as, for instance: leadership; teams as a whole; and team members. But, little has been written on managing these teams in the construction business. Based on a project involving 44 professionals and six teams, our exploratory case study presents preliminary results on perceived importante features for managing teams into high performance. Surprisingly, in opposition to their team members, managers did not perceive as most important some of the common features identified in the literature. Plus, some differences exist between teams’ perceptions. The reported differences may be correlated with the characteristics (e.g., social and demographic) of the professionals., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

The growing globalization of markets has made the need for innovation increasingly urgent and decisive in the business world. This environment has led to the emergence of project management in various business sectors, including manufacturing. This article aims to contribute to the knowledge on project management practices. The results presented here characterize project management practices in Portuguese metalworking companies, by analyzing data thirty companies from this sector. These results demonstrate that some practices are highly valued especially in the procurement management area. Others however, particularly in risk and integration management, are often overlooked.

Acquisition of clinical skills is of upmost importance for health sciences professionals, and a guarantee that safe and effective patient care will be provided. Clinical competencies may encompass a series of skills that are introduced through graduation and developed during professional activity, namely the technical skills, communication skills, clinical reasoning and reflexion in daily practice. Therefore, clinical competence is not a static skill, but it grows with practice and is lifelong learning. Case-based learning is frequently used to enhance learning in clinical reasoning and judgment for rational decision-making, competencies that are also associated to critical thinking. To be effective, casebased activities need to be structured, the learning objectives adjusted to each situation and students sought to be guided throughout the activity, so that they are actively engaged in the learning process bridging learning to professional environments. In this paper the authors present a model for a case-based activity aiming to enhance clinical competency in health science students. Framed by the application of the FRISCO guidelines adapted in previous work, the authors illustrate, by an example, how, in the proposed activity, congruence may be achieved among intended learning, instructional activities, and assessment methods while teaching diagnostic reasoning to health sciences students.