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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)

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.