Bologna Process – It’s Time For A Look Back: A Mechanical Engineering Case

Three academic years have passed since the formal beginning of the Bologna Process implementation at the Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management Department at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu. It is appropriate to begin to take stock of progress (so far). This paper focuses on the new methodologies of teaching/learning and evaluation that have been introduced since then. It also discusses students’ and teachers’ strategies, aiming at adapting their behaviour to the way they have perceived those new paradigms. Some significant changes were detected, namely those related to students’ work, expected to be autonomous and continuous throughout the semester, benefiting from teachers’ tutorial guidance and reflected in a continuous evaluation. Nonetheless, it has been a road dotted with some difficulties: changing students’ attitudes towards work and persuading instructors of the importance and need to look for innovative pedagogical strategies is not an easy task. Still, in a significant number of courses, some new teaching/learning models were introduced, based on skills development models, supposedly more attractive to students, promoting their participation and interaction. It was considered fundamental that students should understand their role in this new model of higher education. Instructors have been aware of the central importance to the students of building knowledge and acquiring skills in an autonomous meaningful process, a process that ultimately prepares them for an increasingly flexible labour market.