Learning-Teaching Process

The constructivist model, which guides the professional training process at USM, declares the prevalence of active processes in the construction of knowledge, understanding the student as the protagonist of it. It is a construction of its own, which occurs daily as a result of the interaction of both cognitive and social factors or aspects of behavior. This process of conceptual construction depends on the previous knowledge about the new information, activity or task to be solved, and on the external or internal activity -learning situation- that the learner carries out in this respect. In effect, the key ideas around this model recognize that:

• The student is the protagonist and responsible for his/her learning process. It is he/she who constructs or reconstructs knowledge, being an active subject when he/she explores, discovers, operates or invents. This learning is constructed on a personal level from the moment he/she approaches, progressively and comprehensively, to what the curricular contents mean and represent as knowledge.
• The revaluation of the teaching role, not only in its functions as a guide or facilitator of learning, but also as a mediator of learning, emphasizing the role of the pedagogical help provided to the student in a regulated manner. Its main function is to connect the knowledge construction processes of each student with the culturally organized collective knowledge. The teaching role is not restricted to the creation of optimal conditions for the student to deploy a constructive mental activity, but it must explicitly and deliberately orient and guide such activity.
• It is important to identify and attend to the multiplicity of needs, interests and motivations of students, in relation to the teaching-learning process, being necessary the permanent feedback and rethinking of curricular contents, so that students learn about meaningful contents, favoring meta-cognition.
• The importance of the existence of different types and styles of learning, considering social, intellectual and affective factors in this integration

Taking this into account and in order to favor permanent learning -in which critical reflection is essential- that contributes to the construction of new knowledge through individual and social activity, the Pedagogical Model seeks to develop in students the capacity for autonomous learning, which promotes self-regulation and favors problem solving in a context of permanent change.