Teaching practices analysis in agricultural sciences

Abstract

The Teaching Unit of the Agronomy School and the Department of Veterinary Educa- tion, through the funding obtained through the cse -Udelar- pimceu -2015 [1], call for applicants, conducted a study on best teaching practices in university education. The aim of this work, which has an exploratory-descriptive nature, was to identify and charac- terize the teaching practices of good teachers of both Schools; to create a methodology for collecting and analyzing said practices; to develop teaching models of agrarian sciences based on the main findings linked to the «best teaching practices». The work included student surveys and end-of-course student evaluations to identify reference teachers. With the selected teachers, their classes were observed, their curricular materials were analyzed and interviews were carried out before and after observation. The results of the study prompt to think about the existence of patterns that characterize the practices of good teachers and motivate their identification as such by the students. These results are consistent with the bibliography consulted, and it is necessary to develop knowledge of these best practices more deeply, in order to build models that are useful to contribute to the training of all the teachers of our Schools and of the entire University.