New Perspectives in Science Education
Challenges Towards a Global Citizenship in Higher Education
Maria Albertina Raposo, Polytechnic Institute of Beja (IPBeja) - MARE (Centre of Marine sciences and Environment) (Portugal)
Isabel Santos, MARE - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ARNET - Aquatic Research Network Associate Laboratory, NOVA School of Science and Technology, NOVA University Lisbon, Portugal (Portugal)
Anabela Durão, Polytechnic Institute of Beja; ICT - Institute of Earth Sciences (Portugal)
Lia Vasconcelos, School of Science and Technology. Nova University of Lisbon, Caparica, Portugal Mare - Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (Portugal)
Paulo Vilia, Polytechnic Institute of Beja, Portugal (Portugal)
Abstract
Higher education is currently unprepared for the main challenges facing society. The education system and educators must redefine their role and ways of acting, thus becoming the main agent of change. Increasing technologies, overloaded information and Artificial intelligence (AI) tools, require innovation in education and the (re)meaning of the act of teaching, an opportunity to turn each lesson into a prefigurative action. The aim of this paper is to highlight, systematize and share a set of participatory techniques that have proven to be advantageous in building knowledge in formal education contexts. Results show that educators/professors must be learning challengers. In the context of prefigurative politics, this means working toward the world of tomorrow, in the present moment, which allows responding to today's challenges where everyone is better able to deal with courage, perseverance, resilience, generosity and honesty in the complex, uncertain and vulnerable world in which we live.
Keywords: Prefigurative action, Participatory techniques, Soft skills, Collaborative work, Critical thinking
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