A CLOSER LOOK AT A MILITARY INSTITUTE'S ENGINEERING SCHOOL: COMBINING APPROACHES

ABSTRACT

This article examines a military institute's engineering school through different approaches conducted by two distinct groups. One group sought to identify problem areas in each of the institute's departments. The other group sought to measure client satisfaction (students and professors) and gather information from engineering firms that have instructional relationships with the institute. These two complimentary approaches enriched the institute's knowledge of itself and also provided information upon which to base future decisions for improving the quality of the engineering courses.

INTRODUCTION

An understanding of the clients' perceptions and reactions to an institution's services can substantially increase its ability to make business related decisions. Organizations which know the clients' needs and expectations are capable of determining if they are being met (Hayes¹).

It bears mention that Scherkenbach² contends the client "is not necessarily a person... It may be an institution that receives a report or a procedure. It may be the environment, which receives effluents. It may take the form of any type of resource: person, method, material, equipment or environment."

The systematic investigation of the development of an institution's different areas helps uncover what may be done to improve any unsatisfactory situation. Understanding the processes which compose the institution allows us to perceive how each person can contribute to providing ever improving services. An organization must constantly evaluate its services because the world is always changing. If an institution does not adapt itself to such changes as conditions permit, it runs the risk of becoming obsolete.

In order for an organization to improve the quality of its services, this diagnosis must allow for: collecting significant data; identifying the true causes of specific problems; developing appropriate solutions; planning and implementing changes based on the specific points that must be improved.

When evaluating an institution's services, one must know how they are seen/received by the organization's internal and external users. It is of fundamental importance that this diagnosis be based upon the involvement of the agents who have direct experience with the institute's services, so proposed changes are based on their actual needs. Santos³ suggests that this listening process be constant and easily decoded.

In Kelly's⁴ opinion, any type of intstitutional change will be successful only if its implementation relies on the involvement of the majority of (if not all) those affected by it. The process of change is so rapid that the direct involvement of coordenators, professors and students is necessary to make intelligent strategic decisions.

On the other hand, some authors defend the importance of using an outside team to develop the diagnosis because these components can contribute to an impartial evalutation of significant data collected by this diagnosis. Santos³ defends this type of participation when the outside team works with the institute and not for it.

Thus, this paper presents both diagnostic processes performed at the Military Engineering Institute over the past years, discusses the results and analyzes the common points, as well as the conflicts, between them.

THE INSTITUTION

The Military Institute of Engineering (IME), as its name suggests, is an institute of higher education which offers engineering degrees in ten areas: Fortification and Construction; Electrical; Electronic; Communications; Mechanical and Armaments; Mechanical and Automotive; Metalurgical/Materials; Chemical; Cartography and Computer Systems, as well as Masters and Doctorate programs.

The Institute is composed of seven Teaching Departments, 109 professors, 316 undergraduate students and 255 graduate students. Although it is dedicated to teaching engineering, IME also prepares officers for the Brazilian Army Corps of Engineers. Beginning in 1997, graduates of this program have the option of remaining in active service or returning to civil life as members of the Army Reserve. This preparation includes military training and physical education, requiring an additional five hours per week to the already intensive engineering program. This particular aspect of IME was considered during both types of diagnosis, however, the results are not included here because this paper considers only the problems related to the engineering course.

AN INSIDE VIEW OF IME

An evaluation of all of IME's departments was carried out in 1996 in response to an internal solicitation. In this diagnosis, each Teaching Department conducted the process in the manner deemed most fitting to its needs. It was possible to gather the points that appeared most frequently in the different diagnoses to arrive at an inside view of the Institute. These points were taken from the report prepared by IME and are listed below.

a. Faculty: the need to increase the number of faculty members

b. Mid-level employees: the need to increase the number of auxiliary and technical personnel in order to improve the qualilty of IME's administration

c. Integration between undergraduate and graduate schools: one of IME's positive points. In most departments this integration is achieved through academic requirements such as term papers, research activities and senior projects.

d. Student body: large classes in basic courses and small classes in advanced courses.

e. Facilities: classrooms and other facilities must be modernized

f. Library: there is much concern about maintaining the library's collections, especially periodicals.

g. Laboratories: important instruments and equipment were acquired some time ago and must be repaired or replaced.

h. Administrative departments: lack of personnel, especially in the Teaching Skills Department, has increased the workload in providing support to IME's teaching.

Other points raised by IME's Teaching Departments were:

- criticism of the cafeteria food
- the desire to include internships in the fifth year of study
- the need for more computer resources
- administrative departments complained of lack of personnel

AN OUTSIDE VIEW OF IME

The REENGE Project (Integrated Restructuring of Engineering Courses) is being developed by more than 40 Brazilian universities with the intent to restructure the engineering curricula in these institutions. At IME, REENGE uses people from the Institute itself (students and faculty) to work with the technical aspects related to engineering content, and the Education Team, composed of pedagogical specialists. The Education Team is subdivided into work groups to provide an ample approach to the pedagogical content present in an institution of IME's size. These work groups are: Curriculum; Evaluation; Faculty Development; Non-present Activities; Library; Integration; Needs Assessment.

The curriculum, in its broadest sense, includes as well as catalyzes all of the other groups. Even so, these groups were established in order to facilitate the object of the study (teaching at IME) and to optimize the time spent by each individual member of the group in working on the project as a whole. The Team is working on the curriculum's pedagogical aspects, treating it as the beginning, middle and end of the project. As the beginning, because the overall goal of the project is to restructure the curriculum; as the middle, by dividing it into specific work groups to better evaluate, in didactic terms, its different basic elements; and as the end, because all of the conclusions reached by these work groups will compose a final proposal for the restructuring of IME's engineering curriculum.

In order to discover the reality of the pedagogical aspects at IME and also to provide data for the other work groups, the Needs Assessment work group set about measuring the degree satisfaction among the users of IME's teaching: students and faculty. A questionnaire was also applied to a sample of the engineering firms that maintain relationships with IME's graduate schools.

The Education Team's decision to measure client satisfaction was based on the belief that an organization must know how its clients feel about its services and the factors that influence this judgement. This knowledge is important for the decision-making process because it indicates client needs, and the level of satisfaction may be determined according to these factors. Understanding clients' perceptions and reactions to its services contributes to an organization's ability to make better decisions. An organization that knows its clients needs and expectations is able to determine if they are indeed being met. Hayes¹ emphasizes this point for two reasons. First, the client is the most qualified source of opinions about such services. Second, knowing the clients' needs facilitates the development of questionnaires that can accurately measure the quality aspects being studied.

This diagnosis was based on questionnaires that sought to accurately measure client satisfaction according to Hayes'¹ methodology. This author warns that if such instruments are poorly designed or fail to accurately convey clients' opinions, any decisions based on the data may threaten the organization's success.

The process of elaborating the questionnaires was divided into three phases: identifying the dimensions of a quality curriculum - Kelly⁴, Luckesi⁵, Karling⁶; determining specific examples of these dimensions; developing the approach to critical incidence.

The elaboration of the questionnaires was based on these three points, as well as ideas contributed by faculty, coordinators, department heads, IME studens and firms that employ engineers. All questionnaires focused on the pedagogical aspects of the curriculum.

Client satisfaction with the curriculum was measured according to practicality, flexibility, integration, apropriateness, diversity, incentive, interaction, modernity, balance, orientation and variety.

Client satisfaction with evaluation was measured for various types: diagnostic, participative, summary, objective, directed, plural and formative.

Satisfaction with the library was measured according to quality of service, courtesy, availability, divulgence, modernity and diversity.

Satisfaction with non-present activities was measured according to openness, appropriateness, modernity, clarity, diversity, flexibility, motivation and interaction.

Satisfaction with faculty development was measured according to continuity, diversity, practicality, contextuality and modernity.

The questionnaires were applied as follows:

To the students

Table 1 shows the total number of students who attended the meeting in which the questionnaires were applied.

TABLE 1
Distribution of students, according to year of study, who completed to the questionnaires.

To the faculty

To the engineering firms
Of the 58 engineering firms that maintain relationships with IME's undergraduate departments, 20% were contacted. Table 3 indicates their areas of specialization.

TABLE 3
Distribution, according to area of specialization, of the firms that completed the questionnaires.

The questionnaire administered to these firms did not measure satisfaction with IME's services because they do not employ IME graduates. IME graduates serve in military institutions. Thus, these firms could not evaluate satisfaction in terms of graduates' performance. The questions gathered suggestions for improving engineering education based on possible faults which these firms detected in professionals and interns who work for them.

Although they are still being analyzed, the questionnaires have already provided some general information.

Students: Concerning the curriculum, students request that the workload be modified to allow time for activities such as congresses and seminars; that professors make more frequent connections between classroom theory and practical application; that the results of this study be seriously considered when future decisions are made. Satisfaction levels were similar between the basic course and the areas of specialization. Among other things, students request that the library's collection be kept more up to date.

Faculty: Many members request that IME allocate more resources for faculty development. Concerning evaluations, it was suggested that certain subjects, such as Research Projects and Term Papers, be evaluated on a Pass/Fail basis instead of with standard grades. There is a consensus in the academic community concerning the need to reduce the number of expositional classes and increase student participation in the learning process. The main role in this process must be transferred from teacher to student. Everyone agrees with this theory, yet few know how to put it into practice.

Firms: There is a need to emphasize the scientific and technological education of future engineers. Suggestions for improving the teaching process in engineering institutes include using professors with professional experience in firms to teach classes that involve practical applications; that internships in engineering firms be mandatory; that research projects having immediate practical applications in engineering firms be prioritized.

THE COMPLEMENTARY RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN INSIDE AND OUTSIDE VIEWS

The analysis of the content of both diagnoses verified that at no point are they mutually exclusive. They complement each other because the diagnosis performed by IME (Inside View) dealt with some pedagogical aspects, but was primarily concerned with personnel and physical assets (facilities, equipment). The diagnosis performed by the outside team focused on the pedagogical aspects of IME's teaching.This diagnosis also dealt with aspects related to the availability of faculty and technical personnel involved in teaching, which are also important from the pedagogical viewpoint. IME's diagnosis is important because physical installations have a direct influence on learning and on the efficiency and effectiveness of educational efforts. Obviously, the more pleasant the teaching-learning environment, the greater the chances for good results. Thus it is important to know how factors such as ilumination and classroom design are being handled at IME.

The diagnosis also considered aspects such as the availability of faculty and staff involved in teaching, which are quite important from a pedagogical viewpoint.

The diagnosis performed by the outside team placed greater emphasis on investigating the elements that compose the curriculum (mentioned earlier). It is believed that this diagnosis will complement that performed by IME because the level of user satisfaction is used as an indicator of IME's effectiveness. As student satisfaction increases, the processes related to teaching-learning will improve, bringing about better results. "A school that really wants to have continuous improvement should establish a system for client suggestions (internal and external). By giving it the deserved attention, the school guarantees itself the knowledge of what the client wants." (Guillon⁷)

The school that seeks to improve the quality of its education will break free of the traditional rigidity, stability and pedagogical redundancy in an effort to be more receptive, creative and innovative. Thus, the two diagnostic processes performed at IME were not conflicting, but complementary. The fact that they were conceived at different times by different people using different methodologies resulted in a more complete understanding of the Institute due to the fusion of the two viewpoints. Today the school has a broad variety of information about itself - possibly a deeper understanding of itself - which will result in making decisions that better attend the needs and expectations of its students, faculty and engineering firms with which it relates. This process will have a direct influence on improving the quality of teaching at IME.

This engineering school is, as Santos² describes, seeking to diferentiate the service it offers, to improve its quality by listening to students, faculty and engineering firms and working to meet their needs through innovative education.

In this study we employed a methodolgy of measuring satisfaction based on the dimensions of quality of the engineering curriculum in a military educational institution. The data will be analyzed and used in restructuring the engineering curriculum in order to improve its quality.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

¹ HAYES, Bob E. Measuring customer satisfaction: development and use of questionnaires. Milwaukee: ASQC, 1992.

² SCHERKENBACH, William W. O caminho de Deming para a melhoria continua. Rio de Janeiro. Editora Qualitymark, 1993, p. 7.

³ SANTOS, Joel J. Encantar o cliente da lucro: revolucione a sua empresa e ame os seus clientes - fatores primordiais de diferenciacao dos concorrentes. Rio de Janeiro: Campos, 1995.

⁴ KELLY, Albert V. O Curriculo: Teoria e Pratica. Sao Paulo: Harper & Row do Brasil, 1981.

⁵ LUCKESI, Cipriano C. Pratica Docente e Avaliacao. Rio de Janeiro: ABT, 1990.

⁶ KARLING, Argemiro A. A didatica necessaria. Sao Paulo: IBRASA, 1991.

⁷ GUILLON, Antonio Dias Bueno. MIRSHAWSKA, Victor. Reeducacao: qualidade, produtividade e criatividade: caminho para a escola excelente do seculo XXI. Sao Paulo, Makron Books, 1994, p. 208.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We thank General Carvalho, Coronel Andrade and Professor Fernandes for the support and valuable suggestions. This study was supported by FINEP, CAPES, CNPq and SESU/MEC.

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