Teaching is one of ULisboa's essential pillars. We feel an enormous responsibility to provide the young students who choose our university to complete their studies with an education that enables them to make a committed contribution to the advancement and well-being of society, and that allows them to face the great challenges that humanity will encounter in the coming period as aware, responsible, technically well-prepared, and ethically exemplar citizens.
ULisboa has promoted a series of initiatives that constitute an integrated plan for the Pedagogical Development of Professors. These efforts are motivated by the knowledge that the teaching quality is integral to our students’ education and that improving teaching and learning approaches is essential if we are to reduce dropout and academic failure rates.
Plan Objectives:
- promoting pedagogical training for Professors, at the start of and throughout their careers;
- promoting pedagogical innovation;
- contributing to the creation of working groups, while promoting the pedagogical training of professors and methodology and idea sharing;
- collaborating in pedagogical innovation projects at national and international level.
The plan for the Pedagogical Development of Professors encompasses various components and activities, some of which have been consolidated for some time, while others correspond to new developments that are intended to be introduced in the short term.
There is a set of global activities organized and streamlined directly by the Rectory. This includes the "Jornadas Pedagógicas" [Pedagogical Journeys], the Pedagogical Innovation Award and the Pedagogical Innovation Projects.
Pedagogical training activities are an essential component of this plan. These include Pedagogical Training for Early-career Professors and Regular Training Cycles, which generally occur at the end of each academic semester. These training sessions should adjust to the needs felt and described by Professors. The list of courses offered is reviewed and adjusted annually.
Professors who have attended educational training may resort to specialized support, provided through ‘Pedagogical Counselling’, to improve their educational performance or to implement alternative and innovative pedagogical practices.
To foster the healthy sharing of educational practices and promote the characteristic spirit of ULisboa, the University will continue to bet on the peer-to-peer class monitoring program through the “Observar e Aprender” [Observing and Learning] project.
Other Programmes
The Postgraduate Programme in Higher Education Pedagogy forms an integral part of the University of Lisbon’s strategies, through its Institute of Education, aimed at expanding and developing teaching and the quality of learning, as well as supporting the professional development of lecturers.
The programme is designed for both new lecturers in higher education and those with years of teaching experience. Against a backdrop of major transformations in higher education, this Postgraduate Programme has, since 2019, offered a unique and distinctive programme, fostering the questioning and improvement of teaching practices through current and original research. It offers a one-year training programme and owes its success to a collaborative environment where teachers from all academic disciplines share their expertise.