| INTERDISCIPLINARY
APPROACH TO SURVEYORS' EDUCATION
|
ELBA CRISTINA CORREA
(*) Geographer - ingenie@citynet.net.ar
BEATRIZ SUSANA JIMENEZ (*) Geographer - bjimenez@fceia.unr.edu.ar
(*) Faculty members,
School of Surveyors - College of Exact Sciences, Engineering
and Surveying, National University of Rosario (Universidad
Nacional de Rosario), Argentina.
ABSTRACT:
The aim of this paper
is to highlight the importance of an interdisciplinary approach
to surveyors education for graduates to meet new challenges.
This interdisciplinary approach could be implemented through
an organic and consistent integration of the subjects in the
syllabus. Subjects could structured around specific areas
or according to others included in the syllabus (intra-area
or interarea). Consistency and organisation are intended not
only for developing the contents of each subject but also
in their linkage to other subjects that still remain independent
in their approach.
EXTENDED ABSTRACT:
One of the stated aims
of surveyors' education is that they should be able to participate
in interdisciplinary work. This aim is achievable if the approach
is practised during the studies as a natural process.
Moreover, one of the “objectives” of the surveyors'
studies curriculum is to maily provide “the necessary
training, information, and resources to solve all potential
problems in the capturing, processing and analysis of information
related to its objectives”.
Consequently, we have to set guidelines so that students are
prepared for this integration.
It is necessary to introduce certain principles which will
enable students to visualise clear goals, to identify current
needs, and to meet those needs either in research, teaching,
as a professional working for a company or organisation, or
as a freelance or company manager.
Thus, students should learn how to integrate information from
different courses and areas and how to interact productively
in mixed groups to achieve clear goals and face different
levels of complexity, tackling different levels of decision-making
for new situations. This will contribute to the insertion
of the graduates in the market.
In this interaction we highlight:
| * |
Common setting of aims and planning
for the assignments of the integrated subjects. |
| * |
More efficiency in the use and
allocation of existent resources,
and faculty's time and efforts optimisation.
|
| * |
Information about levels of success
achieved in the pursuing of the teaching aims in each
subject and, when finished, also in their integration. |
| * |
Designing key or important pedagogic
situations to be developed during this shared activity. |
| * |
Competent handling of information
by the students, so that what they learn maximises efficacy
and efficiency when tackling different situations. |
| * |
Proper scheduling estimation for
the learning activities based on the demands of other
courses to set a reasonable time frame for the students
to fulfil them bearing in mind the current time frame
for each subject, which should not be changed. |
| * |
Setting of thematical relations
with shared knowledge and practice and consideration
of different analysis approaches. |
| * |
Approach to reality from different
perspectives or standpoints. |
| * |
Clearer understanding of the actual
tasks that the students will perform after graduation. |
It will be necessary
for the teachers involved to:
| * |
Organise actions according to the
previously set guidelines. |
| * |
Foresee their potential adjustments
under different circumstances, so that demands are met. |
| * |
Change fixed mental frames, i.e.
teachers who are committed to a quality training for
their students in their own subjects, but are not open-minded
enough to integrate them or themselves with other disciplines,
either within or outside their area (or Department,
according to the organisation of the School of Surveyors
in each institution). |
| *
|
Carry out a continuous teacher-students
assessment and self-assessment process to check for
proper understanding and performance levels. |
CONCLUSION:
This paper analyses the
idea of integration and interaction between the different
subjects of the Survey Engineering curriculum, encompassing
a common ground of practices, knowledge and approaches to
knowledge generation from different perspectives.
This paper, which the authors will present in the symposium,
analysed interaction possibilities between the subjects in
the same or in different areas.
One of the examples developed was the interaction between
Topography, from the Topography and Geodesics area and Measurements,
from the Legal Surveying, Cadastre and Land Management Area.
It is worth mentioning that the current curriculum in our
College of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying, National
University of Rosario (Universidad Nacional de Rosario), is
organised in groups of subjects which comprise various areas
according to disciplinary affinity.
As mentioned before, education quality is closely related
to the application of the most efficient and effective means
to guide students in their learning process throughout the
subjects in the curriculum.
Among others, quality is expressed through types of activities
and interaction systems either within or outside their group
of related subjects, where teachers agree on learning situations
with enough potential to ensure the fulfilment of the intended
objectives in a coherent, organic and gradually more complex
way.
As a result, we believe this will help the students to integrally
enter the current professional market, which is constantly
changing, using new strategies, and tending to the development
of a definite and dominant profession. This way, they will
be able to cope with the current challenges and to foresee
the challenges ahead in the next few decades.
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