P.PIC'23

Title
Creative teaching and learning

Synopsis
Creative thinking plays a vital role in an ever-changing world, empowering the students of today to embrace the new challenges of the future, fueling their ability to envision novel solutions. However, our education system is geared towards conformity, discouraging creativity and independent thinking. In this talk I will advocate the importance of teaching and learning with and for creativity, reinforcing the value of a passionate teacher on instilling the desire to learn and to create. I will share some thoughts on my own journey to inspire imagination and to inspire excellence, both as a professor and mentor not only on classes but also on extra-curricular activities such as competitions. I will also talk about some of the used strategies, such as offering challenges, promoting problem solving and friendly competitions or using memes and songs.

Bio
Pedro Ribeiro is an Assistant Professor at Computer Science Department of the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto and Senior Researcher at the Center for Research in Advanced Computing Systems (INESC-TEC). He holds a PhD from the University of Porto in the field of Network Science, with a thesis centered around efficient and scalable detection of network motifs. His main research topics are in the fields of advanced algorithms and data structures, graph mining and network analysis.
He is also passionate about computer science education and has been involved in programming contests (PC) since a very young age, representing its school and country in several national and international PC, being now on an active coach, mentor and organizer role, having authored more than 100 problems used in official national and international PC. He is the main organizer of the national olympiads in informatics and of the portuguese Bebras computational thinking challenge.

Title
Education vs. Deceit: Where are we going?

Synopsis
University and high school professors often find themselves with cohorts of students disinterested in their studies. A current of disdain for knowledge floods the classrooms. Education systems push students forward by lowering the level of knowledge and making them believe that they have reached the appropriate level to practice their profession. However, more and more professionals are complaining about the low level of knowledge and commitment shown by new graduates. Are we cheating students? Is the university and secondary education system adequate to prepare future generations for the challenges they will have to face? There is an open debate and this is the time to make decisions.

Bio
Daniel Arias Aranda (Madrid, 1972) es un economista español. Licenciado en Administración y Dirección de Empresas y en Economía por la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, es doctor en Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Ha sido Profesor asociado en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid desde 1997 a 1999. Desde 1999 ha sido Profesor Asociado, Profesor Titular (2003) y obtuvo plaza de Catedrático de Organización de Empresas de la Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales de Granada en 2011. Obtuvo en 2011 el Premio a la Excelencia Docente de la Universidad de Granada y en 2005 y 2006 dos menciones de honor consecutivas en proyectos de innovación docente relacionados con la Simulación Empresarial. Ha dirigido más de una docena de tesis doctorales. Desde 2017 es colaborador del Podcast "Días Extraños" de Santiago Camacho con la Sección "Economía Extraña".

Title
Changing pedagogy in higher education: does it really matter?

Synopsis
Pedagogical change has been considered an indicator of quality in higher education institutions. However, innovation raises unresolved issues in many academic settings, namely its low value for reconfiguring professional identities, for enhancing teachers’ careers, and for reinforcing the status of teaching (vs. research). Therefore, we might ask: does it really matter? I will argue that a positive answer to this question depends mostly on understanding pedagogical change as a transformative, inquiry-based act, on teachers’ willingness to challenge disciplinary conventions, and on institutional openness to reshape dominant academic rules regarding what counts as knowledge.

Bio
Flávia Vieira is a full professor at the University of Minho (Portugal). Her research focuses on teacher education, pedagogical supervision, language education, pedagogy for autonomy, and pedagogy at university (SoTL). She coordinates the research strand “Learning, Innovation and Sustainable Development” at the Research Centre in Education (CIEd). She belongs to the Centre IDEA-UMinho (Centre for the Innovation and Development of Teaching and Learning at the University of Minho) and to the National Council of Education.