| Sumari: | Inserted in the “Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching” research, this study aims to
encourage discussion of prospects of professional-citizens’ graduation processes through
Complementary Activities. College education employs comprehensive programs focused on
the students’ qualification through standardized curricular activities and faculty-supervised
independent and autonomous activities, namely Complementary Activities. Complementary
Activities embody a dynamic mechanism that enables curricular flexibility, empowering
students to develop beyond theoretical subjects specified on their syllabus but still under
faculty’s supervision. However, relaxing curricular framework demands laboring and
challenging organizational adjustments to the university body. Consequently, the main
objective of this study consists in stimulating dialogue regarding the importance of
Complementary Activities on the development of undergraduate students, approaching its
legal and formative dimensions. The legal dimension addresses disciplinary and regulatory
variables, whilst the formative component contemplates social normative demands. Applying
qualitative and quantitative methodology, this author investigated two institutional casestudies including Inep’s databases analysis (Enade/2012), on-site observation, interviews with
teachers-supervisors, and questionnaires submitted to a sample of 397 students (law school
students from one of the institutions). Collected data and categorized results were
counterpoised to current publications concerning the effects of Complementary Activities on
undergraduate students’ advancement. This study revealed that Complementary Activities not
only enable personal growth, but also promote professional training of undergraduate
students. However, the study also showed that few teachers and students acknowledge such
potentialities. In accordance to the literature assessment, institutional documents, educational
policies, and the perceptions of faculty and students, this study validates the intentions of
official agencies to qualify the graduation process through curricular innovation. Nonetheless,
as its implementation requires unabridged institutional commitment, greater attention is
assigned to legal issues, which comprise administrative, bureaucratic, and regulatory issues.
Therefore, many potential benefits of this proposal such as fostering professional skills and
competencies, turn out thwarted or hindered when the formative dimension is not prioritized.
More than certainties, this study expects to create discussion in order to “awaken” educational
institutions about this inconsistency. Overall, in order to pursuit excellence, the institution that
teaches should also learn.
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