In the current moments of development, the Cuban university reaches a great dimension in the process leading to territorial development. Undoubtedly, the process of universalization has contributed to this endeavor. The orientation towards this necessary and current issue has been one of the directions of the municipal university headquarters of the municipality of Sancti Spíritus, this has been one of its strategic lines, allowing it, since its constitution, to become a key element in the strategy of economic and social development, assuming a function of gathering and distributing knowledge.
This has allowed the participation of the professors of the Municipal University Venue (CUM). This work proposes to reflect how to apply the contents learned in the classrooms in function of the community development and the country; developing in the student through work practice skills to solve problems in law, as an expression of the application of this organizational and strategic element within the components of the university of these times.
Introduction
In the development of contemporary society it is impossible to conceive it without the institution of the university. Since its appearance in the Middle Ages of the western world, the university has been increasing its significance in the progress of science, technology and culture of humanity. Today, upon arriving in the so-called age of knowledge, it takes on a decisive role in the destinies of peoples as never before as centers for training professionals and for its contribution of new knowledge.
In our country, at the triumph of the Revolution, there were only three universities, whose access possibilities were reserved for a small minority possessing sufficient economic resources to pay for their studies. In these 50 years, the Cuban university has managed to consolidate its active role in society, among other reasons, by offering opportunities to all citizens to pursue higher studies, increasing and diversifying the number of institutions, which are distributed throughout all provinces of the country, to raise the quality of the training of students and actively link them to the most pressing needs of the nation's economic, political and social development.
As our Commander-in-Chief has expressed, Cuba has become the “pedagogical capital of the world”, based on the profound development in the field of education that we have achieved in the last four decades and that is internationally recognized, even by many of our enemies. This development encompasses the entire educational system from preschool to the entire design of university studies.
The present material is directed to the Pedagogical Preparation of the students of the different university careers. It presents some ideas about what the university is, its essential functions and its mission in the current Cuban context. We consider, however, that what is essential lies in the reflection, debate and assessment that are derived from its study.
This work takes as a source of inspiration the texts that objectively and critically have developed in the University space Scientific, theoretical, psychological and practical conceptions, which develop the learning activity from theoretical and practical models to train a professional with a level of superior knowledge by linking the elements learned in large conference sections and their application through investigative workshops and practices developed in entities linked to the life of law and in actions that are used for the benefit of the university student.
Development
The training of higher-level professionals is the process that, consciously and on a scientific basis, is developed in higher education institutions to guarantee the comprehensive preparation of university students, which is specified in a solid scientific, technical, humanistic training and high ideological, political, ethical and aesthetic values, in order to achieve revolutionary professionals, educated, competent, independent and creative, so that they can perform successfully in the various sectors of the economy and society in general.
The training of professionals is developed in a curricular and extracurricular way. The Cuban higher education training model has a broad profile and is based on the guiding idea of the link between study and work, which consists of ensuring, from the curriculum, the mastery of the professional's modes of action, in direct link with your activity. The broad profile professional is one who has a deep basic training that allows him to solve, with independence and creativity, the most general and frequent problems that arise in his field of work.
The link between study and work expresses the need to train the student in direct contact with their profession, either through a stable employment relationship throughout the career, or from a training model developed from work.
The professional training process is carried out through the blended modality. The blended modality is characterized by a lower theoretical teaching load than in the face-to-face modality, thus reducing the presence of students with their teachers and tutors in the teaching activities provided for in education at work.
The class is one of the organizational forms of the educational teaching process, whose objectives are the acquisition of knowledge, the development of skills and the formation of cognitive and professional values and interests of students, through the performance of activities of an essentially academic nature. Classes are classified on the basis of the objectives to be achieved and their main types are: the lecture, the practical class, the seminar, the meeting class, the laboratory practice and the workshop.
The meeting class is the type of class whose objectives are to clarify the doubts corresponding to the contents and activities previously studied by the students, debate and exercise said contents and evaluate their fulfillment, as well as explain the essential aspects of the new content and guide clearly and precision the independent work that the student must carry out to achieve an adequate mastery of them.
The labor practice is the organizational form that aims to promote an adequate mastery of the modes of action that characterize the professional activity and, at the same time, the development of the values that ensure the formation of a comprehensive professional, suitable for future performance in society.
It also contributes to the development of work awareness, discipline and responsibility at work. In this organizational form, the Marxist and Marti principle of combining study with work, relating theory with practice, is materialized, fundamentally. It is integrated as a system with academic and research activities, according to the particularities of each career, to achieve such objectives. Higher education centers sign agreements with accredited labor entities and teaching units, where the commitments assumed by each of the parties are precisely established, in relation to the performance of labor practices and other related tasks that respond to the links of the university with society.The labor link that favors the adequate mastery of the modes of action is characterized by professional activity, it can be achieved directly from work, when the work of the student-worker is linked to the professional profile under study.
In the University Center where plan D is already implemented, where it has conceived the work practice of the students of the regular day course and the student acquires the necessary tools to face the final exam of the degree, not being the case in the students of universalization.
About what we understand by university
The university is a social institution that has the function of preserving, transmitting and developing the culture of a society. Understanding culture as a "set of ideas and achievements of humanity", that is, it contemplates both the material and the spiritual; as well as the procedures to create, apply and transmit them, obtained by man in the process of social historical practice.
For this process of preservation and development of culture, society needs to train citizens who, as workers, appropriate culture and apply it in the exercise of the profession and who, furthermore, enrich it through research and creation in general.
So the purpose of the university is to train professionals to solve problems with a creative approach.
A professional must meet the following characteristics:
• Be an expert in the specific area that was prepared.
• Possess well-founded knowledge.
• Solve problems from the link of knowledge, practice and research.
• Have a special inclination and motivation for your career.
• Possess and master through a long process of education, knowledge, skills and values that allow you to solve problems in a given area.
• be governed by an ethical code of professional performance.
Processes that take place in the university
To achieve their social order at the university, different processes are carried out, among which we can mention: teaching, research and extension, among others.
The teaching process is carried out through the development of the contents of the different disciplines and subjects that make up the study plan of each career, and that encourages students to appropriate the knowledge, skills and values of each profession to perform in the world of work.
Research is a central process of the university, it is not possible today to conceive a university without research; in it, the teaching process has to be carried out through research. Research at the university is aimed at expanding theoretical knowledge and providing solutions to practical problems in the spheres of production and services.
The university extension process aims to promote culture in the inter-university and extra-university community, to contribute to the cultural development of the population, which constitutes a social mission of the university. Through extension, the culture that preserves and develops the university is promoted. University extension is also characterized by being an integrating and energizing function that expresses the broader social bond of this institution.
The aforementioned processes are interrelated in the university context, with the purpose of guaranteeing the quality in the comprehensive training of students, future professionals who will have the responsibility of promoting the country's progress from different angles.
The university in the current context
The university as an educational institution is historically conditioned, that is, it responds to the demands and imperatives of a certain time. The university, based on the basic processes that are developed in it and that we describe in the previous section, must be aimed at social improvement, to seek viable solutions to pressing national, regional, and even global problems.
The university will be projecting itself towards the future and fulfilling its social mandate to the extent that it is not abstracted from the historical social contingencies in which it develops and faces critically and constructively, promoting scientific research, creating new knowledge, designing and put into practice the programs that result in the improvement of social conditions, and always consider that its function is to contribute to the happiness of man.
In 1998, the World Conference on Higher Education in the XXI century: Vision and Action was held in Paris, convened by UNESCO, in whose working document the characteristics of the contemporary world were expressed. Starting from this document and also relying on other sources, we will synthetically outline some of these characteristics, identified from the economic, cultural, scientific and educational aspects.
Economically, there is a process of globalization of the economy due to the formation of multinational companies that control the markets and that bring as consequences the loss of jobs and endanger the regional economies, generating bankruptcies, hindering the economic growth of the nations, accentuating the distribution more unequal income leading to greater polarization between rich and poor.
Culturally, we are witnessing a phenomenon of globalization and internationalization of culture, as a result of the development of the communication media, especially television, considered the most powerful instrument of influence. Through television and other media, a pseudo-cultural product (mass culture) is disseminated that tries to distance people from their true conditions of existence and deprive them of their identity, by calling this "global village" to a single thought.
The development of the mass media and the neoliberal globalization process where the blind forces of the market prevail has brought as a culmination the attempt to impose that mass culture characterized by its artificiality and decontextualization. If at one time the hegemonic nations of power colonized us with French, Spanish, English, North American culture; Today, on the contrary, we are faced with a much worse phenomenon, one wants to dominate with the market culture, devoid of the best achievements of humanity, without a tradition in which to sustain itself. In this way, the aim is to undermine the identity of peoples, destroy the true home of man - their culture - and thus make them vulnerable.
Scientifically, we are facing a geometric progression of scientific and technological knowledge with the new information and communication technologies and biotechnologies. They offer increasing technical possibilities to face the challenges of sustainable development, however, it has become clear how difficult it is for the countries that need it most to be in a position to use them in solving their problems.
The large research centers are in developed countries, while those in the developing world do not have sufficient resources to carry out fundamental and applied research according to their needs.
Educationally, it is appreciated that higher education is witnessing a progressive overcrowding, but that at the same time there is a relative reduction in the economic, material and human resources assigned to it.
The states, starting from the money they invest in higher education, intervene in it by imposing their rules inopportune; However, they do not fulfill the function that is truly incumbent upon them by defining a clear policy for the country's development and clarifying the role that higher education should play in development, among others.
On the other hand, while the problem of overcrowding should allow the most equitable access, in many cases we find mechanisms of exclusion.
While it is true that raising the level of education is necessary to raise the level of development, there is an increase in unemployment rates for university graduates.
Higher education also faces the paradox of the need to internationalize on the one hand and the need to contextualize, on the other, due to the cultural reasons that we pointed out previously.
The foundations of a universal vision of higher education for the XXI century.
Starting from the contextual reality of the present, UNESCO has proposed a series of principles on which higher education in the 21st century should be based, with a universality character. Some of those principles are:
1. Equity, education for all. It assumes universal access to higher education for all who have the appropriate skills, motivation and preparation at any stage of life.
2. Permanent education. It consists of the use of various forms or modalities of education for all throughout life.
3. Educate. Not only teaching, but also educating, contributing to the fulfillment of man in all his facets, developing them personally.
4. Ethical function, educate in values. It consists of having an ethical function in a period of crisis of values like the one that the contemporary world is going through.
5. The culture of peace. Esteem respect and take into consideration the other with their differences, their rights and duties. It implies participation, commitment, sense of responsibility, respect for commitments. Investigate the issue of peace, the factors that cause bloody conflicts, wars, violence, riots, among others.
6. Inter-institutional collaboration. It consists of developing solidarity networks with other institutions of higher education and with other institutions of society, based on solidarity, exchange, collaboration, and not on the dominance of one over another.
7. Quality and relevance. It expresses that higher education offers quality training, not only for its context, but that it is projected in a universal way and in correspondence with social needs.
8. The unity of men and women in the difference and solidarity complementarity.
The Cuban university
Cuban higher education complies with the principles of universality proposed by UNESCO and responds to the project of a revolutionary society that we are building.
The Cuban revolution has always had as a premise to offer possibilities to all citizens, without discrimination of any kind, to access higher education. These possibilities have been progressively widening as higher institutions have increased, diversified and spread to all provinces of the country.
The implementation of various study modalities, such as regular courses through meetings for workers, distance education and universalization of higher education facilitates that not only young people after finishing high school can enroll in the university, but all those workers or not, who want it at any stage of life.
In our universities, not only is the individual prepared in a theoretical and practical order to perform in a certain profession, but also a training is offered that comprehensively covers the development of the personality of the students.
When we speak of comprehensive training, we understand that whose dimensions are the spiritual (being), the cognitive (knowing), the socio-affective (feeling), the technical-professional (knowing how to do) and the communicative (knowing how to express oneself). The Cuban university has sought an integration between knowing, doing and being, thus attending to the multidimensional development of the personality. Together with the knowledge of a certain specialty and knowing how to operate with them in practice, he has paid attention to the humanistic-cultural training that allows students to cultivate their spirituality, their development as men and prepare morally for the exercise of the profession. Our university is distinguished by training professionals characterized by their humanism, revolutionary vocation, solid theoretical-practical and attitudinal knowledge,as well as the development of a scientific mindset.
The training of professionals is carried out with a broad and flexible curriculum: In other words, the aim is to train a professional with a broad profile, who can assume various fields of action once they graduate. The curriculum emphasizes the basic contents of the profession and allows the student to have the option of choosing subjects based on their needs, tastes, and interests.
A principle that has always been followed is to offer the real possibility of university education for all, but quality education. A quality that starts from the very conception of higher education, the design and development of career curricula, the preparation of the cloisters.
The higher education centers are distributed throughout the provinces of the national territory, including the special municipality of Isla de la Juventud. In them, around 94 careers are studied in correspondence with the demands of the economic, social and scientific development of the country.
The training process carried out in Higher Education Centers is carried out through a close link with the institutions of production and services and a special importance is given to the development of scientific research.
Currently in universities, professionals are trained, essentially, through the following modalities:
to. Regular Day Courses.
b. Long distance education
c. Universalization of higher education.
The regular day courses
Training through regular day courses is one in which students, once high school is over, receive systematic and face-to-face training in a certain specialty, for a period that ranges from approximately 4 to 6 years. In this modality, students spend most of their time teaching. The time devoted to the teaching activity and self-preparation is maximum and the student has the essential conditions to meet the objectives of their training. This modality is the one for which the greatest number of professionals graduate.
The educational teaching process that is developed to guarantee the excellence of the professional training of students is classified as academic, work and research.
In the teaching-educational process of an academic nature, abstract, modeled, simulated content prevails, and the teaching process is developed mainly in the form of classes and, generally, in a teaching institution.
In the teaching-educational process of a labor nature, the content is that of the activity of production and services, and the process is developed through the practical labor form and, generally, in the labor units or for the sake of the solution of the problems of these units.
In the teaching-educational process of an investigative nature, the fundamental content is the inherent content of the scientific-investigative activity that becomes the fundamental instrument for solving problems and is developed in the form of investigative work by students.
The ideological political work carried out with the students of regular day courses is extremely important. The work of educational and ideological political leadership takes place through different dimensions or spheres of influence, which are conditioned by the content of the relationships established between these two components. The dimensions have been called curricular, university extension and sociopolitical, which work together and penetrate the fabric of all university life, constituting the curricular dimension, the fundamental dimension of this process.
Distance education
Distance Education is a study modality in which the teaching-learning process can be developed without having to systematically attend a classroom and with a distant teacher. This enables access to education for broad masses of the population, of different ages and sex, as well as geographically dispersed and who for different reasons cannot attend face-to-face teaching. Communication between teachers and students is achieved through printed materials with the necessary information on the planning and organization of the course, guides and methodologically prepared texts for autonomous learning, mechanical and electrical means of communication, self-study and tutorial organization (Morales Guzmán, 2000).
Distance education requires high motivation on the part of the students, who must plan their independent study and develop study methods that guarantee adequate learning.
The separation in space and time that occurs between teachers and students in distance education does not exclude face-to-face activities, without this implying that the teacher becomes responsible for the performance of the students.
Distance education began to develop in Cuba in the 1979-1980 academic year, at which time this educational modality reached a great international boom. Through it, a response was given to the aspiration of the revolution to expand the necessary possibilities for the people to reach the highest educational levels.
This teaching is based on independent work as a method and self-preparation as a form, since it has as its fundamental support the written didactic materials, to which over time other auxiliary means such as video, the radio, audio cassette, etc., without considering direct contact with the teacher so far.
With the distance education modality, the capacities in higher education centers would be increased to accommodate future graduations of professionals in the face of the limitation of capacities that higher education centers had, an alternative was sought to expand the capacities of regular courses for workers in such a way that they would allow entry to higher education for all those who had the required academic level or who could obtain it prospectively. At the same time, it was sought not to limit the interest of workers and other sectors of the population to start or continue higher level studies, an issue that was a claim of the workers in their XIV Labor Congress.
The application of the created model guaranteed the following:
• Access to higher education for everyone who wishes without other limitations than having passed the previous academic level.
• Optimization in the use of existing facilities, and the maximum use of available teachers.
• Offer various career options that residents of the entire country could enroll, without interfering with their work activities and in which the intensity of the study corresponded to their intellectual possibilities and their availability of time.
• Maintain rigor and demand in evaluations to guarantee the academic quality of the graduate.
The creation and development of Distance Education has been based on the use of written material as the fundamental means of learning, with its own characteristics in our country, since it starts from the bibliography prepared for Regular Courses, accompanied by the analytical program of each subject, thereby achieving rationality in editing and publication. However, other written didactic materials were used that, based on the use of these texts, will provide a series of guidelines that allow students to organize the study of the subject, interrelate it with others, evaluate themselves, etc.
Even when it is not regulated, distance education in Cuba provides for a minimum teacher-student relationship, even if it is indirectly, as occurs in the case of the previously mentioned didactic materials.
But to the extent that there are greater possibilities, the figure of the tutor will increase. This will help the student in their learning process through orientation of study methods, the order and selection of the subjects to be examined, the bibliography to be used, provide an overview of the subject in the context of the study plan of the career.
The distance education modality in Cuba is currently applied in the following careers: Law, History, Technical Scientific Information and Library Science, Accounting and Finance, Economics and Sociocultural Studies, among others. They use the same curriculum and texts of the regular day courses.
Through this modality and in all the careers that are studied, more than two thousand students from all over the country have completed their studies, which indicates that there has been an acceptable correspondence between the different elements that intervene in the teaching-learning process.
The universalization of higher education
The universalization of the university was an aspiration raised by our Commander-in-Chief from the very beginning of the revolutionary triumph and which has now become a reality. This means giving a real opportunity to all the people to study, reach a university education, to the extent that society has the resources.
The purpose of universalization is related to the massive elevation of the cultural level of the population, with the promotion of its spiritual wealth, with the achievement of a fuller life fostered by knowledge, because, as Fidel pointed out, “reach the highest levels of knowledge is, without a doubt, the highest satisfaction that any citizen can find ”. Thus, the universalization process is linked to the different programs within the battle of ideas that our country is currently waging. Its ultimate aim is not to train professionals to insert them into production and services, but rather to cultivate, the multidimensional enrichment of the personality of our people. Hence, a tractor driver, without ceasing to be a tractor driver, can acquire a higher level of education;The question is not to limit anyone, in that everyone can have a university degree, for their personal good and also for the good of society. To the extent that ignorance is banished and high cultural levels are reached, man will be freer, socially more dignifying goals can be achieved.
With the universalization of higher education, a new pedagogical model is arrived at that facilitates professional training from a different conception of university. The traditional university institution, as a high educational center to which one goes to receive professional training, gives way to higher education that takes advantage of the existing potential in municipalities to contribute to the university education of its citizens. At present this endeavor is possible because Cuba has highly qualified professionals in each territory trained by the Revolution, who are working in industries, laboratories, research centers, schools, agricultural plans, etc. and all of this can be used to train new higher-level professionals.To the extent that progress is made in the development of the curricula of this training modality, more professionals will be needed to be linked to pedagogical work in the municipalities.
The sources of entry to the CUM are graduates of social workers, emerging teachers, Tarea Álvaro Reynoso, Comprehensive Course for Young People, Art Instructors and cadres of political and mass organizations, among others. Students periodically attend classes / meetings at the CUM in which they obtain information, exchange, clarify doubts, and receive methodological, instructional and educational orientations. The figure of the tutor is of CUM importance in the universalization of higher education, as it is the figure that with due preparation and experience is in charge of directing the training of each professional in a more systematic and direct way. Training in the universalization process requires that students develop great autonomy in their learning.
Conclusions
Universalization has not conceived work practices for the acquisition of skills and knowledge, which prepare the student for the final evaluation of the career (state test).
Universalization has not been conceived in plan D, since this can contribute to the development of new knowledge, since it can influence the training of professionals capable of solving the problems that arise in the historical social practice of man.
The Cuban university is consistent with the principles of universalization of higher education raised by UNESCO and, at the same time, responds to the historical social conditions and the social project of our country.
The Cuban university has been strengthening its prestige in the comprehensive training of professionals, which is internationally recognized. These professionals have a preparation that allows them to creatively face the problems of production and services.
The Cuban university is constantly improving, in search of alternatives that increasingly guarantee everyone's access to higher education, the improvement of its management and the quality training of its graduates.
The University is a setting where large volumes of knowledge are acquired that will then be taken to the community to contribute to its development. The work practice will be projecting itself towards the future and fulfilling its social mandate to the extent that it is not abstracted from the historical social contingencies in which it unfolds and faces them in a critical and constructive way, creates new knowledge, designs and puts into practice programs that result in the improvement of social conditions, and always consider that their function is to contribute to the happiness of man.
Conclusions
• Integrate in P1 Labor Practices in which students can put into practice the content given in classes.
• Carry out integrative exercises where they put into practice what they have learned in work practices.
• Appoint a group tutor in each work practice center.
• Encourage students in scientific research in order to deepen the content studied in class.
• Increase the orientation of previous Seminars to the next topic.
• Assign a day in the week for the student to interact with a case.
• Implement work practice so that the student can interact with the cases, to promote the acquisition of skills by the students.
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• Morales Guzmán, Migdio (2000): 20 years of distance education in central Cuba. Central University "Marta Abreu" of Las Villas.
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