Social representations on writing the final research paper of the mining engineering career in students and teachers of a semipresential programme

Abstract

Every research process essentially involves activities such as reading and writing, actions that are not always carried out successfully by students, nor adequately guided by teachers. Knowing what teachers and students think and feel about academic writing is of interest to educational institutions that constantly seek to improve their teaching, counselling and follow-up processes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the social representations of teachers who guide the completion of the Final Research Paper (FRP) and students who have prepared such writings in the mining engineering career of a semipresential university programme. To this end, the focus group technique was applied to five university teachers who provide face-to-face advice on the final grade work of the mining engineering career and five individual and group interviews to students who completed the writing of these papers. A qualitative methodology and the technique applied for the interpretation of the data are used for content analysis. The information was obtained from the application of an individual interview guide and a focus group guide. The results reveal differences in the way the writing of the FRP is conceived, and there are coincidences in the need for classroom-based courses that lead to the development of such complex works as this one and to highlight the experience of the advisors in the subject matter rather than in the methodological domain.