Paulo Vera-Cruz , otorhinolaryngologist at Hospital da Luz Lisboa and professor at Nova Medical School, took aggregation exams in Medical Sciences at Abel Salazar Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICBAS), Universidade do Porto. The exams received the unanimous approval of the jury and included the discussion of a pedagogical report on his experience as a professor in the application of the method of Problem Based Learning, besides a curricular discussion and a lecture on the subject of “Respiratory epithelium: from cells to clinic”. The aggregation exams were held on 20 and 21 st February this year. The jury was presided by Henrique Cyrne Carvalho (director of ICBAS) and the arguing of the lecture was assigned to António Carlos Miguéis (Faculty of Medicine, Universidade de Coimbra). The arguing of the Pedagogical Report was assigned to Maria Emília Monteiro (Nova Medical School) and the Curricular Assessment was assigned to Carlos Zagalo (Instituto Universitário Egas Moniz), La Fuente de Carvalho (ICBAS) and Artur Águas (ICBAS). Paulo Vera-Cruz obtained his doctoral degree in Medical Sciences in 2009, with a research paper on “Alterations in the nasal mucosa caused by atmospheric pressure, oxygen and other factors”. “These aggregation exams are the result of the reflexion conducted on the teaching journey in Medicine, research and above all in the clinical practice in Otorhinolaryngology”, explains the specialist, who teaches Pathophysiology and Therapeutic Targets in the Integrated Master’s Degree in Medicine, at Nova Medical School. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is a method of learning focused on the student, with the following main characteristics: Small groups of students conduct their own process of learning and the teacher acts as a guide or facilitator of the process. Real problems are the tone for the development of competencies that allow their solving, the new information being acquired by self-study. In this context, traditional classes are rather limited or inexistent and quantitative evaluation is conceptually inexistent. The goal is the training of communication capacities and team work. Learning is conducted by the very students, with the posing of questions, resolution of tasks and interaction. It is a learning method that requires participative, active and responsible students, that define their own pace of learning. “The imperfections of this method imposed an evolution to a ‘hybrid PBL’, where, yet maintaining the autonomy of the students, a better structuration was implemented, a greater influence of the teachers and the use of theoretical classes and laboratorial practical classes”, further clarifies Paulo Vera-Cruz. The lecture given by Paulo Vera Cruz during the aggregation exams – entitled “Respiratory epithelium: from cells to clinic” – approached the research he has been conducting on the diseases and functioning of the respiratory epithelium , from the nasal and paranasal cavities to the trachea, passing through the respiratory type epithelium of middle ear. These research studies, some of which developed in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology from Hospital da Luz Lisboa, were possible through the establishment of “dynamical personal and institutional partnerships with research laboratories, faculties and military and civilian clinical institutions”. In the photo above, the new associate professor and the jury: from left to right, La Fuente de Carvalho, Artur Águas, Henrique Cyrne Carvalho, Paulo Vera-Cruz, Maria Emília Monteiro, António Carlos Miguéis and Carlos Zagalo.
