GESTO: uma abordagem de formação complementar e colaborativa de alunos veteranos e ingressantes para redução da evasão dos estudantes ingressantes no Curso de Computação da UFCG.

Abstract

Dropout in Higher Education Institutions in Brazil is a problem that generates financial and social impacts for the entire population. In the Computer Science course at the Federal University of Campina Grande (UFCG), the dropout rate concerns professors and managers, especially in relation to students entering the course. The UFCG's Tutorial Education Program (PET) in Computer Science has developed a complementary and collaborative approach to training senior and newcomer students, called Gesto, to reduce the dropout rates of newcomer students in this challenging phase at the beginning of the university experience. The approach is based on the practice of volunteer work and on the social construction of meanings of the study of computing through activities to develop technical skills (hard skills) and non-technical skills (soft skills) chosen by the students in a portfolio offered to them semiannually. This study presents an analysis of the impacts of this approach based on the study of three activities chosen by the newcomer students among those available in the portfolio offered during the 2022.1 semester. The results of the evaluations answered by the participants, newcomers, and seniors students indicate that this approach can, along with other actions, decrease the dropout rate in the Computer Science course at UFCG.