Evaluation of Inextricableness among Teaching, Research and Extension on Child Development in High Education Institutions at Municipalities in São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis scheme to evaluate incorporation of contents related to child development (CD) in light of inextricableness among teaching, research and extension in Higher Education Institutions (HEI). We have analyzed a program created by a Third Sector Foundation which articulated community members, HEI representatives and workers from Health, Education and Social Welfare at five municipalities in country area of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Strong evidences from Neuroscience, Epigenetics, and Sociology indicate the need to widen social investments on early childhood. We aim to know how HEI present innovative contents on CD into teaching, research and extension. We have conducted an action-research with 15 coordinators of 8 undergraduate courses who filled a questionnaire and provided summaries and syllabi from 47 disciplines and research/extension activities. Most of evaluated courses handle CD teaching without updated evidences, neither makes research nor extension. Essential topics related to foster an integral and integrated early childhood care were slightly approached on them. The proposed analysis scheme has contributed to substantiate how teaching-research-extension inextricableness related to CD occurs and has improved body of knowledge on this field.