Innovative pedagogical practices in university education: an analysis of students motivation and perception

Innovation in Higher Education requires prioritizing a meaningful educational action based on movement, contradiction, systematic and intentional analysis of contextualized problems that allow the construction of syntheses in a mediated action between students and teachers. This paper proposes to analyze pedagogical practices in the context of University Education of a Brazilian public university, in two disciplinary areas: Engineering and Education under the bias of the motivation derived of the methodological proposals used in the undergraduate classes as well as the students' perception about their contribution in their own professional life. The qualitative methodology is the case study that was developed in the first semester of 2018 and in which two undergraduate classes participated in the human and exact areas. Data collection was triangulated through participant observation, the use of the IMI (Intrinsic Motivation Inventory) questionnaire and individual online interviews. The results show that the problem-solving methodology, the use of challenging pedagogical resources and the collaborative work increase students motivation and provide conditions for the construction of an enhanced teaching and learning process.