Engineering retention: a challenge for the learning and service methodology

Abstract

This research seeks to interpret the perception of students and teachers of three engineering careers from a private university, in Santiago de Chile, regarding how the application of an active methodology such as Learning and Service may help to prevent first year engineering students from early dropout. The data used in this study was collected through a discourse analysis technique applied to all responses in each interview. The main findings suggest that the Learning and Service methodology works in favor of students education thanks to its more attractive methodology which encourages an integral development during their professional training periods, yet this effective methodology do require open-minded and highly trained teachers for its correct application.