The idea of the innovating scientist/engineer has been gaining strength in the last few years. In a context where the line that separated industries and universities is becoming increasingly elusive, voices from both sides profess the advantages related to possible and desirable changes in the education of these professionals. The common discourse emphasizes the need to produce scientists and engineers capable of combining profound technical knowledge and managerial skills, which would demand a series of curricular changes. Obviously, the diagnosis that the current education model for these professionals has become inadequate to respond to Brazilian reality is implicit in this discourse. In this paper, we express our agreement concerning this diagnosis: the profile of scientists and engineers currently graduating in Brazil is not coherent with Brazilian social reality. However, we completely disagree on the alternative model of education which is frequently proposed, since in our evaluation this model would also prove to be dysfunctional. We conclude this paper by presenting another alternative model, which we consider more adequate to Brazil.
Science and technology; Scientists and engineers; Educational model; Education in science; Technology and society
