Abstract
This article presents an analysis of the selection process of students from both private and public high schools in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (Northeast of Brazil), in order to form the first group of the Information Technology technical course of the Metropole Digital project at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). The selection instrument consists of a written exam built on the basis of a set of matrices that depict relevant competences and abilities expected from the students. Data concerning the profile of distribution of performance per exam question are presented, together with empirical evidences of the effectiveness of the proposed competence matrices in the selection process. The correlation very fied among the matrices compounding the instrument and scores in courses, and the instrument as a wholeand scores in courses is moderate to strong (rS = 0.6 and rS = 0.7; p < 0,05). The association between the criterion variables (Average of Performance in the Basic Moduleof courses) and the explicative variables (Total score in the selection instrument (QTot) and each of the five compounding matrices) is moderate (rS=0.51, p = 0.001), and the matrices and QTot are jointly responsible for 25% of the variance of the performance in the basic module. The regression coefficient for matrix 1 is 1.38 (CI of 95% = 1.07-1.68); for matrix 2 it was 0.65 (CI of 95% = 036-0.95); for matrix 3, 1.2 (CI of 95% = 0.92 - 1,55); matrix 4 0,76 (CI of 95% = 0.45-1.06); matrix 5 1.08 (CI of 95% = 0.78-1.39). The effects of student-descriptive independent variables on performance in the exam are also presented and discussed, and predictive relationships between performance in the exam and performance in the disciplines of the course are verified. Data collected allow concluding that the instrument of selection proposed fits well the aim of forming a group of students to undertake a technical course in the area of information technology.
Highlights
In educational contexts, the popularization of interactive, multimedia technology has profoundly changed the standard ways of performing some traditional activities like writing, communication and planning
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) analyses were performed in order to verify effects from a set of independent variables over performances in disciplines offered by the complete MDI first year program
1200 students (69.4% male and 30.6% female) were selected from the total of 5758 candidates inscribed in IMD Technical Formation selection procedure and submitted to the selection instrument
Summary
The popularization of interactive, multimedia technology has profoundly changed the standard ways of performing some traditional activities like writing, communication and planning It is a new, qualitatively different extension of memory, which introduces other ways of thinking than linear reasoning, based on simulation, experimentation, and a new language involving writing, orality, images and instantaneous communication (Borba & Villareal, 2005). An analysis was performed to identify, from the competences and abilities matrices that composed the selection instrument, which ones were the most effective in terms of the global strength of discrimination of the instrument, i.e. for establishing a predictive link between performance in the instrument and performance in the disciplines of the course This was performed through regression analysis, where the criterion variable was the final average of performance in the basic module and in the course as a whole with the emphases on Web and Electronics, and the explicative variables were the global performance in the selection instrument (QTot) and the performances in each of the five matrices that composed the instrument (see Table 6). All of them are positive and significantly related to the performance in the basic module
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