Sebrae’s Educational Benchmarks

BRAZILIAN MICRO AND SMALL BUSINESS SUPPORT SERVICE - SEBRAE

BRASÍLIA - DF2016

Sebrae’s Educational Benchmarks

© 2016. Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service - SebraeAll rights reserved.The non-authorized reproduction of this publication, in full or in part, is a copyright violation (Law no. 9.610/1998).

Information and contactBrazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service - Sebrae Business Qualification and Entrepreneurial Culture UnitSGAS 605 – Conjunto A – CEP: 70200-904 – Brasília/DFTelephone: (61) 3348-7343www.sebrae.com.br

President of the National Deliberative CouncilRobson Braga de Andrade

Director-President Guilherme Afif Domingos Technical DirectorHeloisa Regina Guimarães de Menezes

Director of Administration and Finance

Vinicius Lages Business Qualification and Enterprising Culture Unit

ManagerMirela Luiza Malvestiti

CoordinationThelmy Arruda de Rezende

Content UpdateThelmy Arruda de RezendeVânia Maria do Rego Silva Costa

Technical TeamAdrianne Marques Brito RochaEdleide Epaminondas de Freitas AlvesLuana Martins CarullaMarcela Souto de Oliveira Cabral TavaresMaria Consuelo MelloNilma Lima Limeira Pereira

Catalogue record

Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae).Sebrae’s Educational Benchmarks: version 2015 – Brasília: Sebrae, 2015. xx p. : il. 1. Education 2. Entrepreneurship I. Sebrae II. Title

CDU 37.01:344.722

“The knowledge which does not come from experience is not really knowledge”.

Lev Semenovitch Vygotsky (1896-1934)

Table of contentsPresentation ............................................................................................. 10

Part 1 Sebrae System .................................................................131.1 In the economic field - globalization .........................................141.2 In the technological field .............................................................. 161.3 In the environmental field ............................................................ 181.4 In the organizational field – intellectual capital building 191.5 Sebrae Mission .................................................................................21

1.5.1 Mission ................................................................................22

Part 2 Educational benchmarks .....................................242.1 Purpose .............................................................................................252.2 Values .................................................................................................272.3 Target audience ...............................................................................29

Part 3 Business qualification and entrepreneurial culture – for an educational praxis ................................................................................31

3.1 Education pillars .............................................................................333.2 Competencies ..................................................................................35

3.2.1 Cognitive nature competency ......................................363.2.2 Attitudinal nature competency ....................................363.2.3 Technical, operational and psychomotor nature competency ...................................................................................37

3.3 Theoretical options .....................................................................383.3.1 Sociocritical theory: Paulo Freire’s contributions .393.3.2 Humanist theory: Carl Roger’s contributions ..........443.3.3 Cognitivist theory: Piaget’s contributions ................463.3.4 Historical-cultural theory:

Vygotsky’s contributions ................................................483.3.5 Historical-critical pedagogy:

Saviani’s contributions ...................................................55

Part 4 Evaluation process ................................................. 621st Step – Initial social practice ........................................................ 642nd Step – Problem-posing ................................................................. 643rd Step - Instrumentalization ............................................................ 644th Step - Catharsis .................................................................................655th Step – Final social practice ...........................................................66

Final considerations ..........................................................................67

References ...........................................................................................70

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Presentation

Since it has been created, in 1972, the Brazilian Micro and Small Business Support Service (Sebrae) has been established as an institution of remarkable relevance in the Brazilian economic and social scenarios as a small business development mobilizing agent, optimizing, in the individuals, their entrepreneurial potentials and, consequently, improving their and their community’s quality of life.

Thus, particularly now, in the beginning of the XXIst century, the institution has invested in organizing the service to the small businesses on a segmented basis and improving the quality of the target public qualification and the dialogue with the business owners.

With an eye towards the future, envisioning a fairer society, which provides more personal and professional development opportunities from the dissemination of the entrepreneurial culture and improving the access to continued education, Sebrae proposes to direct its educational view based on principles which contemplate the multiple dimension of the human being and understand the regularity of the formation process built from individual and collective experiences.

Much more than developing technical aspects about a certain entrepreneurial sector, Sebrae is committed to insert the content of its solution in a wider context, allowing the business to be visualized as a whole, and not only a specific sector, favoring the identification of its professionals’ individual and collective actions and the dynamics of the work developed in its different environments.

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With this respect, Sebrae’s educational benchmarks are intended to guide the professional who work with education in the system (managers, consultants, technicians, service providers and partners) establishing basic directive for their operation in the development, update, passing on and application processes of the business qualification solutions and entrepreneurial culture, providing theoretical options which are more appropriate to the institution’s mission and values.

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Part 1 Sebrae System

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Information age, globalized culture and new technologies are common expressions of our time. A living and close reality involving each of the Earth inhabitants reflecting changes which are thoroughly transforming the economic, social, cultural relations and the meaning of time and space, worldwide integration, technical modernity and social reflexivity, i.e., to continuously think and reflect about the circumstances under which we live.

Sebrae follows such context not as an observer, but as an agent, and understands that the changes in the economic, technological, environmental and organizational field tend to reframe how things are done, on an increasingly committed way with the country and with the quality of the work it performs with the small businesses.

1.1 In the economic field - globalization

The changing process in the market environment, call by the current literature as globalization, is part of a transformation complex occurring in the material production bases, reflecting in all the society sectors, leading nations, organization and individuals to an inevitable political, economic and social interdependency.

This process does not bring benefits to everyone on a uniform way. In the extent that the knowledge, technology and culture globalization is strict to economically favored social groups, the differences concerning the people who live in depriving conditions and who, therefore, do not enjoy its benefits increase. The problem is both individual and collective, once the technological backwardness

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarksof some regions of the plant affects the poorer countries, which lose

with the depreciation of their workforce.

It is within this global context that the Brazilian corporate community is inserted to: in face of great challenges, with the requirements of a globally competitive market, but also with great opportunities. In an economy interconnected by data and information transmitted at real time by the world wide web – internet -, the geographical distance no longer exists, isolation becomes more and more distant and the economic blocks achieve other markets, starting to compete with the major world powers. The competitiveness degree enlarges the demand for knowledge requiring increased organizational competency and innovation capacity based on sustainability and creativity from the organizations and the people so as to deal with the market uncertainties.

This is a process which has required from the local businesses, particularly the small businesses, an efficient strategic position in order to compete in this “globalized” scenario, requiring innovative management in order to maintain their sustainability on a competitive way.

In this context, Sebrae has an essential performance in the search for small businesses sustainability and productivity, providing educational solutions which disseminate the business qualification and entrepreneurial education, by providing management tools which contribute for the Brazilian small businesses to be really efficient and effective, with financial results compatible not only with the conducted investments, but with the emerging demands.

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For that purpose, the institution works in order to qualify small businesses owners and disclose the entrepreneurial culture, providing its customers with knowledge and practices allowing the understanding of the social, political and economic contexts of Brazil and the region on which their businesses are established so that they can position their businesses in these scenarios and find management strategies which best meet their needs.

1.2 In the technological field

Technological revolution refers to the set of innovations related to the application of the technique and science in the production of goods and service, so as to increase, on a large scale, the transformation opportunities and possibilities.

Among the modern technologies and those called as cutting-edge technologies, computing and consequently the computer network provides the essential material basis for globalization, because the ease and quickness provided by internet foment the cultural and economic exchange between the regions, countries and continents.

Everything is considered in the virtual interactive communication structure between the people and nations, from local radio transmission and daily actions, such as the use of fixed (microcomputers, telephone sets, telefax) and mobile (cell phones, smartphones, tablets, laptop) devices, to great political decisions, by means of advanced multimedia stations and satellite transmissions.

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Sebrae’sEducational BenchmarksThe dissemination of the information and communication

technologies tend to favor new ways of thinking, acting and establishing relationships, modifying the understanding of the knowledge status, which also causes changes to the companies and institutions organization, creating new social needs. The unqualified labor and the traditional activities and employments are transformed and, in many cases, even eliminated, favoring opportunities for self-employed workers as the employment in large companies become scarce.

Therefore, it can be understood that a new economic basis has been founded with increased dynamics and power - the small businesses - requiring investments in the solid qualification of the individuals, so that they can find alternative ways to act in the work world, without depending only of conventional employments.

Sebrae, attentive to the employment promotion and protection policies in the various sectors of society, both public and private, positions itself as a small business promoting agent, fomenting the required qualification for the entrepreneurs to have the citizenship and social valuation acknowledged, as well as the sustainability and competitiveness of their enterprises reached.

Understanding all the technology possibilities, combining them to the knowledge and creativity in order to increase the information access opportunities to a greater number or people, will allow the democratization of knowledge, the social balance and, above all, the business opportunities for the entrepreneurs.

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Thus, Sebrae has invested, on a significant way, in the qualification of its customers, teaching them how to use the information and communication technologies in the management of small businesses, developing presential, semi-presential and distance solutions. It has also fomented the use of its tools in order to facilitate the access of hearing and visually impaired people, contributing for the inclusion of such public in the production market.

1.3 In the environmental field

From the 80s, studies about the more relevant vital indicators of the planet conditions have increased. The researches revealed an alarming progressive deterioration picture of the global environment, predicting a severe future worsening, due to the various ecosystems comprising the biosphere are rapidly reaching the limit of their capacity to absorb disturbances.

However, it is possible to note, in the business world, the return to the human being/nature unit, based on a futuristic vision in the attempt to renew habits and attitudes resulting in direct impacts to the use of resources, enabling its economy and a number of benefits to the small businesses and to the society. Many companies are being encouraged to adopt eco-efficiency concepts, a phenomenon which seeks for producing more and providing better quality products using less natural resources.

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Sebrae’sEducational BenchmarksEnvironmental protection presupposes sustainable production

and consumption and, for that purpose, it is essential that the business owners and entrepreneurs have access to tools, models, processes, practices and principles of sustainability.

In this scenario, in terms of sustainable development, Sebrae has a highlighted place and has made efforts to inform and guide the business owners and entrepreneurs to know and practice the sustainability principles, with focus on the advantages and benefits of implementing the sustainable management in the enterprises and the relationship between new processes, gains in productivity/competitiveness and consumption products and services committed with environmental, social and economic sustainability.

Based on such directions, a series of measures has been taken in the process of building solutions intended to guide entrepreneurs and small business owners to develop sustainable practices as an institutional policy, adding value to their products and services. Such practices, once understood and applied by the business owners, strengthen their social commitment, the image of the enterprise and, consequently, its brand.

1.4 In the organizational field – intellectual capital building

The local and worldwide organizations are experimenting a time characterized by informational economy, on which productivity and competitiveness basically depend on the capacity to generate, process and apply, on an efficient basis, the information, turning it to knowledge.

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Knowledge is no longer considered as being a resource like other traditional production factors, but the most significant one, making this historic moment in the beginning of the XXIst century a single one. The fixed richness – land, equipment, real state – is increasingly being replaced by the intellectual capital – information, new knowledge, competencies.

A company’s economic and production power is more contained in its team and in its intellectual and technical/operational capacities than in their fixed assets, such as properties, installations and equipment. In the information age, on which the human values are prioritized, as well as creativity and knowledge, the greater good of a company is represented by the people who work for it.

In this scenario, the creation and implementation of procedures which generate, store, manage and disseminate knowledge represent the newest challenge to be faced by the companies and, consequently, by Sebrae, for being a small business qualification and development promoting agent, in addition to playing the role of analyzing the information that circulates in the market and in the society and turn it into knowledge which may add value to the management of small size enterprises.

As a result of such reality, education starts to have a strategic and key position not only in the economic and social fields, but also in the process of preparing people to exercise, with responsibility, their citizenship and professional activities, respecting the

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarksinterdependency relationship between the social groups, institutions

and environment.

Incorporating new ways of thinking and managing the small businesses, valuing the intellectual capital and the shared knowledge in and out of the company means, for Sebrae, investing in the development of competencies which allow its customers to understand the historical context they are inserted to, in its different dimensions – economic, political, social, cultural -, mobilizing the knowledge resulting from their personal and collective experiences and those acquired in the qualifications, so as to take decisions about and for their enterprises.

1.5 Sebrae Mission

Sebrae is an autonomous social service, established through public deed under the form of a non-profit private law associative entity, being governed by the by-laws in compliance with Law no. 8.029, of April 12th, 1990 and subsequent amendments, and regulated by Decree no. 99.570, of October 9th, 1990, which provide for untying the entity from the federal public administration.

The institution was created with the purpose of supporting the small businesses segments, due to their great capacity to generate job and income, essential elements for the harmonious development process of a nation.

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Sebrae, by replacing the former Cebrae,1 was turned into an autonomous social service and, although not being governmental, is of public character, for using parafiscal resources.

1.5.1 Mission

Sebrae’s mission is to “promote competitiveness and the sustainable development of the small businesses and foment the entrepreneurship in order to strengthen the national economy”.

It is subordinate to an advisory board, composed by representatives of the private sector and also from the government, a partnership intended to encourage and promote the small businesses on a compatible way with the national development policies.

In the current context, Sebrae intends to be an effectively transforming instrument of the Brazilian reality, contributing for the installation of a favorable environment to the sustainable growth of the small businesses and generating knowledge on such relevant segment of the business sector. Thus, it directly contributes for the construction of a fairer Brazil.

Sebrae, being an institution directed towards entrepreneurs who generate income and jobs has, in addition to its economic and social and service provision functions, an important educational duty, with respect to awake and develop, in the individuals, their 1 Created in 1972, the Brazilian Center for Managerial Support to Small and Medium-Sized Companies (Cebrae), as a government body, it had remarkable operation in all the Brazilian States, conducting programs which served the business owners in the technological, credit, market and training areas.

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarksentrepreneurial potentials, in order to improve their quality of life

and that of their communities.

Its action is noted, among others, in the development of educational solutions of business education and entrepreneurial culture solutions, in different formats and modalities towards the management of the small businesses, so as to meet their target audience specificities and demand.

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Part 2

Educational benchmarks

2.1 Purpose

In 2001, Sebrae launched the benchmarks for a new educational praxis, proposing a reflective and critical attitude about its educational practices and the theories they are based on, becoming a disseminator of an entrepreneurial education process which integrates the development of the human dimensions, being inspired in the four education pillar for the XXIst century - learning how to know, how to do, how to become and live together -, defined by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco). In addition, it has valued the cognitive operations and the development of other dimensions, such as the attitudinal ones, which involve the personal and professional positioning and the how to do dimension.

In 2006, Sebrae brought into the system the educational approach focused on the development and mobilization of the person capacities before the various situations of the work processes - i.e., his/her competencies. With this, the institution sought to encourage the entrepreneur to reflect about himself/herself and about his/her context, seeking, from his/her experiences and the acquired knowledge, to take decisions which are more favorable to his/her personal and business success.

In 2015, by reviewing its educational benchmarks, Sebrae strengthens and reinforces the commitment to work with the content of its educational solutions on a contextualized way, revealing its conceptual, scientific, historical, economic, 25

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ideological, political, cultural and educational dimensions which must be clearly explained and learned in the teaching-learning process. For that purpose, it proposes that such content is analyzed, understood and learned within a dynamic totality, requiring the institution to establish a new pedagogical working method, which keeps up with this new challenge.

The educational benchmarks are, therefore, guiding instruments for the elaboration of qualification products in different formats and modalities, conceived to provide pedagogical subsidies to the reflection and guidance of the actors directly or indirectly involved in the educational process, conception, development and application of educational solutions.

Thus, Sebrae restates it has as premise the four pillars - learning how to know, how to do, how to become and live together – by Unesco, which support the educational processes and the development of cognitive, attitudinal and operational nature competencies.

By means of the pillars and competencies, along with guiding principles of the teaching-learning process focused on the sociocritical, humanist, cognitivist and historical-cultural, Sebrae develops its entrepreneurial education providing its customers with the condition required to awake and increment their entrepreneurial potentials and adopt new positions in conducting their businesses.

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarks2.2 Values

Sonia Helena dos Santos, people management expert and professor at Armando Alvares Penteado Foundation (Faap), in an interview to Exame Magazine stated that:

Value, on a broad way, can be translated as a set of sociocultural standards and principles accepted or maintained, by individuals, class or society. And, within small businesses, the values are like the organizational culture heart, defining the success in concrete terms to the employees and establish the standard to be reached (LAM, 2012).

The implicit values which integrate Sebrae’s educational benchmarks acknowledge as basic principles:

* The human being as a social, political being, belonging to his/her community, country, to the world, builder of the society and history;

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* The person as an inseparable unit of thought, feelings and actions, continuously interacting with the social environment.

* The entrepreneur as the gravitational center of the educational process;

* The entrepreneurship as the means to obtain the business success;

* Education as a dynamic and permanent process;

* The continuous qualification, based on the indissociability between theory and practice;

* The development of cognitive, attitudinal and operational competencies required for the good performance of citizenship and management of small businesses;

* The educational process planning as a required action, having the entrepreneur, his/her needs and expectations as reference;

* The knowledge as raw material and the main production and citizenship factor;

* The democratization of knowledge, by using the communication and information technologies, allowing the dissemination of knowledge with quality, speed and equanimity, making relevant contents, contextualized and complying with the local reality available;

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarks* The systemic view, the multidimensionality of the

education process and the discovery of the interdependency relationships between any phenomenon and its contexts and of any context with the global context;

* The critical thought, with the development of the mental processes;

* The creative thought as a generating source of the scientific, cultural and artistic advance;

* The immediate application of the knowledge in the exercise of the professional activities, by means of relevant and pragmatic contents with current models and technologies;

* The collaboration, partnership and cooperation attitudes meaning “operating with”, i.e., work group, providing his/her own talent for the common interest;

* The ethical principles and universal values, such as justice, common welfare, environment preservation, freedom and peace

2.3 Target audience

The educational benchmarks are intended to all the professionals directly or indirectly involved with the educational process and who form the system knowledge asset, including:

* Directors;

* Managers;

* Technical analysts;

* Technical assistants;

* Consultants;

* Facilitators/educators;

* Service providers;

* Partners.

Such benchmarks particularly guide the professionals involved in the development, update, passing on, application and evaluation processes of business qualification solutions and entrepreneurial culture.

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Part 3 Business qualification and entrepreneurial culture – for an educational praxis

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For Sebrae, we call business qualification and entrepreneurial culture the continuous education focuses in small businesses and which are able to develop entrepreneurial competencies required for the success of each business segment, assisting them to overcome the challenges posed by a world characterized by uncertainties and great changes. Thus, the didactic considerations defined in this document are intended to describe the measures to be considered in the planning, development and evaluation processes of educational solutions enabling the learning of the participants comprising their target public.

The planning of an educational solution is a reflected action, because it meets the purpose of deciding, predicting, selecting, choosing, organizing, remaking, resizing and analyzing the process before, during and after the completed action. The result to be reached is defined on it; thus, it is a political-pedagogical act due to its intention to be revealed in the teaching actions. For this reason, by the time this process starts, we must have in mind questions such as: what is it intended to do? What type or entrepreneur or business owner do we wish to bring on? What type of society does Sebrae intend to help building?

Such question must be thought taking into consideration that:

* Education is a social phenomenon which contributes for the economic, scientific, cultural and political development of a society;

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarks* Each social group conceives, organizes and operationalizes

its education system from a certain view of the human being and the world, based on individual and collective benchmarks which are in force on a specific time and space;

* Sebrae is an educational institution inserted in a society on which practices and knowledge change and, for this reason, it is subject to the effects of such movement, at the same time on which it defines its role and its form of operation in order to comply with its mission.

The planning of an educational business qualification solution has to be structure on a systematized way so that Sebrae, in addition to disseminating an entrepreneurial culture to a public with diversified profile and of different age groups, contributes for the qualification of small businesses owners.

Thus, it bases its education action in the development of competencies allowing its customers to learn to know, to be, to live together and to do, providing them with instruments to understand on a responsible, sustainable, creative and innovative way and take decisions favoring the competitiveness and the success of their businesses.

3.1 Education pillars

Below are the educational benchmarks guiding Sebrae’s actions, having as premise the four pillars of the education process proposed by Unesco:

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* Learning how to know – refers to the interpretation and representation of the reality by means of the concepts, principles, facts, proposals and theories study. The learning on how to know manifests with the development of cognitive schemes: reflection, critical analysis, comparison, classification, ordering, arguing, etc., which provide the knowledge building;

* Learning how to become – refers to the perception of reality by means of the awareness of the person about himself/herself and his/her interaction with his/her groups. It comprises beliefs, values, intuition, trends, creative potentials, attitudes, segments, imaginations, fantasy, synthesis, humor and arts;

* Learning how to live together – refers to the development of the individual, his/her way of being, of self-conducting and acting in the context he/she is inserted to. It comprises the valuation of the collective instead of the individual, learning how to listen to the other, proposing instead of imposing, ceding and contributing in favor of the group’s interest and need, knowing how to administer conflicts, sharing on a productive way, fomenting the unit in diversity. The human being is single and singular and, at the same time, multiple and complex, inserted into groups and social and cultural organizations presenting multiplicity of visions, dreams, positions, beliefs and values.

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarks* Learning how to do - refers to the application in reality,

with capacities, abilities and skills. It manifests by means of action, initiative, achievement, transfer, operationalization and pragmatism.

With this view, Sebrae intends to contribute in order to provide a (new) meaning to the education practices, from a broader perspective, which includes, for the entrepreneurs, the autonomy to learn, develop attitudes and essential attributes and show competency in managing his/her business.

3.2 Competencies

The systemization of planning of educational solutions for business qualification and entrepreneurial culture is intended to develop competencies of cognitive, attitudinal and operational natures, allowing the individuals to mobilize knowledge/skill, attitudes and abilities/procedures for a satisfactory performance in different situations – personal, professional or social. Thus, it distances from the education based on subject matters to focus on the person and professional learning process at the same time, so as to provide its conscious and responsible performance in society as a change agent.

The competencies define what the education process participant can do or how he/she may act with the knowledge he/she has build, mobilizing, on an integrated way, knowledge, attitudes and procedures to respond not only to his/her immediate needs, but predict future actions. Its formulation or description must, therefore, start from the analysis of

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problem-situations which are real, concrete and, from that, derive the selection of knowledge required to solve them.

It is understood that every educational situation requires, at higher or lower intensity, the development of cognitive, attitudinal and technical/operational competencies. There is no hierarchy between them and one is not considered as being more important than the other.

Chaves Filho (2006) conceptualizes the competencies according to subsections as follows.

3.2.1 Cognitive nature competency

The cognitive nature competencies, corresponding to the learn how to know dimension, comprise the theoretical/conceptual knowledge. By working with the received information, the individuals activates the generation of mental structural schemes, improving the use of the cognitive dimension in order to deal with the professional, personal, and study and research situations.

3.2.2 Attitudinal nature competency

The attitudinal nature competencies, corresponding to the learning how to become and how to live together include personal abilities and attitudes required to become, i.e., to develop potentialities, and to live together, or to interact with people, create and improve organizational processes.

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Sebrae’sEducational BenchmarksSuch abilities permeate the organization internal and external

relationships and represent its relational capital, which is the value of the knowledge it creates, maintains and improves the relationships.

3.2.3 Technical, operational and psychomotor nature competency

These are the competencies intended successfully act in the businesses, in the organization of the work areas and sectors in the company. They are related with application, with learning how to do. Every person has an individualized set of technical competencies, but to such competencies it is necessary to continuously add others, according to the diversity of the situations occurring at work.

The operational and psychomotor competencies articulate cognitive, attitudinal and psychophysical order factor – functional relationships between the mind and the physical representation. Such abilities define what to do and how to do; in the company, it is the value of the practical application which makes the organization to properly work.

It is restated here that the understanding that, although most of the situations require, for expressing competency, integration and mobilization of knowledge, skills, attitudes and abilities/procedures, in the three dimensions (cognitive, attitudinal and operational) the individual can show his/her competency on a prevailing way in one dimension. For example: competency to establish a communication,

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argue and develop a logical reasoning (cognitive dimension); competency to create, innovate, persuade and negotiate (attitudinal dimension); competency to elaborate a planning, solve a problem and carry out a diagnosis (operational dimension). Such competencies will be much more present as richer are the experiences and the theoretical and tacit knowledge built by the person.

Some situations may required the individual to develop more aspects of one specific dimension (cognitive, for example) and others less, because almost all the human actions require some type of knowledge, sometimes superficial, other times more complex, resulting from the personal experience, the common sense or from studies and researches. What will determine the scope of the action, in case of the entrepreneurs, is the company needs and the market requirements.

3.3 Theoretical options

Even with a number of theories about human learning processes, Sebrae decided for one which was coherent with its practice to fulfill the business qualification and entrepreneurial culture purpose, based both on Unesco’s pillars and on the competencies. Thus, it was first sought, in the sociocritical (Paulo Freire), humanist (Carl Rogers) and cognitivist (Piaget), theories which contribute to materialize an education that was really, entrepreneurial.

In addition to these, it was noted, in the historical-cultural theory, an important education benchmark, considering that it allows

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarksto understand the individual’s full personality, whether being a child,

an adolescent or adult, in his/her development as a single individual, but, at the same time, social and historical.

All these theories, in a complementary sense, resulted in the choice for the historical-critical pedagogy (Saviani).

Although the objective of this benchmark is not to present an in-depth study of each of such theories, they were explained in order to lead the reader to understand what is essential for the business qualification and entrepreneurial culture work Sebrae develops.

3.3.1 Sociocritical theory: Paulo Freire’s contributions

The world – of the relationships, work, culture, finally, of existence – is a great pedagogical instrument for the several learning when the concept of education is beyond the formal learning spaces, i.e., when it is for life, which requires understanding the social and work phenomena, but, above all, the culture of each one, of what each one adds or may add to the other and to the existence.

Thus, we can see the education processes understood as a social phenomenon, contextualized in the world on which the individuals are part, cannot do with reflecting about the man, his time and his culture. Freire considers that such education must be totalizing – humanizing and technical.

It is based on the man’s capacity to interact, create and recreate that he builds the history of his time. Thus, by making knowledge an

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instrument, making the man a simple reproducer of what is already prescribed, we conceive a humanity without the sense of life and without perspective to transform the society.

From the Freirean point of view, the education processes involving adults need to accept them as groups inserted into society on an active way and exercise their particularities. Freire considers that:

Knowing is not an act through which an individual, turned into an object, gently and passively receives the contents others provide him/her or impose. The knowledge, in contrasts, requires a curious presence of the individual concerning the world. It requires his/her transforming action about reality. It demands a continuous search. It implies invention and re-invention (FREIRE, 1985, p. 12).

The education processes need to be built in such a way to take to the individuals emancipation, understanding them as part of the historical-cultural moments they belong to. The world is, therefore, a great pedagogical instrument for the several required learning.

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Sebrae’sEducational BenchmarksAccording to Freire, the human existence can never be conceived

on a deterministic or fatalist way. Each individual has a humanization potential that learning and construction of knowledge can provide. He defends the ontological vocation of “being more”, inherent to all the men and all the women, however, denied when the conscious existence of the other is denied.

In contrast with a dehumanizing, alienating and decontextualized education, Freire proposes conscious education process, based on the world problem-posing, generator of autonomy.

The education impose to those who are really committed with liberation cannot be based on understanding the men as empty beings to be filled with content by the world; it cannot be based on a specialized awareness, mechanistically divided into compartments, but in men as conscious bodies and in consciousness as intentioned consciousness of the world. It cannot be that of the content warehouse, but that of men problem-posing in their relationship with the world (FREIRE, 2005, p. 77).

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It is required that the pedagogical work organization Sebrae develops is based on the praxis, on which those involved in the development and application of the solutions perceive the man/world and theory/practice relationships in their uniqueness and dynamism. Further, they get to perceive themselves as active individuals in this organization, so that their work is not alienated. For that purpose, Sebrae, as a whole, must have clarity on the type of relationship that the small businesses individual establish with the world: if subordination or critical action with capacity to reinvent themselves over the social, political and economic transformations. Thus, learning must be understood as world appropriation, and not only as passport for access or adaptation to this or that position given as ready.

It is worth emphasizing what Freire brings us as reflection about the learning process:

[...] in the learning process, only the one who really appropriates from what has been learned, transforming it into understood, with what he/she can, and for this reason, reinvent it, is the one who really learns; the one who is able to apply the learned-understood to real existential situations. In contrast, the one who is “filled” with

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perceive, with contents which contradict the way of being in his/her world, without being challenged, does not learn (FREIRE, 1985, p. 13).

Thinking on qualifications in the critical perspective of the historical-social context is not an easy task on we are used to a fragmented and dichotomous view of knowledge, many times alienated of the work they are applied to. We are used to divide and not to gather such knowledge. However, a daily reflection exercise about the action and the search for such contextualized knowledge organization is required, enabling the complex and totalizing understanding of reality and also giving opportunity for an increased social meaning of the knowledge intended to construct and the competencies intended to develop.

With this respect, Freire remains up to date and, in the light of his thought, the knowledge comprises instruments for understanding the historical moment of the individuals who teach and learn, on a dialectical movement, which generates awareness and transformation of reality – here is the Freirean triad: awareness-dialogue-transformation.

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3.3.2 Humanist theory: Carl Roger’s contributions

In the beginning of the XXth century, significant manifestations of an educational vision centered in existence, life and human activities, started to occur. The belief in the possibilities of the individual to develop his/her potentialities and deepen the self-discovery, self-acceptance and self-expression, to become a person was stated.

The humanist focus acknowledges the facilitating affective position of the educator, emphasizing the human value and the empathy as way to provide the learning individual, the knowledge of his/her potentialities and the search for balance.

Carl Roger, around 1950, stated his humanist concept, showing how education can provide favorable conditions for the self-achievement of people, by means of significant and experiential learning, which allows the establishment of the contact with the experiencing process itself.

By significant learning I understand a learning which is more than accumulating facts. It is learning what causes changes, whether in the behavior of the individual, in the guidance of the future action he/she chooses or in the attitudes and personality. It is a penetrating learning, which is not

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deeply penetrates all the existence parts (ROGERS, 1985).

The significant learning takes place when the person is fully involved in his/her cognitive and sensorial aspects. By subjecting himself/herself to the learning process, the individual knows he/she will have his/her needs met because they refer to what the person is willing to know.

The humanist principles proposed by Carl Rogers, by allowing people the self-knowledge and the development of their creative potentialities, favor the formation of the awareness about themselves and the relationship with the different groups, extending the chances of success in their interpersonal relationships and in their enterprises.

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3.3.3 Cognitivist theory: Piaget’s contributions

The principles upheld by Piaget are based on the criticism to the traditional methodologies which, in their origin, bring the punishment, condemnation of the error, authoritarianism, content transmission, emphasis to memorization and lack of respect to the individual development of each one. For Piaget, such learning relationships were based on coercion, preventing cooperative practices.

Although Piaget has not had as his main object of study the role of the social factors in the human development, we find in this author the statement that “human intelligence only develops in the individual as a result of social interactions which are, in general, excessively neglected” (PIAGET in TAILLE, OLIVEIRA; DANTAS, 1992, p. 11).

For Piaget, the human being is a being under evolution: even reaching cognitive development steps, he/she will be always under construction. A number of young people and adults develop the intelligence and creativity as they solve problem-situations.

In a Piagetian perspective, the human learning processes must favor the participation, research and autonomy, as well as the development of solidarity and cooperation attitudes, for being intrinsically connected to the intelligence development process. With this respect, it is necessary to break with teaching and learning forms which insist on the passiveness of the students. For that purpose, it

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the participation is considered as a presupposition for learning.

Considering Freire’s contributions, corroborating them in Piaget’s studies, it can be understood that for both the educator is not the core of the teaching-learning process, but the mediator of the discoveries of those who learn by means of a dialogical action. Taille, who is a known specialist of the Piagetian theory, states that:

It can be verified that the coerced individual has few national participation in production, preservation and disclosure of the ideas. In case of production, he/she does not simply participate, being satisfied in accepting the final product as valid. Once this product is accept, the coerced individual preserves, being limited to repeat what has being imposed to him/her (TAILLE, 1992, p. 19).

For Piaget, learning is, above all, to discover. Therefore, the knowledge results from an inter-relationship between the individual who knows and the object to be known. The central axis is the organism-environment interaction and such interaction occurs by means of two simultaneous processes: the internal organization

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and the adaptation to the environment, functions that are exercised by the organism throughout the life. Adaptation, defined by Piaget as the intelligence development itself occurs by assimilation and accommodation. The assimilation schemes change over the time, configuring the development stages. Piaget further considers that the development process is influenced by factors such as: maturation (biological growth of the organs); exercising (functioning of the schemes and the organs implying the habit formation); social learning (acquisition of values, language, cultural and social habits and standards); and balance (internal self-regulation process of the organism, which constitutes the successive search for rebalancing after each suffered imbalance).

The education processes, based on such Piagetian presuppositions, must allow the individual to develop the mental schemes, by proposing challenging activities, which cause successive imbalances and rebalancing, promoting the discovery and continuous knowledge construction.

3.3.4 Historical-cultural theory: Vygotsky’s contributions

The historical-cultural theory presupposes the active character of learning and development of the inherent capacities of the human being. Such learning occurs throughout the life and is constructed under the influence of the experience of the previous generations, transmitted by means of formal or informal education processes.

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Sebrae’sEducational BenchmarksSuch theory sought to exceed the man, education and learning

view put by the traditional Western psychology by understanding that learning as being a social activity, and not only an individual achievement, as it was conceived. According to its perspective, it is a knowledge production and reproduction activity assimilated by the people whenever they are directed to perform a task or when they establish social interaction relationships directed to an objective, being, therefore, intentional. In this concept of learning, three important elements serving as support for the development of Sebrae’s entrepreneurial education must be highlighted: the social character, the mediation category and the activity category.

The social character and mediation of learning

According to the historical-cultural theory, in the teaching-learning process the individual who learns is conceived as the active subject, conscious and oriented by an objective with intentionality. The learning occurs in a social environment on which the educator and students interact on a mutual basis and communication is mediated by technologies which extend the cooperation possibility. The main result of learning is the transformations operated both in the individual who learns, i.e., his/her psychic and physical changes, and in the object of activity which was the target of learning, allowing to reach the defined objective, in addition to following and evaluating the process as a whole.

The social character and category “learning mediation” were highlighted in the historical-cultural theory by explaining the

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development of the higher psychological functions, i.e., the natural psychological functions of the human beings (perception, memory, attention, etc.) have their own characteristics which are not products exclusive of the brain activity, therefore, they are not only a biological function.

The development of the higher psychological functions is, therefore, the result of the social relationships established between the people and the outside world in the historical process dynamics, being mediated by symbolic systems. Thus, the logical thought, the creative imagination, the volunteer regulation of the actions, among others, do not only emerge with the maturation of the organic capacities. They are, in fact, the result of meanings that the individual assigns to his/her experiences which, in their turn, are subject to influences from the material and spiritual values guiding the social behavior of the groups in a certain time and place (NÚÑEZ, 2009).

In the historical-cultural theory, the human psychological function is cultural and, consequently, historical. In each step of the society development, cultural contents are produced working as mediating elements in the relationships established between the men and the world, Such historical-cultural content (knowledge, values, etc.) is the object of assimilation in the processes of socialization, formation and development of personality, which continuously occur in different education formats and modalities.

Developing the individual, then means, submitting him/her to learning processes on which he/she is encouraged to learn with the

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(1981) calls the attention to two evolution levels: that of the actual capacities and that of the possibilities to learn with the other’s assistance. He calls proximal development zone the difference between these two levels. Such zone defines functions which are not yet mature, and are in maturation process; such functions could be called as development “sprouts” or “flowers”, instead of development “fruits”.

Thus, learning is closely connected to the way the individuals mean the object to be known (content), emphasizing that this is not a process which happens from outside to inside, like the teacher teaches and the student absorbs the knowledge. This way, both the daily experiences (spontaneous concepts) and those provided in the formal learning context (scientific concepts) are two ways of gathering the concepts which, although being different in terms of quality, they are equivalent under the functional point of view.

In the learning process, whether formal or informal, there is a close relationship between the cognitive aspects (knowing), affective (feelings, perceptions) and volitional (wish, willing to do). In his book “Thought and language”, Vygotsky (1989) states “that there is a dynamic sense system which represent the unit of the affective and intellectual processes”.

The spontaneous concepts (common sense) are intuitive and inherent for each individual. They develop as a product from the individual and social daily life experiences and, although rich in

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practical experiences, they depend on the context, but constitute the scientific concepts basis (the formally learned ones) which, when assimilated, allow the formation of other spontaneous concepts with possibilities of conscious and deliberate use. Further, the development of scientific concepts depends on and is constructed from the spontaneous concepts the individual has as an assimilation/appropriation process.

The activity in the learning process

In the historical-cultural theory, the human activity is considered as being the process which mediates the relationship between the human being (subject) and the reality to be transformed by him/her (object of activity). Such relationship is dialectic, once it is not only the object which transforms itself, but also the individual. This is a process on which the nature, the society and the individual himself/herself reproduces and transforms themselves, on a creative way, mediated by the practice.

The activity, in Sebrae’s entrepreneurial education, represents the space of the cognitive, attitudinal and operational nature competencies exercise developed in the application of an educational solution, once it is in the reflected practice that the participants have the opportunity to express the appropriate, conscious and contextualized use of the scientific concepts assimilated to meet a certain purpose. It is, therefore, intentional, being that such intention is processed in the individual, social and cultural plans: individual in that the person who learns must

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Sebrae’sEducational Benchmarksdevelop the activity to appropriate from it; and social and cultural

in two ways - as the rules and other culture tools are used and as it is learned and developed in the social interactions with the others.

In Sebrae’s entrepreneurial education, the construction of solutions must consider the fact that the formation of concepts is the result of activities experienced by the individuals and these concepts, once formulated, guide new practices in a dialectic action-reflection-action movement. The practice is, therefore, conceptual. Thus, in the application and evaluation processes of a solution it is not sufficient that the entrepreneur and/or the business owner only knows the concepts definition, but if he/she has learned how to use them and “mobilize them” in order to solve problems affecting him/her. Therefore, we can say that there was learning when the individual learns how to “know” – how to know, how to become, how to live together, how to do -, i.e. , when the activity (reflected mediator-practice process) meets his/her knowledge need about something. In this case, the objective coincides with the reason.

In the teaching process, the learning activity organization involves the following approaches: cognitive, which occurs in strictly connection with the communication activity (essential to develop socialization, self-knowledge and how to live together); evaluative (formation of values guiding the action, the position before a problem-situation and the people attitudes); and

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volitional (willing to do), which allows the full development of the personality of the individuals being educated.

Taking into consideration such theoretical benchmark, it is important that in business qualification solution, the following is delimited:

* The role of the entrepreneur/business owner in the learning process, his/her sphere of reasons, interests and needs, the development level of his/her learning strategies and his/her abilities for the study;

* The characteristics of the study object (content) and their relationship with the material, intellectual and spiritual life of the human being in the current world;

* The procedures, techniques and technologies to be used in the learning situation;

* The resources or means available (materials and cognitive) to perform the activity;

* The expected results (objectives or purposes as goals);

* Sebrae’s and the entrepreneur’s/business owner’s situation or context;

* The results to be achieve in the education process, under the point of view of competencies to be developed (activity product).

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conditions, triggers the development of the individual and establishes the bases for new acquisitions. However, it is important to emphasize that despite of the existence of connection between learning and development, none of them is performed in the same extent, on a parallel and two-sided way, whether when the process individuals are children or adolescents, or when they are adults.

Although this direct relationship does not exist, the importance of the joint activity is unquestionable, i.e., the cooperation relationship between the individual who learns and the one who teaches. And this concept changes, on a significant way, the traditions authority relationship and the distance between both participants of the teaching-learning process, which, for a long time, was postulated by the traditional pedagogy. In this new pedagogical relationship, the educator is assigned, as his/her main function, with the student guidance and guide, so as to potentiate his/her possibilities and convert the potentialities in his/her proximal development zone into reality.

3.3.5 Historical-critical pedagogy: Saviani’s contributions

By taking as the principle that the knowledge is constructed in the individual-object interaction from socially mediated actions, it was sought a pedagogical approach which considered such presupposition, such is the case of the historical-critical pedagogy, proposed by Dermeval Saviani (1999), that part of the premise that education interferes on and in society (historical), at the same time on which it acknowledges the determination exercised by the society about education (critical).

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This is a theory which establishes essential steps for the development of the student, whether being a child, adolescent or adult, namely: a) initial social practice; b) problem-posing; c) instrumentalization; d) catharsis; e) final social practice.

His teaching/learning method is intended to encourage the educator’s activity and initiative; favoring the students dialogue among each other and with the educator, without forgetting to value the dialogue with the historically accumulated culture; and taking into consideration the students’ interests, the learning rhythms and the psychological development, without losing sight of the logical systemization of the knowledge, its ordering and gradation for the purposes of the transmission-assimilation process of the cognitive contents.

Having the historical-dialectical movement as reference, it must be emphasized that the learning process follows a movement which starts with the daily experience (spontaneous concepts, real perceived), goes through reflection (thinking the concept from explanatory theories) and returns to the practice (real thought, awareness), forming the action-reflection-action cycle, the purpose of which is to brake the dichotomy between theory and practice.

The educator, being the facilitating and mediating element of the teaching-learning process may collaborate for the student (learner) to overcome the common sense (spontaneous knowledge) which is ingrained in his/her way o being and conceiving the reality from the daily experiences and, make use of the theoretical reflection (scientific knowledge, on a critical and contextualized way, reaches the

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she is inserted to.

In Sebrae’s entrepreneurial education, such dialectic movement translates into the development of formation processes allowing the entrepreneurs and the small businesses owners to analyzed their social and work practice under a reflected optics, provided by the assimilation of new knowledge (scientific knowledge) for, thus, qualitatively turn it into benefit of their company growth and sustainability, his/her and the collective well being, considering the historical space/time they belong to.

In the historical-critical pedagogy, the knowledge is basically constructed from the material basis, i.e., the social practice of the individuals, in their relationship with nature and with their peers. In this relationship, values, expression ways, cultural, economic, religious, legal, political organization, relationships, etc. also exercise direct interference in knowledge production and in the way people give meaning to the things.

In structuring the teaching process, this premise must be the starting point and subsidize the didactic structure to be adopted to guide him/her. Thus, a first aspect to be considered concerning the content (knowledge) is that it must be contextualized, evidencing that its production is the result of the social and work relationships established on a historical basis.

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Considering that the solutions conceived by Sebrae develop specific competencies, the appropriate selection of the content and the way to approach it have significant importance and its planning must predict strategies which encourage the active participations of the learners, proposing challenging activities and problem-situations always focused on the contextualization and integration of the individual with the concerned subject.

In the pedagogical action of Sebrae’s entrepreneurial education, supported by the historical-critical pedagogy, the education – considered here as the individual responsible for conceiving, developing, applying and evaluating the educational business qualification solutions – must develop a new way of thinking the contents and how they can contribute to support the target audience served by Sebrae in managing their businesses. The educator is further responsible for the liability and commitment of knowing how to apply the five steps which structure the didactic of the historical-critical pedagogy, proposed by Gasparin (2009), as we can see below.

1st Step – Initial social practice

Characterized by the current development level of the student (learner/participant) and expressed by the social practice of the content, i.e., how a certain knowledge is meant by the group. This step has its starting point in the teacher and the students’ previous knowledge. This is what the educator and the participants already know about the content which, in the starting point, has different levels, considering the differences existing between the elements

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moments:

a) The educator informs the participants the content to be studied and the competencies to be developed;

b) The educator seeks to know the students by means of dialogue, perceiving the close and remote daily experience of the content to be worked, challenging them so that they express their curiosities, saying what they would like to further now about the subject.

2nd Step – Problem-posing

Consists in explaining the main problems found in the social practice, related to the approached content. This step is developed by conducting:

a) A brief discussion about such problems in their relationship with the scientific content of the program, seeking for the reasons through which the content must and has to be learned. This step is essential for the participant to perceive that the knowledge they have about the subject is superficial and prevent them from having a more critical perception of the problems and take conscious and appropriate decisions for better solve them;

b) Subsequently, such knowledge is turned into questions, in problem-posing questions taking into consideration the scientific, conceptual, cultural, historical, social, political, ethical, economic, religious, etc. dimensions, according to the aspects under which

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they wish to approach the subject, considering it under multiple views. In this step, the participants will not the interdependency relationship existing between the noted events, establishing cause and consequence relationships between them.

3rd Step - Instrumentalization

This step is expressed in the educator’s and the students’ work for learning. For that purpose, the educator:

a) Presents the student, by means of appropriate teaching actions (teaching strategies), the formal and abstract scientific knowledge, according to the dimensions chosen in the previous phase. The students, in their turn, by means of investigation and reflection activities, will establish a mental comparison with the daily experience they have about the same knowledge, in order to appropriate themselves of the new content;

b) In this process, al the required and available resources are used for the pedagogical mediation exercise.

4th Step - Catharsis

This is the elaborated expression of a new form to understand the content and its relationship with the social context. It is conducted:

a) By means of the new mental synthesis the student has reached. It arises by means of the new mental attitude, joining the everyday life to the scientific, reframing them into a new concrete totality in

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she has learned, according to the studied content dimensions;

b) Such synthesis is expressed by means of an oral or written, formal or informal evaluation, on which the student translates everything he/she learned so far, taking into consideration the dimensions under which the content was addressed. In this step, the teacher evaluates to what extent the competencies predicted in the solution were developed.

5th Step – Final social practice

Characterized by the new current development level of the student, which consists in adopting a new action perspective from what has been learned. This step arises:

a) By the new practical attitude, new attitudes, new willingnesses expresses in the intentions of how the student will take the new scientific knowledge acquired to the practice, following qualification;

b) By the commitment and new actions the student proposes to conduct in his/her daily life (willing to do), placing in effective social exercise the new learned content.

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Part 4

Evaluation process

As proposed by the historical-critical pedagogy, the content learning evaluation must be the practical expression that the student obtained a knowledge which represents for him/her a new instrument for understanding the reality and of transforming action. Thus, the teaching-learning process takes a new focus, on which teacher and student act as coauthors (GASPARIN, 2009).

Gasparin (2009) emphasizes that the learning evaluation in the dialectic concept of knowledge is the expression of how much the student has learned from the solutions to solve the problems and the issues raised, i.e., if he/she developed the required competencies that the learned content could provide for him/her to be able not only to have a critical perception of reality, but to act on it, so as to transform it.

As the educational solutions constructed by Sebrae are focused on fomenting the entrepreneurial culture and the business qualification, with a short lasting workload, the evaluation process, in addition to being objective, must use instruments which effectively evaluate the participant’s acquisitions, i.e., the competencies developed to perform a certain task. For that purposes, it is recommended that in constructing an educational solution, the verification of such acquisitions occurs both throughout its application and at the end of the qualification process.

Throughout the development of the educational solution, the evaluation must be guided by the teacher observation (educator) with respect to the group involvement level in the five steps which comprise the didactic application process, described below:

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1st Step – Initial social practice

Interacting with the participants through dialogue, so as to gather information about how much they know about the content to be approached and how they relate such content with their social practice. In this step, the educator must encourage the group participation, making comments, showing their experiences and their understanding about the subject. A satisfactory evaluation of this step can be measured by the participants’ enthusiasm in sharing their experiences, trying to make connections with the content which will be the target of learning.

2nd Step – Problem-posing

This step is the time on which the educator presents the content, relating it to different dimension of the social practice (contextualization) – scientific, conceptual, cultural, political, economic, ethical, historical, etc. Once more, the way the educator uses in order to evaluate this step is observing how the participants react, i.e., if they present a passive behavior, of acceptance, or if they problem-pose with questions, doubts, presenting pertinent examples, etc.

3rd Step - Instrumentalization

In this step, after having been contextualized, the content is presented by the educator according to the defined approach

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resources so that the pedagogical mediation effectively occurs. Such mediation will be guaranteed by the way the mediator himself/herself behaves in conducting the job, presenting the scientific character of the content, establishing a question-oriented dialogue leading the participants to reflect about the subject, exercising his/her role of learning facilitator. It is also recommended the use of teaching resources intended to encourage the collaboration between the participants and facilitate the access to information which complement and/or deepen the approached subject. The evaluation of this step is conducted through observation by the educator with respect to the participants learning, shown by the clarity with which they learned the essential characteristics of the studied concepts. The basic strategy to be used in this step is the dialogue encouraged by questions directed to the participants.

4th Step - Catharsis

This step is the time on which the participant shows, on an elaborated way, his/her understanding about the subject and how such new knowledge is expressed in the social practice, joining the everyday life (spontaneous knowledge) to the scientific in a new concrete totality in though, summarizing everything he/she has learned, according to the studied content dimensions. This synthesis is evaluated by the educator by using different instruments allowing an oral or written, formal or informal evaluation, on which the participants translate everything they have learned with the

educational solution, taking into consideration the previously defined cognitive, attitudinal and operational competencies.

5th Step – Final social practice

This step is characterized as being the destination point of the pedagogical process in the historical-critical perspective and represents the transposition of the theoretical knowledge (cognitive competencies) to its application (operational competencies). Although the pedagogical process has been initiated also in the social practice, the final social practice differs from the first one (initial social practice) because the way the participants position themselves in their interior has qualitatively changed by the pedagogical action mediation. We can state here that both the educator and the learners have intellectually and qualitatively changed with respect to their concepts about the content they have reconstructed, shifting from a lower scientific understanding stage to a higher clarity and understanding phase of the same concept within the totality. Such qualitative change must also include the attitude taken by the participants with respect to the problem-situation under the point of view or their ethical and moral behavior; finally, this must set a new consciousness level to understand and judge the facts.

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Final considerations

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The purpose of Sebrae’s educational benchmarks is to guide the design, development, application and evaluation process of educational solutions allowing the different segments comprising its target audience to construct an entrepreneurial culture and the development of competencies which contribute for the conscious, competitive and sustainable management of the small businesses, on a contextualized basis within a historical time-space.

For that purpose, it establishes as the theoretical basis for its entrepreneurial education learning processes considering the continuous education of the human capacities and the valuing of the personal and collective experiences. Such experiences are the result of the social practices and serve as the basis for the construction of more elaborated knowledge, allowing the individuals to perceive the reality on a critical way and through different angles, guiding them in decision making.

By developing and applying educational solutions, it is intended to awake and foment, in the audience served by Sebrae, positive attitudes towards the act of learning how to learn, learning how to become, learning how to live together and learning how to do, encouraging the conscious use of logical/rational mental processes and the creative potential, with the development of cognitive, attitudinal and operational competencies, as well as favoring a collaborative and friendly environment providing learning in the business qualification processes.

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Sebrae’sEducational BenchmarksBy making the theoretical option by the authors presented

here (Freire, Piaget, Rogers, Vygotsky and Saviani), it was intended to decide for a pedagogical approach allowing the entrepreneurs and business owners to acquire significant content which respond to the challenges they need to face in their businesses, integrating new knowledge with the one they already had. With this respect, Sebrae understands that from the construction of a new concrete totality through the synthesis established between the spontaneous knowledge (everyday life) and the scientific one, such learning individuals can, finally, return to the social practice with new action proposals from the content they have learned. Thus, the action-reflection-action triad is never finished.

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teoria psicogenética em discussão. São Paulo: Summus, 1992.

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Notes