1- RATIONALE FOR THE PRACTICES

The perspective of the conceptual framework and foundation of academic practices is approached from the standpoint of the legal framework, the institutional framework, and other conceptual stances related to the field of knowledge.

1.1. LEGAL FRAMEWORK
1.1.1. POLITICAL CONSTITUTION OF 1991

The 1991 Constitution establishes in Article 67 that “education is a right of the person and a public service that has a social function; through it, access to knowledge, science, technology, and other goods and values of culture is sought“; likewise, it also establishes that ”It is the responsibility of the State to regulate and exercise supreme inspection and surveillance of education in order to ensure its quality, the fulfillment of its purposes, and the better moral, intellectual, and physical training of students.”.

Article 69 guarantees university autonomy and mandates the state to strengthen scientific research in public and private universities and offer the minimum conditions for its development; likewise, it assigns the state the obligation to facilitate financial mechanisms that make it possible for all people to access higher education.

1.1.2. LAW 30 OF 1992

In developing the duties and rights enshrined in the Constitution, the Law specifies, as a guiding principle for State action, the interest in promoting the enhancement of the quality of the educational service; it defines the autonomy of institutions according to their nature and their fields of action; it reaffirms the nature of education as a public service and, consequently, the need for the State to promote, inspect, and monitor it, in order to guarantee society that said service is provided in the necessary quantity and quality. The law mandates the organization of State institutions as a system and specifies the regulations applicable to higher education institutions. It creates the National Accreditation System to ensure that institutions that voluntarily join it meet the highest quality requirements and fulfill their purposes and objectives.

1.1.3. LAW 115 OF 1994

Article 1 of the law defines the Purpose, establishing that education is a process of permanent, personal, cultural, and social formation based on an integral conception of the human person, their dignity, their rights, and their duties. It declares that it is the duty of the State, society, and the family to ensure the quality of education and promote access to the public educational service, and it is the responsibility of the Nation and territorial entities to guarantee its coverage; and it reaffirms the aims of education.

1.1.4. HIGH-QUALITY ACCREDITATION

Decree 2904 of 1994, which regulates articles 53 and 54 of Law 30 of 1992, defines accreditation, indicates who forms part of the National Accreditation System, and outlines the stages and agents of the accreditation process.

Article 1°. Decrees that accreditation is the act by which the State adopts and makes public the recognition granted by academic peers regarding the verification carried out by an institution concerning the quality of its academic programs, its organization and operation, and the fulfillment of its social function.

The guidelines for program accreditation, published in their latest version in November 2006, set forth the criteria upon which the National Accreditation System operates and describe the factors, along with their respective criteria, that the National Accreditation Council has identified as central to higher education services.

These quality factors are:

1- Mission and Institutional Project
2- Students
3- Professors
4. Academic Processes
5- Institutional Well-Being
6. Organization, Administration, and Management
7- Graduates and Their Impact on Society
8- Physical and financial resources

1.1.5. MINIMUM QUALITY CONDITIONS

Within the framework of the quality policies that the State has implemented to oversee quality, compliance with objectives, and the better moral, intellectual, and physical development of students in higher education academic programs, the Government issued Decree Number 2566 of September 10, 2003, which establishes the minimum quality conditions and other requirements for the offering and development of higher education academic programs and dictates other provisions.

Article 1 establishes the minimum quality conditions that higher education institutions must demonstrate, as well as the specific quality characteristics. The following minimum quality conditions are established:

1. Academic title of the program.
2. Rationale for the program.
3. Curriculum-related issues.
4. Organization of training activities for academic credit.
5. Research training.
6. Social outreach.
7. Selection and evaluation of students.
8. Academic staff.
9. Educational resources.
10. Infrastructure.
11. Academic and Administrative Structure.
12. Self-evaluation.
13. Policies and strategies for tracking graduates.
14. Student Wellness.
15. Financial Resources.

Specifically in condition 3. Curricular aspects, it is established that: “The institution must present the theoretical, practical, and methodological foundation of the program; the principles and purposes that guide the training; the structure and organization of the curricular contents in accordance with the development of scientific and technological activity; the strategies that allow for interdisciplinary work and teamwork; the pedagogical model and strategies and the possible learning contexts for its development and for the achievement of the training purposes; and the training profile.".

The program must ensure a comprehensive education that enables graduates to perform in various settings with the level of competencies specific to each field.

Educational profiles should address the development of competencies and skills in each field and area of study… ” Within the scope of quality processes, so-called pedagogical strategies and potential learning contexts play an important role.

The program must provide strategies that promote, facilitate, and stimulate learning and, of course, its relevant contexts of interaction. To this end, the program must demonstrate effective use of pedagogical mediations and appropriate forms of interaction that support and foster the development of competencies for independent and/or collaborative learning, as well as the way in which the various areas and components of academic training are developed.

It is established that pedagogical mediators constitute the basic tools available to students to guide their own learning and that they facilitate interaction and collaboration among the various stakeholders involved in the educational process. The quality of pedagogical mediations is not only directly related to the availability of equipment, resources, or tools, but also to how they are used, which in turn depends on the planning of activities designed to enhance student learning, the development of their competencies, and the opportunity for them to constantly relate their institutional reality to the academic work they perform.

Among the elements that can serve as pedagogical tools and provide the fundamental framework for ongoing guidance, monitoring, and interaction with students are the following: Physical resources (printed text, audiovisual materials, hypertext, multimedia, etc.), in-person meetings, synchronous or asynchronous virtual meetings through tools such as forums, teleconferences, email, etc.), tutorial sessions (in-person or virtual), study groups, student internships, the assessment system for in-person or virtual learning, research and community engagement activities, etc.  Through these support mechanisms, it is possible to clarify any necessary questions, detect common errors early on, and map the student’s learning process according to their individual learning pace and the educational objectives of the activity.

In addition to having a flexible curricular structure that facilitates the organization of courses, pedagogical and communicative strategies, and learning environments (or settings) appropriate for the development of the expected competencies and skills, and it will also respond to the changing needs of society as well as to the individual abilities, vocations, and interests of the students.

1.2. INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK

With regard to the institutional framework underpinning these practices, the analysis begins with the MISSION and the respective resolutions of the Academic Council.

1.2.1. MISSION

The University of Cundinamarca is a public institution at the departmental level serving the province, the department, and the nation, responsible for training professional leaders with high academic, professional, and personal qualities. It is committed to the holistic development of individuals in whom the various dimensions of their being are optimally cultivated, and who act based on an understanding of the cultural, social, and environmental conditions of their surroundings.

To enrich universal culture and contribute to the advancement of the sciences, the University of Cundinamarca develops its educational management by deepening its knowledge of the regional environment in which it is located, in order to produce knowledge that allows for the identification and solution of its specific social and natural problems, and to generate knowledge useful to humanity.


1.2.2. RESOLUTION No. 008 of July 15, 2003, of the Academic Council

Agreement No. 008 of July 15, 2003, whereby guidelines on Curricular Flexibility and Credit System are established for all Programs of the University of Cundinamarca, and which considers among other aspects
“It is necessary to promote pedagogical strategies that strengthen student autonomy and the process of learning to be; learning to learn; learning to do; learning to live together; learning to get along with others; and learning to be entrepreneurial as the foundation of educational processes.”

And agree on the CHAPTER II ON CURRICULAR FLEXIBILITY, ARTICLE THREE.- The University assumes the following areas of flexibility: … From an institutional point of view, it refers to the diversity of means, supports, times, and spaces to respond to training demands and thus generate greater coverage and quality of the educational service.

What in the FIFTH ARTICLE.- The following scopes are assumed for curricular flexibility: …

The desirable curriculum is understood as an “intervention hypothesis,” as an investigative project structured around problems or objects of study relevant to comprehensive training within the selected disciplinary or professional field.
A non-subject-based vision that transcends the exclusive treatment of disciplinary knowledge and independent procedures, and fosters academic spaces for integration centered on problem-based, content-based, knowledge-based, thematic nuclei, projects, and common ideas, which allow an approach to and discussion of structuring themes, not only of disciplinary knowledge but also in relation to the natural sciences, technology, the social sciences, and the arts.
The possibility of combining and complementing the participation of different elective learning spaces, mainly proposed by the existing research lines in the respective curricular program.

What in the CHAPTER IV ON INTERDISCIPLINARITY, is defined in the ARTICLE SEVENTH.- For the University, interdisciplinarity is understood as a transversal concept that makes it possible to define the place of disciplines and their relationship with common problem cores, projects, content cores, knowledge cores, and thematic cores, which aims to address professional training by fostering the design of curricula that adequately respond to the development and learning of contextual, basic, and professional competencies required of a professional in a given field of knowledge, with sufficient capacity to get involved and contribute to the resolution of problems related to their own specialty, innovation, and ethical and social commitment.

And define also in the ARTICLE NINE.- Any proposal for curricular flexibility, as indicated in the previous article, requires the creation of spaces for disciplinary foundations in accordance with the expectations and goals of training; spaces for multidisciplinary articulation (where multiple instructors from different learning spaces, disciplines, faculties, or institutions contribute to the understanding of the same problem), and spaces for articulation and interdisciplinary work (progress is made in the construction of connective concepts, methodologies, and the definition of new fields and relationships) based on learning spaces associated with the context (seminars, workshops, and others) centered on the development of the research line(s) of the respective curricular program.

That the ARTICLE TENTH.- it proposes that for the interdisciplinary transformation of the University, it is necessary to overcome the subject-based disciplinary model, of a professionalizing nature, through forms of knowledge management centered on interdisciplinarity and research based on the definition of problem networks.

What in the CHAPTER VI ACADEMIC CREDITS, for that of the academic credit systems in the University has clear purposes established in the SEVENTEENTH ARTICLE, among those highlighted:

Promote the use of and access to different types of flexible learning experiences and environments.
To stimulate within the University's academic units the transformation of course offerings by articulating and integrating diverse pedagogical strategies and modalities

Following the orientation, in the CHAPTER VIII: ACADEMIC SPACES, are needed in the TWENTY-SEVENTH ARTICLE. The forms of expression of learning spaces, recognizing as one of those forms of expression the Practices, which are defined as:

“Forms of work where theoretical aspects of knowledge are brought to light and operational work schemes are developed to contrast hypotheses that shed light on the thematic or problematic situation raised. Due to the nature of the work carried out, the practice can be social, field-based, or laboratory-based. Students carry out the practice based on pre-established theoretical models, collecting, analyzing, and organizing data inherent to the research they conduct with their professors. The professors guide its development by preparing work guides, resolving concerns, or making conceptual or technical clarifications in situ.”

1.2.3. AGREEMENT No. 007 of April 12, 2005 of the Academic Council

Agreement No. 007 of April 12, 2005, which regulates Special Internships at the CCHAPTER I: NATURE AND JUSTIFICATION OF SPECIAL PRACTICES, provides in ARTICLE 1: A special practice is considered to be any academic activity with student participation, carried out outside the university facilities, programmed, planned, and supervised by the professor(s) based on the guidelines defined in each academic program and in accordance with the contents, objectives, and proposed achievements in the subjects and/or thematic cores, seeking to encourage in the student the analysis, interaction, knowledge, and understanding of the processes inherent to their future professional performance.

Similarly, it is established in the ARTICLE SECOND.- According to their nature, special practices are classified as follows:

Visit: An academic activity programmed, planned, and supervised by the instructor(s), with the purpose of introducing and exposing students to operational processes of a technical, scientific, environmental, philosophical, humanistic, artistic, cultural, administrative, or socio-economic development nature, carried out by institutions or organizations, with observation, analysis, and discussion being the fundamental activities. .

Supervised Special Practice: An academic activity programmed, planned, and supervised by the instructor(s), which seeks to put the student in contact and experience with theoretical-practical, technical, and operational aspects of the exercise of the profession and the development of research projects.


1.3. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK – OTHER APPROACHES
1.3.1. Conceptual Approximations

In the analysis of practice and educational practice carried out by Gaitán et al., they establish that the verb to practice is synonymous with executing, doing, or carrying out. The Greeks make a distinction between praxis and poiesis. Praxis (action) consists of performing a morally valuable good (which is an end in itself), presupposing principles that must be understood according to a particular context or situation. Conversely, poiesis (production or fabrication) is a type of action of an instrumental character, the purpose of which is to bring into reality some specific product or artifact. Poiesis is governed by the form of knowledge inherent to techné, which alludes to technical knowledge, acquired and exercised in analogy with manual labor.

Practicing is an initiation into knowledge, into the ways of seeing and the beliefs bequeathed by tradition, through which practice has been transmitted to us in its current form.

Carr (1999) refers to practicing how to act within the framework of a tradition and only by submitting to its authority can professionals begin to acquire the practical knowledge and levels of excellence by which their competence will be judged.

According to Gaitán and Jaramillo (2003), the meaning of practice can also be clarified by distinguishing between actions and practices proper. While the former are activities in the natural or social realm that pursue extrinsic goods—such as power or prestige—; practices are cooperative, coherent, complex, and socially established activities through which intrinsic goods are generated—for example, the practice of medicine seeks the intrinsic good of health; or that of education, the good of learning. This relationship between practice and the attainment of intrinsic goods points to the ethical dimension and its inherent concern for the pursuit of excellence.

On the other hand, Carr (1999) contrasts technical reasoning with practical reasoning. The former considers an action as a means to a known end, and the issue lies in the proper selection of means to achieve it; the latter consists of determining what to do when faced with moral dilemmas, which implies a deliberative and prudent procedure. The wisdom of practice is manifested in knowing what to do in a specific moral situation and in acting consistently with that knowledge. It is a general moral capacity that combines practical knowledge of the good with reasoned judgment about what constitutes an adequate expression of that good in a specific situation.

Practical knowledge is subject to constant critical reinterpretation through dialogue and discussion on how to achieve practical goods.

Practices from a holistic dimension transcend the merely technical conception—which views practice as mere execution and subjects as agents of it, that is, as mere transmission belts of a set of forces that transcend them—for another conception that rescues the symbolic component of the subject, their interpretations, and their capacity for initiative and decision.

As practice is an appropriate expression in a specific situation, it implies that it is immersed in a culture, that is, in the lifeworld, and is expressed and reflected in each of the spaces of daily life through socially regulated habits.
Thus, for Gimeno, practice is an exercise that involves the repetition of actions that occur continuously and permanently, and that are grounded in cultural and normative concepts.

From the perspective of Piñeros and Téllez (2002), every internship must contemplate the approaches to the actual work of the profession, allowing for the development of its own skills, abilities, and aptitudes, as well as the capacity to observe, know, understand, analyze, evaluate, and formulate alternatives for change for the sector involved, and finally to harmoniously integrate theory with practice. This standpoint likewise leads to the consideration that internships must respond to the problems of communities and the strategic needs of the country, requiring their nature to be interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary, with community reach and participation, fostering a transformative capacity of contexts through the generation of knowledge.


1.3.2. The Latin American University Model: The Martian Principle STUDY WORK

The study-work principle is a contribution of the Cuban educational system, which integrates study and work, following José Martí's conceptions on education. Martí summarized the most progressive aspects of the island's pedagogical thought, fundamentally establishing the principle of linking the school with life, teaching with production, and theory with practice. Martí not only defended the existence of scientific education, but also proclaimed the need for Latin America to have an education grounded in the economic issues of the region's countries, whose wealth and resources are fundamentally human talent and the potential of their natural resources.

2. ACADEMIC PRACTICES AS A COLLECTIVE CONSTRUCT

UDECiian internships are part of the core curricular structure of the thematic units and therefore respond to the institutional and specific training intent of the program.

The “internships” category includes: farm internships, special internships, clinical internships, laboratory work, and any setting where there is interaction and skill development that bridges theory and hands-on experience.

The internships incorporate criteria related to connections to life, work, and the acquisition and construction of knowledge within a given context.

Internships are experiential learning opportunities that place students in contact with the real world of the production of goods and services, placing the student at the center of the training process.

The practical exercises foster the identification, interrelation, and integration of concepts, methods, skills, values, attitudes, and habits.

Internships facilitate experiential learning, with students taking an active role in carrying out the activities and tasks typical of their professional field.

The internships are results-oriented, based on previously established competencies and indicators.

Internships, due to their nature and educational intent, encompass an ethical dimension, represented by the responsibility of knowing what to do and acting in a manner consistent with that knowledge in a specific situation.

Internships promote a well-rounded education and the development of a personality characterized by autonomy, reflection, critical thinking, sound reasoning, solidarity, cooperation, and teamwork, so that students can play a leading role in devising solutions to the needs of the region, the department, and the country, thereby making the student a key player in the process.

Internships are one of the pedagogical approaches that, on the one hand, contribute to training the professionals needed by society’s economic and productive sectors (the principle of the study-work relationship); while simultaneously strengthening the development of citizens, thereby fostering human capital with the skills to drive the country’s economic and social transformation.

Practicums allow the teacher to serve as a guide, facilitator, and mediator between the student and the competencies to be developed; as a result, they become a tool for holistically enhancing the development of all aspects of the individual.

3. PRINCIPLES GUIDING PRACTICES

Based on the concept of UDECINA practice, the following principles that guide these practices have been established:

• Ethical
• Curriculum Relevance
• Innovative
• Creative
• Comprehensive and holistic vision
• Interdisciplinarity
Transdisciplinarity
• Self-care
• Caring for Others
• Environmental Stewardship
Rationality
• Efficiency

<sub>BIBLIOGRAPHY

Political Constitution of Colombia. (1991).

National Accreditation Council. (2006). Guidelines for Program Accreditation. Bogotá.

Decree 2566 of September 10, 2003. Minimum Quality Conditions.

GAITÁN, C. et al. (2005). Educational practices and training processes in higher education. State of the art series. Faculty of Education. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. Bogotá.

PIÑEROS, G.; TELLEZ, G. (2002). Reflections on university teaching. Changes and Educational Innovation for the Agricultural Sector. National University of Colombia. Bogotá.

CÁRDENAS, V. (2007). Working Paper – Faculty of Education. University of Cundinamarca. Fusagasugá.</sub>