Learning Theories applied in Engineering Education: a case study

Learning theories, developed in the twentieth century, show models of how people learn certain content. Our goal in this article is to study the theories of learning, to help engineering teachers understand their current classroom activities and to have the tools to develop new projects, “best change” in their students. This is a case study and analysis that will have a period of three years of observation and data collection and experience, this study is being applied in the discipline of “Energy, Environment and Sustainability” of the first semester of the first year of Electrical Engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of Sao Paulo - Poli-USP. Theories to be worked will be: Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Humanism and a study of hybrid application. To be able to contribute to this study, we embrace the principle that an explanation will be followed by a concrete example, so that people can understand better. This theory will then be explained in an engineering classroom setting, where this theory fits better. The methodology encompasses: review of the literature to base learning theories and the case study; an analysis report; classroom examples; and a case study to verify the application of the theories of learning.