the teaching-learning process of older students university: assessment of the teaching function

The process of education - learning in the bosom of the university for major supposes knowing the characteristics of the learning of this group of population. In the same way, the education must be adapted to these characteristics, for what the professional who exercises his educational function in this area will have to be a specific professional whose formation is integral, adapted to this population and socially skilfully. The knowledge is not definitive, the static learning and not even the major persons have to have the opportunity to accede to a dynamic and permanent learning to facilitate an integral development to them.

In this article the characteristics of the teacher are identified and value for the frame of the University Programs for Major (PUM's). For the bosom of an research evaluative, under the model Cipp de Stufflebeam (1989), the major ones, the coordinators of the Program and the teachers valued different aspects of the educational function. This educational evaluation carried out during the first three courses of the Program UNED SENIOR. It was formed from four types of evaluation that the model was demanding: context, entry, process and product, being multiple the variables identified for the investigation. There were elaborated 9 questionnaires, one by course and group of participants. 3 populations were estimated: Pupils (N1); Teachers (N2) and Coordinators (N3); and three representative samples were calculated for every application. The study carried out with a total of n valid for every population of n1=1083, n2=124 and n3 = 33. The instruments turned out to be highly trustworthy on having presented Spearman-Brown's coefficients between 0,7 and 0,9.

The technologies of analysis of classification, reduction and segmentation demonstrated the features and skills of the teacher, as well as they formed the "ideal" characteristics of a good teacher in the area of the PUM's. In addition the results showed that the major pupils demonstrated his interest for an educational active and participative methodology that should help them to fix the knowledge and they will provoke satisfactory changes in his personal and social life.