Trajetórias turbinadas: análise dos discursos e práticas de aprimoramento cognitivo farmacológico no ensino superior

Abstract

The present study sought to understand how and which mechanisms of pharmacological or non-pharmacological cognitive enhancement medical students at Ufam use to improve their performance in their studies. Cognitive enhancement aims to improve cognitive performance for academic purposes. Throughout the interviews, themes emerged that helped construct the paper as a whole. The phenomenon of cognitive enhancement is related here to the educational process of these students, the teacher-student relationship, as well as the psychological illness generated by medical training in some students. The charge and self-charge, the structure and dynamics that the disciplines are structured, the methodologies and the ideas of productivity are directly linked to the ideals of neoliberalism in education as a whole, including higher education. This dissertation is part of a larger research project carried out under the Amazon Academic Cooperation Program, which studies the social and educational experiences of Amazonian students. The research was conducted through a qualitative approach, used the constructive-interpretative perspective presented by González Rey (2002), aiming to enrich the analysis of the data through conversation in a dynamic way to construct the results and their respective categories. The results indicated that, based on the interviews, the main strategy mentioned by the students is the consumption of energy drinks, especially in the days before exams or seminar presentations. In second place, caffeine - a substance that is already part of the students' daily life - and which is consumed routinely, but which they say they no longer feel the effect "to stay awake", as some interviewees mentioned. In last place, the consumption of methylphenidate was mentioned by only one student. Another fact found is related to the ideals of performance and success that the students present in their speech. The statements point to a view that they do not study enough, that they need to stay up all night to be able to complete all the contents presented by the teachers and that they will be required to do in exams. One issue worth mentioning is that all the interviewees mentioned mental health as a latent theme in their academic life. Another fact present in the survey is the importance of teacher training in medical education, because all interviewees reported that there is a gap in the didactics of some teachers and their teaching methods, and that this directly impacts the assimilation of content and their performance in the discipline. From the above, it is considered important to think about the importance of teacher training in medical education, thinking about enriching the formative process of students, optimizing the academic routine. In addition, the mental health of the students needs to be assisted, thinking that staying in the course should not produce processes of illness and suffering, as was mentioned by the students.