More than 100 teachers participated in a workshop on intellectual virtues at the Universidad Austral
More than 100 professors from all faculties of the Universidad Austral They participated on Thursday, March 12, 2026 in the workshop “Intellectual virtues in the Universidad Austral", an academic day aimed at sharing progress on an institutional project that the university has been developing for four years to to promote the cultivation of intellectual virtues in their students.
The project —called Research-Based Character Education— is led by an interdisciplinary team of researchers in philosophy, psychology, and education. Its objective is to strengthen in students fundamental intellectual dispositions for academic and professional life, such as Curiosity, sustained attention, open-mindedness, intellectual rigor, and intellectual humility.
Within the framework of this initiative, during 2025 More than 130 professors from all university programs participated in a curriculum redesign process, reviewing their subject programs to incorporate concrete opportunities to practice these virtues in the classroomThe workshop held on March 12 brought together many of the teachers involved in this work with the aim of reflecting on the progress of the project and sharing research results and pedagogical experiences.
The day began with two lectures by international guests. In the morning, Edward Brooks, director of the Oxford Character Project at Oxford University, he presented the lecture “Character education in higher education”, in which he addressed the role of universities in shaping the character of students and how intellectual virtues can be integrated into university teaching.
Then, Michael Lamb, director of Program for Leadership and Character and professor at Wake Forest University, gave the lecture “Seven strategies for cultivating virtues at university”where he presented various pedagogical tools to foster key intellectual dispositions in the learning process.
During the afternoon, Belén Mesurado presented the results of the evaluation of the intellectual character of the students of the Universidad Austral completed in 2025, offering an empirical look at the development of these dispositions in the student community.
The day concluded with the panel “Cultivating intellectual virtues at the UA”The event, which included sharing the results of work carried out over the past three years, featured student testimonials, the presentation of results from a qualitative study with faculty, updates on the curriculum redesign process, and a presentation on the university's educational model. The meeting concluded with remarks from the Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs and a discussion with the participants.
We are making available the interview conducted by the media outlet INFOBAE with professors E. Brooks and M. Lamb: The seven strategies for working on character in the classroom
