New educational strategies: evaluation of the Jury Trial technique for training council members in women's health in Santa Catarina,Brazil

This article describes and evaluates the Jury Trial technique, an innovative educational instrument used in a pilot workshop on Social Control and Gender by health council members in Greater Metropolitan Florian polis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. The reliability and validity were studied based on the participants' opinions, complemented by qualitative observation of the work. There was consensus in acceptance of the technique based on "acquisition of knowledge" and the fact that it was participatory, democratic, and dynamic. The positive evaluation agrees with a previous study that interviewed municipal health secretaries, with a smaller preference of formal cognitive activities that were also part of the workshop. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of this innovative technique in training programs, since it is accepted by different target publics, allows for designing the program contents, and is useful in relation to new and controversial issues since it favors practical and reflexive experiences.