(1486) EVALUATION OF AN INNOVATIVE TEACHING LEARNING STRATEGY: INTERDISCIPLINARY PECHAKUCHA NIGHT ON HUMAN RIGHTS

摘要

In recent years university teachers face an educational challenge with the need of promoting in ourstudents a different type of learning: meaningful, interdisciplinary and linked with competencies thatthey will have to apply in their future professional practices. This ambitious goal demands innovativeteaching and learning strategies, far away from traditional teaching methodologies such as lectures,practice case studies or lab work. Cross-curricular competencies included in most of the universitystudies include varied skills such as critical thinking, aptitudes for teamwork, creativity or theapplication of an ethical sense in the daily professional practice.Trying to help our students to develop these skills as part of their learning experience, severalteachers participated in a cross-curricular project with students from different degrees at the UniversityComplutense of Madrid. Specifically, our students have elaborated PechaKucha presentations about acommon topic which can be easily analyzed from an interdisciplinary perspective: Human Rights.Participants in the study were students of degrees in very diverse areas of knowledge such as HealthSciences, Science, Social Sciences and Humanities.One of the biggest challenges teachers address when they design innovative learning practices isrelated to the evaluation of the benefits of this experience. Very often, innovative experiences in theeducational settings are assessed using informal evaluations or, at best, asking the participants howinvolved and motivated they felt while taking part in the activity. All these information can be necessaryand useful for students and teachers, but optimally they should be completed with additionalinformation about the real gain for students? learning. Deeper and systematic evaluations of theexperience will allow teachers to determine the effectiveness of the innovative practice and to identifypossible areas of improvement.With this aim, we designed and applied two types of evaluations. Firstly, our students evaluated theirperception of improvement in the cross-curricular competencies after their participation in the project.Also, they completed a complementary survey to analyze additional data such as their satisfactionwith this learning tool, with their teachers? support, perceived benefits in general, problems andpossible aspects to improve. Additionally, our own teaching experience was also analyzed askingteachers participants in the innovative project to quantify their perceptions about their studentsimprovements, as well as benefits and problems faced during the project.Data from the different degrees and courses was analyzed and discussed in relation to some previousexperiences using Pecha Kucha in University settings. The evaluation of this innovative experience will help us to improve the design and development ofsimilar teaching strategies in the future, allowing us to reflect about our teaching practice and ourstudents? learning experiences while participating in an innovative educational practice.