THE CHALLENGE OF IMPROVING TEACHING METHODOLOGIES IN OVERCROWDED GROUPS: EXPERIENCES IN BASIC MECHANICS

摘要

One of the Bologna directives establishes as an objective the adoption of a unified system of credits covering lifelong learning activities. However, the application of this directive entails a reorientation of most of the engineering studies in SpainMwhich may be difficult to be carried out in practice. The reason is that, traditionally, the objectives of the subjects have been defined on the basis of contents and not in terms of skills and learning outcomes. Current trends in teaching methodologies are based on an individual support of the students to be performed by teachers, turning their classical role of “transmitter of knowledge” into a new one of personal supervisor that guides the students in the construction of their own knowledge. In spite of the fact that this motivating methodology introduces a lot of advantages for the students, the big number of students in a single classroom in the first years of the engineering studies in SpainMprevents the teacher from applying this teaching/learning methodology in a direct manner. In this context, we analyze the underlying problem that exists in pursuing a change of direction in the teaching methodology of basic subjects of Mechanics. We also present a proposal to gradually modify the traditional teaching strategies in order to accomplish the objectives proposed by the European harmonization. The existing problems have been observed from the point of view of the Mechanics subject, taught in the first year of the degree in Mechanical Engineering, but can be extrapolated to any other engineering discipline. The initial situation can be summed up in three main points. First, it is necessary to remark that most Spanish universities still maintain the classical teaching methodology based on lectures and an evaluation through a single final exam. Therefore, an adaptation to the new teaching-learning methodologies has to be done. Sometimes, these changes are very difficult to perform because we are dealing with overcrowded groups where a customized monitoring of the student is unfeasible. This is still an unresolved problem and a challenge in the field of educational innovation. Secondly, the student profile in our classrooms has changed in last years. The new students have good skills in information technologies but sometimes lack of autonomy. In fact, these students require a more personalized attention than before. Moreover, their strategy to prepare the evaluation often consists in selecting the easier parts of the subject, avoiding the study of the rest, which leads to an incomplete training to successfully face future subjects as well as their professional career. And thirdly, new initiatives collide not only with the reticence of the teacher but also with the very attitude of the students who, in many cases, prefer to maintain the classical evaluation scheme rather than the continuous assessment, which requires a constant and continuous effort along the entire year. In this paper we thoroughly analyze the three aspects raised, considering them in the specific case of the Mechanics subject, with 236 students enrolled in a single group. We propose a gradual adaptation to the new educational paradigm, beginning with the modification of the content and the evaluation of the subject. We have obtained satisfactory results with an increase of more than twice in the number of students who passed the course over the previous year.