(1418)STRATEGIES TO INCREASE THE EFFICIENCY OF THE LEARNINGPROCESS IN HIGHLY PRACTICAL SUBJECTS WITH A HIGHNUMBER OF STUDENTS: IN VITRO CULTURE IN BIOTECHNOLOGYDEGREES AS A MODEL CASE

摘要

In vitro culture in plants involves a plethora of biotechnological techniques, which include,among others: i) production of virus-free stock plants, ii) micropropagation, iii)development of haploid plants, iv) embryo rescue from interspecific crosses, v) selectionof mutants, and vi) genetic transformation. For a suitable learning process of theseabilities, students are required to acquire both theoretical and, particularly, practicalknowledge. In addition, student work is one of the key points in the adaptation ofeducation activities to the European Space for Higher Education. Thus, academic staffshould innovate in order to facilitate and evaluate self-learning processes. In this respect,practical sessions must be planned in order to allow students initiating a process that hasto be monitored by themselves during several weeks until the end of experiment. Inaddition, practical lessons must encompass as many theoretical items as possible.However, carrying out an accurate protocol of practice lessons in this subject is highlydifficult because of the wide theoretical syllabus. Having a high number of students in thecourses is an additional difficulty. This requires an adequate infrastructure, educationaltools, and an accurate planning of in vivo growing material. In this work two differentapproaches for practical sessions have been compared in the 2007/08 and 2008/09academic years in the subject “In vitro culture and plant genetic transformation” of theBiotechnology degree at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (UPV, SpainM). In theacademic year 2007/08 a total of 72 students were divided into three large groups ofpractical sessions (24 students each), they were provided with an outline of thecorresponding session at the beginning of every session including a questionnaire whichthey were asked to accomplish and to give to lecturers for revision, and lab sessionswere 2h/week. On the other hand, in academic year 2008/09 a total of 90 students weredivided into seven smaller groups (12 students each), which were provided with a bookcontaining all the practical sessions, and practices were divided into 1h of lab sessionand 1 h of homework questions. Advantages and disadvantages were found in bothapproaches, and they were evaluated not only from the point of view of lecturers, but alsoby taking into account the students′ opinions in anonymous polls carried out at the end ofthe semester. The main conclusion was that the learning process was more efficient inapproach used in 2008/09, although it was more time-consuming for lecturers.Furthermore, students preferred this approach as it provides them a better understandingof the applications of in vitro culture. Students also appreciate very much the integrationbetween theoretical and applied topics of our practical lessons. They also found highlymotivating interaction with lecturers.