Abstract:

The Technical University of Valencia launched a Transversal Competences program in 2011 for the improvement and evaluation of 13 competencies common to all bachelor’s and master's degrees. The 6th transversal competence refers to teamwork and leadership. In this context, this work details a methodology for the evaluation of the teamwork and leadership transversal competence, including a practical class to work on this competence and a rubric to evaluate it.

The methodology consists of a debate on a topic that encompasses different matters that have been studied in the subject. Students are divided into various groups and roles with competing interests are assigned to each group. First, the groups work to prepare the debate. In this first stage, the lecturers assess the teamwork of each participant and detect those who have a greater leadership capacity while the groups develop their discussion strategies. In this stage, the groups must also choose a representative to defend the interests of the group in the subsequent debate. Finally, during the discussion activity the evaluation is refined, considering the arguments that have been developed by the team and the capacity of the chosen leader.

The methodology was applied to the subject Water Resources Systems of the Master in Hydraulic Engineering and Environment of the Technical University of Valencia from the academic year 2014/2015 to 2021/2022. In this subject, basic and advanced concepts of hydrological planning are studied, including assessment of water resources, water allocation, reservoir management, optimization, decision-making strategies, etc. The subject is taught to two groups of approximately 20-25 students per group.

To develop the proposed methodology, the students were grouped into teams that represented different roles related to water use and management (urban supply, irrigators, hydroelectric producer, industry, environmental protection agency, basin agency, etc.). Students worked as a team during about 45 minutes to tackle different problems related to water supply, hydroelectric energy production and the environment, defining possible solutions and discussing their advantages and disadvantages. After the teamwork stage, leaders of the different teams discussed the solutions proposed by each group.

To evaluate the transversal competence of teamwork and leadership, we elaborated a rubric, which comprised three indicators and four possible marks for each indicator. The rubric was applied both to the group and to each student. After eight academic years of application of the methodology, it has been proven that the overall knowledge of the different topics covered by the subject has been significantly improved. In addition, this practical activity with conflicting interests between the teams has increased the dedication, involvement, and interest of the students. Last, but not least, this activity has led to an improvement in teamwork and in the leadership capacity of the students.

Keywords:

Water resources, teamwork, leadership, debate, rubric.