Abstract:

This work details an activity intended to improve the attention, involvement, and participation of students during the classes. The activity consists of asking ten students at the end of each class possible exam questions on the topic covered in that lesson. The most interesting questions proposed by the students could be chosen by the lecturers for the exam. In this way, the students feel involved in the entire learning process. We assume that students can share with each other all the questions they ask at the end of the class, but this would imply that they should study, at least, ten questions of each lesson. In addition, to avoid dishonest behaviours, it is not ensured that all the exam questions are chosen from those proposed by the students.

The methodology was applied to a subject of the Master in Hydraulic Engineering and Environment of the Technical University of Valencia: Water Resources Systems. This subject covers basic and advanced concepts related to hydrological planning and management, including, but not limited to:
(i) assessment of water resources,
(ii) water resources allocation,
(iii) management of reservoir,
(iv) optimization of water resources, and
(v) strategies of decision making.

The subject is taught to two groups with about twenty to twenty-five students per group.

During the first academic course of application of the activity, we have observed that the attention and interest of the students during the classes have significantly increased. In fact, some of them volunteered to ask additional questions to those of the ten students selected for that lesson. The questions evolved from more general to more specific during the academic year. The proposed activity also helped to detect the topics with the greatest difficulties for students to understand. Consequently, after analysing the questions raised by students in some lessons, we decided to explain in more detail during the next class some of the matters covered by the questions.

The activity detailed in this work contributes to the first transversal competence (understanding and integration) of the Transversal Competences program that was launched by the Technical University of Valencia launched ten years ago for the improvement and evaluation of thirteen competences common to all bachelor’s and master's degrees. Other early results derived from the proposed activity will be presented during the conference.

Keywords:

Water resources, questions, exams, students, learning.