Abstract:

In 2001-2002, sixteen European countries proposed to facilitate the process of university convergence, developing strategies regarding to learning contents as well as in the general competencies. Then, the Tuning Educational Structures in Europe Project arises, where "competence" is defined as what a person is capable or competent to perform, and the degree of preparation, sufficiency and/or responsibility for certain tasks.

The concept of competence seems clear and well defined for most teachers, but sometimes it becomes confusing when it is not directly related with assimilation by the student of a set of contents of basic areas of knowledge. The European framework establishes two types of competencies, transversal and specific. Many teachers are more accustomed to the last ones, they are referred to specialized knowledge and they must show explicitly the learning outcomes of a course. The first ones are a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that will enable a graduate to afford a successful problem solving or intervention in a professional context.

Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) is developing a change in the educational model inherent to the process of European Convergence. In this context, recently, the goal of evaluation of the transversal competences was established by the Structures Official Titles.

The UPV has taken into account the experiences of other universities, scientific literature and international guidelines to establish thirteen competencies that are being implanted in degree and master.

In line with this strategy, during this course, the School of Telecommunications Engineering established “control points” related to the different transversal competences. Each subject of the curriculum, must evaluate at least one of these competences.

The subject Environmental Acoustics (assigned to the Department of Applied Physics), participates actively in the implementation of competences “Application and practical thinking” and “Effective communication”.

Thus, the applied physics teaching unit decided to consult other experienced teachers, in order to lead our teaching action in a way that facilitates the student’s acquisition of skills. A fruitful cooperation with Professors of applied mathematics was then established in order to face the teaching of the subject from a more comprehensive and accurate view.

From this cooperation arises the evidence of the importance of practical thinking and transference of knowledge to the professional reality.
A survey is conducted at the end of the course in order to determine the level of satisfaction with the teaching methodology and with the progress in both competences achieved.

Keywords:

Competencies, Teaching-Learning Methodology, inverted/flipped classroom, labour market.