PROMOTING OF LEARNING SKILLS IN THE STUDY OF ECONOMICS. PILOT PROJECT IN THE SUBJECT AREA OF THE WORLD ECONOMY

This communication is part of a larger teaching innovation project financed by the University of Barcelona, whose objective is to develop and evaluate a transversal competences of the UB, learning ability and responsibility. In this sense, the work presented here part from the results obtained in phase 1 and 2 previously implemented in other courses in the first year of the degree of ADE. The competence is divided into several sub-competencies being the ability to analyze and synthesis the most intensely that has tried to work in the first year (Mathematics and Economic History). In these subjects there were deficiencies in the acquisition of this competence by the students. The work in the subject of Mathematics facilitated that students become aware of the deficit. The work on the subject of History insisted on developing readings schemes and with the practical exercises was sought to go deeply in the development of this competence.
The third phase presented here is developed in the framework of the second year Economic and Business Administration degree, World Economy subject, and continues in some of the groups that developed the first and second phase in the first year. The objective of this phase is the development and evaluation of the same cross competence in previous phases, from a practice that includes both, quantitative analysis and critical reflection. Specifically the practice focuses on the study of the dynamic relationship between economic growth and the dynamics in the distribution of wealth.

The practice design as well as the selection of materials to make it, has been directed to address gaps in the ability to analyze and synthesize detected in the subjects of the first year in the previous phases of the project.

The practical case designed is structured in the following stages:

-Identification and justification of economic indicators needed to perform a comparative analysis between two countries, one with high income and another with a low level of income (GDP growth, GDP per capita, and evolution of the GINI coefficient for each one ).
-Handling of databases (provided by professors from the Luxembourg Income Survey statistics, SEDLAC, CEPALSTAD, EUROSTAD, World Bank, UN, UNDP).
- Interpretation of indicators and carrying out quantitative analyzes.
-Approach of a critical reflection where is manifest the student’s ability to synthesize.

The realization of the practical case is considered are adequate methodology to improve the acquisition of competence of the students, then it is also proposed how to evaluate the acquisition of such competence. The practice is evaluated based on a rubric developed in the framework of the project objectives.
Thus at the end of phase 3 we can analyze the process that have followed the students, detect where they have had major difficulties and identify those aspects of teaching that can help to improve the acquisition of skills by the students.
The interest of this phase resides in the possibility to value whether tracing of learning through competences, organized in a collaborative way, is a good tool to develop the acquisition of these skills and facilitate their evaluation.