Abstract:

The implementation of innovative models of Higher Education practices has led policy makers to promote the design of different learning experiences. These educational interventions have had the development of the competences as the main objective for their deployment. Different approaches have already been implemented and reported in HE: project-based learning (PBL), problem-based learning (ProBL) and challenge-based learning (CBL) are among them. Pre-service teacher education becomes, in this sense, an essential part in this shift of paradigm since future practitioners should also get involved by transforming their instructions according to the principle of these active methods.

This paper reports on how pre-service teachers identified the principles of the learning experiences they had engaged in during their education. Different groups of pre-service primary school teachers who were specialised in Physical Education (PE), Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) completed a survey. They identified, according to the description offered by the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, the approach, the type of learning experience, the outcomes they produced and the process they had followed, moreover, they were asked to identify the role their lecturers had undertaken in those learning experiences.

Results suggest that pre-service teachers recognised that the experiences they had taken part in were aligned with the principles stated for the CBL as far as the kind of learning situations, the approach envisaged and the process they had got involved in are concerned. The responses with respect to the outcomes of the learning experience and, particularly, the role of the lecturers seemed to be more in line with the design of PBL and ProBL.

Keywords:

Active methods, Problem-based learning, Project-based learning, Challenge-based learning, Higher Education, Pre-service teachers.