Abstract:

The adaptation process to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) provides an opportunity for incorporating new methodologies for making students play the main role in the learning process. In this context, a group of lecturers from the Public Economics Department of the University of Barcelona began in the 2012 academic year a new pedagogical experience, which consisted in the introduction of case-study methodology in the subject Economic Evaluation of Public Policies, taught at the third year of the Political Science undergraduate programme of the University of Barcelona. The aims of the experience were the following: Firstly, making more attractive the subject to non-economists; secondly, developing skills such as collaborative work and critical analysis; finally, increasing the academic performance of students. We were able to match academic performance with information retrieved through a personal opinion survey. This paper presents the preliminary results of this experience. High levels of student satisfaction and motivation seem to show the success of the project. Additionally, 2012 students outperform their 2011 colleagues.

Keywords:

Case-study, academic performance, political science.