Abstract:

In this paper we analyze the effect over the students' academic performance of an interdisciplinary innovative teaching experience developed with some subjects imparted in the first course of the Degree in Administration and Management Business in the campus of Badajoz in the University of Extremadura during the academic year 2013-2014.

This project is justified because university teaching is being object of many changes related to the implementation of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The Bologna Process has required to the teachers to modify their teaching-learning methods in order to adapt them to its characteristics.

The subjects involved are Mathematics and Microeconomics. Both of them are part of basic formation and are closely related. Nevertheless, we perceive that students see them as unrelated subjects. This led us to think, joint with coordinate the content taught separately in classes, to do some innovative teaching activity to make students understand the importance of the Mathematics as an instrument in the study of the subject Microeconomics.

In this sense, we have developed the experience teaching innovation with the aim to boost, through an active methodological strategy, the students' learning process. To do this, we proposed a learning activity supported on two teaching innovations: the use of classroom techniques called Cooperative Learning (CL) (Aronson, 1978), and the evaluation of activities and skills through rubrics (Reddy and Andrade, 2010). We called this experience as: Interdisciplinary Cooperative Learning (ICL).

We aim to achieve a double objective: on one hand, to innovate with cooperative methodology among teachers from different areas with the aim to increase the interconnection between subjects; on the other hand, to develop some cross-competencies in students and improve the academic performance of the students.

Besides to test the satisfaction by students and its influence in the development of the cross-competencies, we have analyze the effect of the experience in the academic performance of the students using a non-parametric methodology.

Our results show a positive and significative effect of ICL over the academic performance, higher in the subject Microeconomics. Also, the effect that the ICL activity could have in those students who do not make the experience is positive and significative assuring more its effectiveness.

Keywords:

EHEA, interdisciplinary cooperative learning, academic performance, matching methodology.