Abstract:

Introduction:
Physiotherapy students must have achieved the competence to perform their profession optimally once they have completed their university training process. Professional skills are understood as all those knowledge, skills and aptitudes that an individual must develop during their training at the university. Two types of competences can be distinguished: specific, which are specifically related to the profession; and generic or transversal, related to the implementation of aptitudes, values, capacities... and that can be divided into instrumental, interpersonal and systematic. The objective of this educational proposal is to explore the impact of cooperative learning (CL) and individualized learning (IL) in the acquisition of transversal competence.

Methods:
A prospective, evaluator-blinded, nonrandomized, controlled trial was planned. The proposal was implemented in the Respiratory Physiotherapy subject of the Degree in Physiotherapy at the University of Valencia, during the 2021/22 academic year. This subject consists of a theoretical program (15 sessions lasting 1 hour) and a practical program (13 sessions lasting three and a half hours each). The intervention proposal was carried out in the practical module of the subject. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University under number 1689798. Participants were assigned to two groups: individualized learning group (ILG) and informal cooperative learning group (CLG). In the ILG, practical teaching consisted of student learning through the application of different manual and instrumental techniques explained by the teacher, complemented by the exhibition of videos exposed in health centers and analysis and resolution of practical assumptions that keep relationship with respiratory physiotherapy. For each of the proposed contents, activities were carried out that the student must solve individually. In the case of the CLG, the teaching was carried out the same as in the ILG, with the difference that the resolution of the proposed activities was carried out through groups. The evaluations were carried out before beginning the practical sessions (T0) and once the practical program finished (T1). Sociodemographic data (age and gender) were analyzed. For the evaluation of transversal competences, the questionnaire for the evaluation of generic and socio-emotional competences created by Solanes et al was used. This questionnaire presents a Cronbach's coefficient of 0.95. This tool is made up of 45 closed questions, Likert type, of 5 points, with 1 being the lowest score, and 5 being the highest. In addition to the total score, it presents 6 subcategories.

Results:
A total of 87 students participated, 55.2% were women and the mean age was 21.54 years. In the results between groups, no statistically significant differences were observed (p>0.05) in the initial evaluation (T0), nor once the practical program had finished (T1). In the intragroup analysis on transversal skills, ILG did not show statistically significant differences between T0 and T1. However, the CLG showed a statistically significant improvement both for the total score of the questionnaire and in the category of systematic competencies: leadership, learning ability and work motivation.

Conclusions:
Informal cooperative learning can be a teaching-learning strategy that favors the acquisition of transversal competence, especially systemic competence among physiotherapy students.

Keywords:

Transversal competence, cooperative learning, individual learning.