Abstract:

Most university students, once they have finished their studies, recognized that they have difficulties in the interrelation of concepts acquired during their studies in their professional practice. In addition, employers commonly report that recent graduates have difficulties in solving problems or connecting different concepts. University education must face the challenge of developing all these competencies to bring students closer to the business sector in order to ensure the acquisition of professional competencies. This paper analyses the teaching experience in the implementation of practical cases in the teaching of water treatment to final year students of environmental sciences. During the development of the whole course, different exercises have been proposed to the students in which they have to faced real problems on water treatment that could be encountered in their professional practice. They are very similar exercises proposed in previous courses but the statement has been transformed in such a way that the student is forced to the interrelation of acquired concepts. In essence, the student has been forced to face exercises in which students are not asked to determine a parameter or to carry out a pre-design, but rather to analyse a design or propose modifications in an installation in operation in order to achieve a result. During the resolution of the exercises the students have to implement critical thinking and self-teaching, with the objective of reaching a solution to the proposed exercise. The results reveal that this methodology allow them to have an applied and practical vision of acquired concepts, allowing them to relate the academic world with the professional world.

Keywords:

Professional competencies, critical thinking, troubleshooting, self-learning.