Abstract:

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) meant a change in the teaching model, moving from traditional teaching, mainly based on the "master class" which encouraged students to learn by heart, to a teaching model in which students actively participate in a continuous process of building up their knowledge and strengthen their abilities, and in which the teacher is the guide and orientator of this learning. This paradigm change promoted by the EHEA requires the consideration by teachers of implementing different teaching methodologies to replace traditional teaching methods in which the student acquires an active and important role in his or her own teaching-learning process and which allows the acquisition of knowledge and the development of competences to process it.

Among these learning methodologies, Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is one of the most appropriate according to the objectives proposed by the EHEA, as well as being one of those with the greatest potential. PBL is a teaching-learning strategy that promotes the identification of the student as the centre of and responsible for his or her own learning. In addition, it incorporates many important pedagogical elements such as cooperative and active learning, rapid feedback, real-world problem solving, etc. More specifically, PBL is an active learning methodology in which students, in small groups, develop skills and acquire knowledge by solving problems similar to those they will have to face in their professional future. This methodology has several advantages, such as improving students' expertise on the subject and their ability to solve real problems, increasing their critical capacity to analyse information, generating a greater development of professional competences, etc. All this makes PBL methodology of great interest for implementation in final year undergraduate subjects, where students are close to entering the professional world.

This work describes the experience of the implementation of the Problem-Based Learning (PBL) methodology in the optional subject "Materials. Design and Restyling" of the fourth academic year of the Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). In this case, in order to carry out the methodology described, a real problem was proposed to the students, who were divided into small groups, in order to solve it during the laboratory practices of the subject. In this case, the problem proposed to the students was to lighten the weight of a specific racing motorbike part, specifically the front fork crown, without affecting its behaviour under the stresses to which it is subjected.

Keywords:

Problem-based learning (PBL), Learning methodology, Mechanical Engineering, University Degree.