PROJECT BASED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: STUDENT’S PERCEPTION OF TRANSFORMING TRADITIONAL LEARNING INTO AN ACTIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVIST EXPERIENCE

Introduction:
Project Based Learning (PBL) is defined as a cooperative work carried out within a project by a group of students during the period of an imparted subject (Larmer, Mergendoller, & Boss, 2015; Poel & Van der Krogt, 2003). Different researchers have valued positively this methodology and pointed out some advantages: is a dynamic way of learning (Katz & Chard, 2000), the way that competences are learnt motivates the students (Willard & Duffrin, 2003), students get a better perception of the learning process (Rodríguez-Sandoval et al., 2010) and let the students improve their skills to apply knowledge to other learning situations (Mitchell et al., 2009).

Objective:
The main purpose of this paper is to describe how the students perceived their learning process based on PBL methodology focusing on:
a) perception of competences acquisition,
b) perception of learning possibilities.

Methodology:
The sample was composed by 464 students from the University of Huelva (N=347; 74.8%) and the University of Murcia (N= 117; 25.2%), enrolled in the second year of Infant and Primary School Teacher Degrees. The measuring tool was a questionnaire elaborated for this purpose (Cronbach Alfa= 0.932). The questionnaire consisted of a total of 53 items divided into: Students identification variables (items 1-9) and a measure of the Degree Competences using a Likert Scale (1: Totally disagree to 5: Totally agree): Generic Competences (items 10-27), Specific Competences (items 28-35) and Transversal Competences (items 36-40). Further, the questionnaire measures student’s valuation of the project and perception of transfer knowledge possibilities (items 41-53). Additionally, the questionnaire has an open part where students can express what they value most or missed about learning through PBL. For this paper we focused on items related to Generic, Specific, and Transversal Competences.

Results and Conclusions:
After applying PBL, results related to Generic Competences showed that students valued positively working in groups as a way of learning, solving individual questions and progressing in their own learning construction. In addition, the project was perceived as contributing to become aware of the need to make research and intervention related to children with special needs. In relation to Specific Competences, what the students valued most was the possibility given by the project to learn about children’s learning differences in non-normative and normative development. Lastly and in relation to Transversal Competences, what the students valued most was the possibility of learning how to use scientific instrument of measurement that could be applied to different subjects. On a scale 1 to 10, the global valuation on how the project improved their learning possibilities was M=8; DT= 1.208.