Abstract:

According to the guidelines of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) together with the implementation of new curricula, the acquisition of core skills has become especially important. Those skills will allow the students to the development of personal resources to integrate in the specific skills of each degree, to finally improve the professional profile of the graduates. The Technical University of Madrid has recommended a number of general skills to be included in all the new degrees in the new curriculum.

It is quite appropriate that these core skills that students must acquire during their university education, start in secondary education. So, if students get to the university with at least a basic level for these skills, it will allow students to achieve higher levels of proficiency.

To this end, the acquisition of general skills, specific to university education should be coordinated with the basic skills under the Organic Law of Education (LOE / 2006) for Secondary Education (ESO) and the high school.
Therefore it is necessary and appropriate to carry out educational innovation work that incorporate high school and university teachers, forming thematic networks for exchange of teaching experiences at different levels. Specially on learning and assessment of general and basic skills.

Through the establishment of such networks thematic learning activities and assessment of skills in the university may be coordinated with those carried out in secondary schools. This can facilitate the adaptation process of high school students into college.

One of the tools to develop several general (in college) or basic (in high school) skills, is the cooperative learning (CL). The CL is an active learning method based between teamwork of students, in which, through the use of different techniques and activities where students work together, they can achieve a common goal previously proposed. In addition, all group members must be responsible of achieving that goal. This learning system allows students to work as well as the specific skills, various general skills such as oral and written communication, organization and planning, creativity, leadership and decision-making or teamwork.
The studied skills are included in the requirements and recommendations for the implementation of new degrees at the Technical University of Madrid (Advisory Commission, created by agreement of the Governing Council March 27, 2008).
The paper presented describes the methodology used in three case studies of CL. One, developed in the course of Diseases and Pests of the Degree of Agricultural Technical Engineering of the College of Agricultural Engineering (EUITA-UPM) and the other two, in the second course of high school (Begoña College- FUHEM).

The work was done in groups of three students. Each member of the group was responsible for some of the work. In addition, the group had to plan, distribute the work, investigate and analyze the problem, relating it to specific and general skills of the subjects involved in the project. The work of each group was evaluated by specific tools, developed or adapted by the teachers who participated in the experiment. The activities, methodology and evaluation tools were also developed. In addition, specific surveys were done to assess the achieved degree.

Keywords:

Networks thematic learning, general competencies, cooperative learning.