ANALYSIS OF WORKGROUP EXPERIENCE USING THE COOPERATIVE LEARNING IN ENGINEERING DEGREES IN THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA

The benefits of cooperative learning are known for some time, it is a constructivist approach that makes possible a significant learning for the student. In this way, we use this kind of learning to apply it in workgroups of practical classes. The aim is to improve the academic results of the engineering students in line of The European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
The work is done with the practice groups of the subject called Strength of Materials. This subject is taught in the second course of the degrees of Energetic Engineering and the Miner and Energetic Resources Engineering in The University of Vigo. The matter is common for both degrees, this fact makes that the groups of students are heterogeneous with different academic profiles.
The experience consists in forming different workgroups at the beginning of the semester. These groups work along the course to make the different group activities proposed by the teacher. The differences between them are their composition: some groups are made with students of both degrees while other groups are formed only with members of the same degree; also some groups are made by students against other which are made by the teacher. With two clear objectives, to observe the interaction of students with different academic profiles and the influence between students' works who decide to work together against other groups which imposes group members.