Abstract:

Education of structures construction subjects related to the execution works in technical degrees is complex [1,2]. Knowledge and skills acquired come from two sources: First from a scientific-technical one, based on the structural analysis that allows understanding how the intended to build solution really works. On the other side, there are the Standards and Regulations, understood positively, as the agreement reached by the profession, represented by its most eminent technicians, facilitating the safety verification, complying with certain simple rules.

Related to the first topic, it is necessary to spend time, not considered as a progress in the curricula of construction subjects, with the purpose of developing some elementary concepts of structural analysis. This allows ensuring that the student does not understand the subject as a simple catalog of details, without understanding different cases and why they must be used. Regarding the second topic, the situation is more complex. A great effort must be dedicated to achieve that the student understands that these rules are not whimsical and an absurd obligation to fulfill [3].

When a regulation has been established for a long time, the drafters or some other expert in the field, through official application guides, develop fair explanations of the reasons why these rules have been adopted [4,5]. Therefore, when an on force regulation that is included into subject content undergoes a significant change, the problem becomes more complicated. Mainly because clear explanations of the reasons for the change, to help the understanding of new students, are not yet available. On the other hand, grade repeaters, who learned in previous years with the past regulations, are difficult to convince that these are coercive in nature, but they are intended as a decision-making aid.

In this second case, the critical spirit of the student, hard to develop, turn against the change due to affordable explanations have not yet been developed. Going further at this stage, different opinions of the editors, representing different interests inside the building process, are not always in agreement with each other.

The subjects of Construction of Steel and Concrete Structures in the degrees of Edificación y Arquitectura Técnica have recently undergone one of these dramatic changes. On November 10, 2021, the Structural Code came into force, which replaced the previous EHE and EAE. Its inclusion in the BOE consists of 1,789 pages and currently is lacking of any application guide for the whole document.

With such difficulties, increased by the limited time of the study plans for class work in these subjects, problem-oriented teaching has been chosen under the flipped classroom format. A problem for the student is set for homework. In this way, the aim is to involve them in the topic before discussing the solutions, and, on the other hand, avoiding the rejection of the application of rules which are presented , showing them as a tool that helps in decision-making. Once this previous work has been completed, a correction is made in the classroom. Each student checks its own practice with the teacher's guidance and encouraging the discussion process.

The adoption of this method results best in these situations, since it is impossible to apply the classic master class and final assessment methods. The results are yet to be established at the end of this term.

Keywords:

Teaching methods, Engineering education, Structural engineering, Building design, Structural design.