Abstract:

The university is the reflection of the society of the future, where solutions to the most innovative challenges are sought, it is the source of knowledge and critical thinking, and it is committed to research as a driver of change. For all these reasons, university education must be student-centred, conducting actions that favour the empowerment of young people and create an environment of autonomous and collaborative learning. In this sense, for several years now, the Educational Innovation Group in Applied Physics at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Edificación de Madrid has been developing new active methodologies that promote learning and try to adjust to all students, understanding their heterogeneity and highlighting the importance of applying technological resources to develop the competences required of the engineering professionals of the future.

Inquiry-based learning (ABI) is an active methodology that aims to offer students the possibility of participating in real research processes that are being conducted at the university. The students, applying the scientific method, oversee verifying or not the veracity of a previously proposed hypothesis, to give an answer to a real problem that is useful for society. During this process, the teaching staff acts as a guide for the teaching-learning method, accompanying the students, supervising the full process, and resolving any doubts and inconveniences that may arise during the process. Thus, the aim is to prepare students to be able to solve complex problems independently, bringing them closer to the reality they will have to face in their professional future and introducing them to research processes that go beyond their own interests. In this way, an integrating vision of knowledge is developed, relating daily learning to the curricular contents of the different subjects.

In this paper, a proposal is presented to implement the ABI methodology in the university teaching of undergraduate studies in building. To this end, we show the steps followed with undergraduate students to reinforce some of the contents included in the subject of Physics of Installations. With a markedly experimental nature, the proposals made aim to instruct students by conducting laboratory tests and relating the results obtained to the theoretical content taught in the subject. The aim is to encourage students to think critically and to teach certain contents of the subject in a more enjoyable and realistic way. This work shows a methodological tool that can be used by university teachers linked to technical careers related to building, including the steps followed for the implementation of the methodology, the timing of the sessions and the evaluation methods used, which have shown satisfactory results for use in the classroom. This work has been supported with the help of the educational innovation project of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid with reference number IE22.5402.

Keywords:

Inquiry-based learning, university teaching, building, educational innovation.