Abstract:

Traditionally, learning by knowledge plots has been developed in such a way that the student learns in each subject a specific knowledge in an isolated way, without interconnection with the rest of the knowledge taught in other subjects. This learning model does not help the global understanding of the knowledge that the student must acquire and that will have to interrelate when they develop their work, even if they have not been taught. In the traditional model, the student is not taught interrelation and deduction skills that are fundamental for all sciences and in particular are vital for health sciences.

Due to these limitations, the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was created to change the traditional learning model, using the new Learning and Knowledge Technologies (TAC) and new pedagogical trends like Global Learning. In addition, the use of TACs allows the development of key aspects of the EHEA in a simple way, which leads to an improvement in learning and the acquisition of digital skills.

Taking this into account, we developed a Global Learning strategy for Toxicology students in order to teach them to interconnect the toxicology knowledge with the rest of the knowledge taught in other subjects. The students were subjected to different questions and problems that needed to be solved using the integration of the different knowledge learned from different subjects. Finally, we developed a competitive/collaborative quiz, using an information and communication technologies (ICT) tool, to answer, both in class and at home, different questions about the problems posed that needed to be solved with the integration of the knowledge of the toxicology lessons and that of several other subjects they had studied. We developed the same process in a class where we did not performed the methodology commented above.

Finally, we compared in both groups of students the correlation and deduction skills and the capacity of solve problems that need the integration of different knowledges. The student group where we performed the Global Learning strategy presented more advanced correlation and deduction skills and solved, in the majority, of the cases the problems posed, while the other students’ group was not able to solve the problems in over 50% of the cases. Therefore, this experience leads us to believe that the use of this methodology may lead to acquire correlation and deduction skills leading to not only improvement in the academic performance but also to adapt easily to the real world. Further experiences must be performed to corroborate our conclusion.

Keywords:

EHEA, Global learning, Correlation and deduction skills, Toxicology.