Abstract:

More than five years after the full development of the Degree in Law, within the framework of the European Higher Education Area, in the Faculty of Law of the University of the Basque Country-Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, the faculty has had occasion to note the advantages and weaknesses of the new Curriculum. In our efforts to implement successfully new forms and methods of teaching and learning appropriate to current demands, in the context of cooperative learning, 16 faculty teachers, in charge of all the subjects that make up the curriculum, are immersed in the implementation of a project of educational innovation or intervention in the classroom that is focused on, what in our opinion, in general, is a weakness of our Degree, and, in particular, of the teaching-learning method that we are implementing: students reach the Last year of Law Degree without the skills and competences necessary to carry out and defend the Final Degree Project (FDP).

The FDP represents the culmination of Law Degree and its overcoming is the best evidence of the acquisition of the skills required to the jurist. Effectively, the FDP, integrated in the fourth module of Law Degree ("Specialization, Research and Practice of Law"), seeks to establish generic and transversal competences of the degree, among which are included:
(1) capacity to critical analysis, interrelation and integration of legal knowledge;
(2) oral and written communication;
(3) capacity for synthesis and exposure, with the use of argumentation and critical reasoning techniques and
(4) management of own learning process towards an integral and respectful formation with democratic values.

Faced with the posed problem -that we read as a challenge-, the mentioned group of teachers, made up of people with more and less experience in educational innovation, have joined forces to:
(1) verify objectively the issue, delving into its causes;
(2) design a program or plan of action, covering all the subjects of the Degree in Law, based on active and autonomous learning;
(3) implement it and
(4) evaluate it. All guided by the noble intention to improve the learning of law students in the acquisition of basic skills of the degree

The ideal pedagogical resource, in order to achieve our goal, is the active and autonomous learning of students. We consciously drink from these sources to improve the teaching-learning process. In the framework of active learning, we understand essential to use strategies in our teaching that actively involve the students, so that they obtain a deeper understanding of the contents, which allows them to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills (analysis, synthesis, argumentation and defense), while we motivate them, and encourage interaction and work with their peers.

In this, fully linked, process, what is called autonomous learning, self-learning or self-directed study becomes equally important. It is necessary to work with students the ability to detect deficits in their own knowledge and overcome them through critical reflection and the choice of the best performance in this regard.

We propose to present in EDULEARN-2019 our intervention project in the classroom, explaining its formulation and implementation, sharing our experience with other participants.

Keywords:

Competences, Final Degree Project, Intervention project, active learning, autonomous learning.