Abstract:

The European convergence process has led to major changes in the university setting. In the new context, the student training focuses on learning abilities and methodologies. Furthermore, the acquisition and development of competencies by the students are in the spotlight as well. Hence, the teacher role has changed from a principal actor to a facilitator of learning. Thus, the implementation of the new degrees has involved a design of courses based on competencies (general and specific) and learning objectives. This approach not only requires the development of skills by our students, but also the design of tools to assess them. It may be difficult because not all the competence levels are observable or easily assessable [1].

The Faculty of Science at the University of Burgos offers Degree in Food Science and Technology (FST) and Degree in Chemistry (Chem). In the Memories verification bachelor’s degree 10 transversal skills in FST and 22 transversal and 18 generic skills in Chem are specified. However, these Memories do not include proposals to assess the degree of acquisition of these skills. The elements that contribute to a complete description of these skills, such as how to verify the degree of development acquired by the student and the basic sources where to check the evidences of their achievement are not clearly defined. This deficiency has been revealed in the evaluation meetings held with the academic staff to deal with biannual academic activity, which are conducted by the coordinators of each degree.

This work describes the methodology followed in the development of a teaching innovation project approved in the course 2012/13 at the University of Burgos. The main objective of the project is the development of training materials for the acquisition of generic skills by students in the Degree in Food Science and Technology and in the Degree in Chemistry. This objective involved the yielding of training activities and assessment procedures of five transversal skills (oral skills in academic/scientific presentations, spoken and written English in science, writing scientific reports, collaborative working and ICT management) to provide to the teachers the tools to assist them in the evaluation of their students.

The following specific objectives have been established to achieve this goal:
1. To constitute the working group and define the methodology (collaborative work).
2. To define and establish indicators for selected generic skills.
2. To propose activities that promote the development of skills in students.
3. To develop assessment procedures for skills based on the use of rubrics and to establish its level of acquisition in different courses of the Degrees.
4. To coordinate the execution of the training activities along the different courses of the degrees to promote the gradual acquisition of these skills, to avoid overlaps and repetitions.
5. To elaborate a guide to good practice in teaching and acquisition of skills.

In the present communication, the working methodology applied to develop this project, the work schedule, as well as, the main difficulties encountered in its development, are described.

Acknowledgements:
We thank financial support by Vicerrectorado de Profesorado y de Personal de Administración y Servicios de la Universidad de Burgos (Proyecto de Innovación y Mejora Docente 2012/13).

References:
[1] Rué, J. (2007). Enseñar en la Universidad: el EEES como Reto para la Educación Superior. Madrid: Narcea.

Keywords:

Faculty of Science, teaching resources, training materials, transversal skills.