Abstract:

Within the professional field of Architecture, training in structural calculation in general, and in the design of reinforced concrete structures in particular, plays a very important role. However, this field involves complex contents, which makes difficult their acquisition by the students. On the other hand, in the context of the European Higher Education Area, the new teaching and learning methodologies have experienced a great deal of development. Among them, the problem-based learning methodologies could be very useful for improving the teaching of reinforced concrete structures for Architecture students.

In this work, it has been analyzed the results obtained in the subject “Structures 3” of the Fundamentals of Architecture degree at University of Alicante (Spain) during the last five academic years (from 2015-16 to 2019-20). The contents of this subject cover the fundamentals of the reinforced concrete structures design, as well as the design of elements of moderate complexity made with this material. The methodology used in this subject combines a problem-based learning methodology, consisting of two project works, with some classical assessment items. The discussion of results has been made for each one of the evaluation elements, including an overall comparison between them, in order to detect possible weaknesses and strengths, as well as for planning improvement proposals in next academic years.

As a general conclusion, it is important to highlight that the results of the project works of the problem-based learning methodology are considerably better than those obtained by the students in the classical assessment items. Therefore, the proposals for enhancing the learning and teaching process in the subject should be focused on increasing the problem-based learning works, at the expense of classical ones.

Keywords:

Experiences in Higher Education, problem-based learning methodology, structures, reinforced concrete, learning and teaching results, Architecture.