MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEACHING AND ASSESSING COMPETENCY IN TEACHING TECHNIQUES

As it is known, the incorporation of learning skills within the European Higher Education Area (EEES) has led to new approaches in University teaching. This causes changes in lecturers’ work and raises the development of new teaching strategies

From the Research Group Faculty of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, RIAD (project-based learning), we designed a hybrid between the actual experience project-based learning and teaching skills. The centerpiece of the experience is based on the interdisciplinary nature implicit in technical education.

First, we established a project that allowed the participation of both lecturers and students in varying degrees. This project centered on the design of a warehouse, since this case allowed the participation of both lecturers and students of Engineering and Architecture.

Then we decided which specific skills would be developed by choosing those specific cross-cutting technical training as well as offering the opportunity of acting from different fields of knowledge. Thus, skills regarding participation were mainly sought, and so competencies systemic or methodological, that is, on the application of knowledge and problem solving in the professional field.

Second, onto education level, supported learning is favored in the active role of the learners to construct their own knowledge. Regarding this aspect the students developed their ability to investigate mainly on literature sources and then fit the project. This methodology is embodied in two tasks:

1-Development of a "open tabs" that allow a continuous data entry.
2-Making a multimedia presentation

At first, the engineering students were responsible for setting the coordinates of action based on the analysis of the territory and operations requirements. In a second stage, students of architecture would prove the satisfactoriness of these coordinates in certain architectural models previously chosen for their architectural peculiarities. The result of this research would complet the chips, previously completed.

Finally, this type of learning should also be accompanied by an evaluation method, according to that system, that would adequately measure these skills.

For that the lecturers developed two evaluation rubrics tailored to each of the two tasks. To incorporate the specific evaluation of the different degrees were awarded different ratings for each of the dimensions, taking into account the particularities of each degree. Thus, the dimensions take on different weights in the overall mission, contributing to a different final score.