Abstract:

In our society, educational excellence should be achieved through a joint practice between teachers and learners supported by active methodologies, which will promote a change in the teaching process from a teacher-centered activity to one which is orientated towards students learning (Ribes Greus, 2008).

In this article we focus on the requirements of the new curriculum, because if knowledge is always evolving, how we teach it should be adapted to the current needs of society and the professional demands (González Villanueva, 2015), in order to prioritize a learning process based on the achievement of key competences for lifelong learning (European Commission, 2007).

In this sense, the European Parliament advised their members to reform the educational curricula in order to provide a different approach to teaching methods, prioritizing the implementation of teaching and learning processes based on the use of active methodological proposals, within the context of learning as a constructive process and not only a receptive process.

The review of the new education law in Spain (Ley Orgánica para la Mejora de la Calidad Educativa - LOMCE) which was approved in 2013 by the Spanish Parliament, shows this paradigm:

“An open and participatory global society demands new profiles of citizens and workers who will be more sophisticated and diverse than they are, this aim also requires alternative ways of organization and management in which collaboration and team work can promote a methodological change and an atmosphere where students become an active element in the learning process (LOMCE, 2013)".

Based on this background, we promote the use of Project Based Learning (PBL) as a learner-centered methodological strategy which allows students to investigate, integrate theory and practice, develop an active role in their own learning and apply the knowledge and skills acquired (Aliane and Bemposta, 2008). Furthermore, PBL helps students to organize their knowledge building since projects involve the transformation and construction of knowledge as part of the students responsibility in order to develop research skills and reach a goal: The final result. Therefore, projects are relevant in order to strengthen key competences for lifelong learning because projects involve students in constructive investigation.

Our project is an experimental proposal through project-based learning designed to be used as a guideline as well as a starting point for teachers who want to implement this new methodological initiative.

The project is entitled "Human Speech Expert" and it has been designed to be applied at primary schools, with pupils ranged between 9 and 10 years old. Our project is formed by 25 sessions and it focuses on the field of Natural Science. The project has two aims. On the one hand it provides students with an insight into the main aspects of the human body regulation (physiological bases). On the other hand, our project shows the instructions and actions that a teacher would need to develop an intervention in a proper manner, following the PBL method: action planning, implementation, communication, monitoring, reflection and evaluation (Han and Bhattacharya, 2008).

Keywords:

Primary school, project method, educational innovation.