Abstract:

The aim of this work was to determine the use of audiovisual narratives (NAV) as a didactic tool by teachers of the Centre for General Studies (CEG) of the National University (UNA), Costa Rica; as well as the courses and disciplinary areas that use them the most, and to know their origin. Methodology. In order to elucidate the way in which the AVN are used in the CEG courses, the syllabus of the 76 courses that were taught during the first semester of 2014 were analysed. Results and conclusions. Half of the teachers of the CEG use AVN (documentary and fiction). Mainly thematic use of NAV (pretext). Areas which use AVN most (Science and Technology, Philosophy and Literature) and the most resorted AVN are those originated in the United States.

This work, of a qualitative nature, emerges from the author’s teaching practice as a professor of film appreciation in the CEG, which is the pedagogical and multidisciplinary nucleus of the university, where all the new students must go through, indistinctly of the course they enroll at the university.

Academic authorities at the CEG are planning to move from the current multidisciplinary composition of the Centre towards interdisciplinarity, as a preliminary step to a transdisciplinary way of approaching the praxis that governs the CEG (Curriculum Redesign, 2008). This is how this study on the teachers’ common practices at the Centre begins, regarding the use of NAV in the light of the courses’ syllabus given during the first semester of 2014.

Keywords:

Audiovisual narrative, general studies, Multidiscipline, Interdiscipline, Transdisciplinary education.