Abstract:

An open European area for higher learning brings with it a wealth of positive possibilities, but also requires continuous efforts to remove barriers and to develop a framework for teaching and learning to enhance the knowledge of our students. The Department of Pharmacology in the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Valencia has always shown a great deal of interest in new teaching methodologies that allow students to participate actively in their own education with regard to Pharmacology. Ivorra and D’Ocon (2007) described their experience using a modification of “Problem Based Learning” (PBL) to teach Pharmacy School undergraduates pharmacology as applied to pharmaceutical care. The course received high ratings from students. Now, with the aim of collaborating in the development of transverse competences in future pharmacists, the group responsible for Pedagogical Innovation "Pharmacology" has designed a new project, again based on PBL techniques, which facilitates the acquisition of pharmacological knowledge while enhancing students’ capacities both to make decisions and to expound them adequately. The starting point is news items published in both the specialized and regular news media related to medicine and health. A group of four students is responsible for following the story exhaustively and elaborating a documented research report which will be then debated and defended in front of the rest of the class. This paper presents the initial results obtained with students coursing their fourth year in the Pharmacy degree and who were studying “Pharmacology II,” a year-long core course. At the beginning of the course, the students chose news related to the course material which had been pre-selected by professors in the department. In our case, these involved news items on anticoagulant pharmacotherapy, arrhythmias, obesity and diabetes mellitus 2 . The students, who were advised by a professor specialized in the material, had to seek out the pharmacological knowledge necessary for analyzing the news and integrate it into their presentations. They also had to select other relevant or novel facts related to the problem and follow those in the various media. The tutor was available for information throughout the project, meeting personally with the students three times before the project due date, when the group had to present their findings. Finally, in order to facilitate debate on the news item, the day before the final presentation, the students downloaded a summary of the news item onto the virtual classroom website. On the day of the debate at the end of the presentation, the rest of the students were expected to ask questions related to the topic. Finally, the students responsible for the report provided the professor with a project notebook with individualized and personal comments about the experience. Evaluation of this activity was carried out by polling the class with regard to various aspects of the presentation, for example, the level of interest of the news item, the quality of the presentation and the defense of the material, the group’s attitude when answering questions, the participation of the tutor, etc. The results show that the level of acceptance for this activity is very high; practically 100% of the students consider it a positive enhancement of their educational experience.
Acknowledgement to the Vicerectorat de Planificació i Igualtat.Universitat de València (SAF 2009-13059-C03-01)

Keywords:

Transverse Competences, Problem Based Learning, Critical analysis of News.