Abstract:

The university institution in Europe is involved in a process of deep changes to prepare the students for personal and professional life. Educational changes promoted by the integration of the Spanish University system in the European Space of Higher Education (ESHE) (Organic Law 6/2001, Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, 2003) have started proposals of innovation of university education.

The reconsideration of the student's learning as the real protagonists of their learning is the central core of all the reconsideration of the learning at the university. Cooperative learning is based in that students of all grades and content areas achieve more academically, acquire social skills, improve social relations and feel better about themselves (Adams and Slater, 2002; Katzenbach and Smith, 1993).

In this research, an experience of cooperative learning was developed in groups of students which add up as 185 students of six matters of four levels in six different degrees: - Science degrees (Engineering technique industrial, electronic speciality; Engineering technique industrial, mechanics speciality and Chemical Engineering) and humanity degrees (Social education, Fine arts and, Psychology). This strategy has been used by lecturers of different Faculties and Schools of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. These lecturers have experience on groups work in class (Lobato, 1999; Lobato and González, 2008; Apodaca, 2006) and form a Group of Cooperative Learning of the University of the Basque Country.

The students have been distributed into groups of between two and four persons for working in a team. The work consists of resolving with cooperation action, a practical problem, where the success of each student depends on that all of students of the group have attained the settled aims. A questionnaire has been designed and carried out to evaluate methodological competences of working in team and of analysis of the importance of social competences in teams of cooperative learning.

Analysing influence of character of degree (sciences or humanities) in the results of the experience in students of different matters, studied competences have been arranged in two dimensions: interpersonal competences group and instrumental competences group. It is noticeable that in all degrees teams have collective work products requiring joint contributions of members, as has been reported by Katzenbach and Smith (1993) in a discussion of the differences between groups and teams.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was carried out with the financial support of the University of the Basque Country (Project Education Innovation, PIE 35 2007/08; Project Education Innovation, PIE-AC 20010/11).

References:
Adams, J. and Slater, T. Journal of College Science Teaching, 31, 384-387(2002).
Apodaca, P. In Mario de Miguel (Cood.). Metodologías de enseñanza y aprendizaje para el desarrollo de competencias. Madrid: Alianza Universidad, 2006.
Katzenbach, J. R. and Smith, D. K. Harvard Business Review, 71, 111-146(1993).
Lobato, C. Aprendizaje cooperativo en secundaria. Leioa: Servicio de Publicaciones: Universidad del País Vasco, 1998.
Lobato, C and González, P. Borbón, 60(2), 91-106(2008).
Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. The integration of the Spanish university system in the European Space of Higher Education. Document-Framework. February, 2003.
Organic Law of University and European Space of Higher Education. Organic Law 6/2001, December, 2001.

Keywords:

Cooperative learning, teamworks, University teaching, influence of science/humanity degrees.