Abstract:

The teaching-learning process involves the use of several methodologies such as theoretical and practical lessons, workshops, seminars, tutorials, etc. All together, combined with self-work and self-learning, help students develop not only theoretical knowledge but also cross-, general- and specific-skills. Nevertheless, lecturers often set these cross-skills aside and their objective is usually focused on the acquisition of specific knowledge.
The aim of the present work was to carry out an activity focused on an active, cooperative and interdisciplinary learning-process among students from health science degrees, in order to develop their cross-curricular skills: ability to analyze and synthesize, criticize, involve in a multidisciplinary teamwork, communicate and manage information in professional areas.
For this purpose, students worked in multidisciplinary work teams, with the guidelines of a tutor, and prepared a speech concerning healthy feeding habits and hygienic practices in the prevention and treatment of nutrition related diseases. At the end of the speech students answered the questions raised by the audience. Depending on the group of attendees (children, teenagers, parents, adults, elderly, etc.) students had to adapt their talk. The teams were completed with students from different degrees (Pharmacy, P; Human Nutrition and Dietetics, HND; and Food Sciences and Technology, FST) and years (2nd, 3rd and 4th).
Each work was peer-evaluated. On the one hand, the audience filled in a satisfaction questionnaire which included aspects such as the clarity of the speech, the interest of the topic, the usefulness of the material and information, the duration of the speech or the fulfilling of their expectations. On the other hand, each tutor evaluated the work of the students from the beginning of the process till the end.
A specific rubric was designed to evaluate cross-curricular skills. This kind of tool is used in order to have an objective and uniform evaluation by the tutors (all tutor used it) and it can also be useful for students because it allows them to get a self-evaluation.
The obtained results were in general very good. Three out of four students obtained a mark higher than 8 (81.9%). None of the students failed, and only 7% of the students decided not to take part in this activity. Better marks were obtained in higher years comparing to lowest ones (mark above 8: 78% in 2nd year vs. 85% in 3rd and 84% in 4th year). Better marks were also obtained by students from P and FST than those of HND. In relation to the attendee’s evaluation, the questionnaires indicated a good performance of the students. All the evaluated aspects reached a score higher than 4 (in a scale from 1 to 5). However, depending on the age of the audience the aspects more positively evaluated were different. Children and teenagers distinguished positively the received information, whereas elderly people appreciated more the attention and answers given to their questions by the students.
The results obtained by the students in this work suggest that the development of cross-curricular skills depend on the year, and thus, probably on the age of the students. The outcomes obtained among the attendees suggest that these kinds of speeches are, in general, very well appreciated by the public. Nevertheless, depending on the range of age, the support (kind of information and attention) should be different.

Keywords:

Cooperative and active learning methodology, Cross-curricular skills.