Seminars in problems as educational strategy for technical teaching: An experience applied to Geotechnical Engineering

Abstract

Students of Civil Engineering often find a great amount of difficulties inthose courses where the practical application of the theoretical concepts is essential. This paper describes a strategy of apprenticeship developed in the 4th-course subject called “Infraestructuras del transporte”, connected with Geotechnical Engineering, (Civil Engineering). This strategy is supported on the technique of seminars and on the problem-based learning (PBL), and has been carried out for six years. Students have showed a significant interest and motivation for this activity and their opinions respect to the utility of these seminars have been absolutely positive, thanks to several factors such as: flexible schedules and tutorials, the coordination between seminars and theoretical learning, the set of problems and practical cases proposed, the organization of the seminars and a fluent communication between students and teacher. The content of this document is organized as follow. First, it is exposed the general context where this subject is developed, and also the most relevant characteristics of this career. After that, it is described this educational experience which is focused on the major difficulties for our students. Moreover, it is explained the objectives and the methodology, highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. Finally, it is analyzed the results and the main conclusions.

Keywords

• aprendizaje basado en problemas
• estrategia docente
• seminarios
• experiencia docente
• ingeniería civil
• universidad