Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Abstract
A Pilot Experience on Cooperative Learning was developed with vocational training students of Advanced Level in Building Construction and Civil Engineering of the Atenea Secondary School (Ciudad Real). The aim was to improve their professional skills in the field of sustainability and, in particular, wastewater treatment by planning, designing, projecting and building artificial wetlands; this a innovative and distinctive competence that will facilitate their employment in an environment with demand for skilled technicians in water purification systems that are more sustainable in both environmental, energy and economical terms. For this purpose, a transdisciplinary team of university professors was formed, who are specialized on building and civil engineering, environmental technology, ecology, ecological engineering, hydraulics, hydrology, geotechnics, geology, geomorphology, geography, territorial planning, teaching and pedagogy. The methodology used was Project Based Learning (PBL), that has been used for some of the team members since 1999 in the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM). Students were asked to propose, design and project an artificial wetland to treat wastewater from a rural home, museum or restaurant that they had projected earlier to rehabilitate the ruins of a 19th century water-energy-industrial foundry known as Martinete de Los Pozuelos de Calatrava (Ciudad Real). The major milestones of the pilot experience were: i) Pre-assessment of students knowledge, ii) Lectures to provide new theoretical concepts essential to develop foreseen specific, iii) Independent student work supervised by teachers from closed scripts and supply of teaching materials and literature, iv) Classroom and field workshops, v) Continuous assessment of individual work in class (interest, participation, success in the resolution of the issues raised by the teacher), final evaluation in group through oral presentation and written report, and issuing diplomas for further recognition of free credits, vi) Evaluation of the pilot experience was done by surveying students about methodology, content and development of classes, results obtained and other comments that they wished to include, vii) Dissemination by opening an account in the facebook social network, writing a press release for publication in local media, and professional editing a CD with graphic and teaching materials. The most remarkable result of the pilot is that PBL methodology is a revolution for vocational training students, used to deal with tools and practicalities commonly based on closed standards and protocols; instead, cooperative learning requires facing real limitations, such as a relative lack of information, developing the project with this uncertainty, and making decisions on the level of complexity of the solutions to adopt. This has resulted in an overall very positive experience for the students (over 95%), who were especially pleased with the results (100%) and the content and development of educational activities (more than 95%)
