Abstract
During the 2012 to 2013, 2013 to 2014, and 2014 to 2015 academic years, 20% of course time within the subject Sociology of Education, in the Pedagogy, and Social Education undergraduate degrees run by the University of the Basque Country, was devoted to Project-Based Learning. The aim was to design, test, and evaluate an innovation and educational improvement experience oriented toward fostering the competences linked to the subject, using active, and participatory methodologies. The design of the exercise involved preparing the Teacher and Student Guides, outlining the context of the project and its objectives, drafting the statement or scenario and the justification and specifying related topics, expected work, previous knowledge required, activities planned, deliverables, resources to be used, evaluation systems and schedule, among others. The results, which were based on student notes and opinions, were positive: Project-Based Learning enables active student participation, fosters contact with reality, and results in significant learning for their professional future.
Introduction
The changes that have occurred in society and higher education over recent years and decades require us to innovate in relation to teaching methods (Commission for the Renewal of Educational Methodologies in Spanish Universities, 2006). Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an active, participatory methodology that may help with this effort to renew teaching practices. University of the Basque Country has decided to train its teachers in this and other methodologies (Case Studies, Problem-Based Learning, etc.) within the framework of programs designed to change and improve the teaching-learning processes coordinated by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching Quality and Innovation, with the aim of developing a pedagogic model that is both cooperative and dynamic. This paper describes the experience tested during the 2012 to 2013, 2013 to 2014, and 2014 to 2015 academic years, in the subject entitled Sociology of Education, which forms part of the first-year course of the Pedagogy and Social Education undergraduate degrees. The aim was to design, test, and evaluate a PBL experience. In this article, first we will discuss the theoretical framework, then we will explain the design of the experience, and finally we will present the results and recommendations.
Antecedents and Theoretical Framework
Over recent decades, the world has been transitioning toward a type of society in which factors such as change, complexity, and information are likely to become more important than ever. What type of education do we need to live in and transform this society?
One of the most important characteristics of the new model required is a shift toward an approach in which competences become the backbone of educational practice (Delors, 1996; González and Wagenaar, 2003), with the term “competences” being understood to mean elementary know-how (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values) that enables subjects to cope with new challenges, both now and in the future (Table 1).
From a Traditional Educational Model to a Competence-Based Approach (López, 2011).
This new discourse implies a questioning of not only the contents in which students should be trained, but also the teaching-learning process itself, which should seek to foster the development of new methodological proposals (active methodologies) which place students at the center, thus moving beyond the traditional system based on the teaching of different disciplines, toward interdisciplinary methods of learning in which students are active protagonists (Anderson, 2017). In this endeavor, learning tasks are of vital importance, since they must integrate knowledge, skills, and attitudes, as well as be authentic in nature. In other words, they must be relevant, reflect the complexities of the real world and be linked in some way to larger-scale projects.
The education system is therefore faced with the challenge of moving toward a teaching model in which students are trained to ask questions, conduct research, select and organize information, analyze data, draw conclusions, and express them in an appropriate manner.
Within this context, University of the Basque Country has developed a pedagogic model called “Cooperative and Dynamic Learning,” in which it defines the foundations for responding to these needs. The project has already been launched through several different programs coordinated by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching Quality and Innovation. One of the programs for change and innovation is ERAGIN, the aim of which is to provide training in active learning methodologies (Problem-Based Learning, Project-Based Learning, Case Studies, etc.).
Many universities are currently using these active methodologies, with all evidence indicating that they generate positive results in teaching-learning processes. Of the many advantages offered by the use of these methodologies, educational research has highlighted the following: greater motivation, interest, and involvement among students; students earning their degrees in a shorter time frame, and fewer dropouts; greater retention of the knowledge acquired; greater development of professional skills and competences; closer links between theory and application and between previous and learned knowledge, and greater integration of knowledge across different disciplines.
Characteristics of Active Learning Methodologies
In general, the different active methodologies all share a number of common characteristics:
They encourage students to participate actively in the knowledge construction process. In other words, they encourage them to conduct their own research, analyze the information obtained, study how different types of knowledge relate to one another and suggest possible conclusions.
They develop skills, attitudes, and values in a deliberate, scheduled manner.
They enable real-life experiences which permit the acquisition of real-world knowledge and foster a commitment to the local environment.
They promote the development of collaborative learning through group activities.
They enable students to participate in their own learning process. This in turn helps foster autonomy, decision-making skills, and a willingness to take responsibility for and accept the consequences of one’s actions.
They take into account students’ previous knowledge and personal experience.
A project, problem, or case study is used as the starting point for the learning process, during which emphasis is placed on asking questions rather than on providing answers.
The project, problem, or case study is the context in which the contents required for its solution are related to each other and integrated. They are often interdisciplinary in nature.
By linking theory and practice, students learn to relate specific experiences to theoretical concepts.
Project-Based Learning
In our case, we chose to focus on Project-Based Learning (PBL), a teaching strategy in which students work in groups to develop projects based on real situations (Bender, 2012; Boss et al., 2007; Patton, 2012). Students work together to research problems and propose solutions, thereby developing the skills they will need later on in their professional careers and personal lives, including cooperation, the ability to conduct research, creative thinking, communication, and time management, among others.
By searching for information and using other resources also, they complete a series of tasks in order to create a product. The aim is for them to learn by doing, and in the process to acquire the ability to work in the way they will be required to in their future professional practice. In short, the aim is for students to learn how to learn.
The first characteristic of this pedagogic technique it is to present situations in which students learn to solve unresolved problems, using relevant knowledge. The second characteristic is that work focuses on exploring and working on a practical problem with an unknown solution. The third is that tasks may often require the use of interdisciplinary knowledge. In this way, during the development of the project, students come to appreciate the relationship which exists between different disciplines. The fourth feature is that it enables the search for open solutions (i.e., students may adapt the project to their own interests and skills).
This technique shares some fundamental characteristics with Problem-Based Learning: both techniques are based on real situations or problems; both seek to develop high-level intellectual skills (analyzing information, formulating judgments, taking decisions, etc.); both offer challenging and motivating learning scenarios; both are frequently multidisciplinary and almost always require cooperative work; both reverse the conventional learning process, using a specific project or problem as their starting point; both are based on self-directed learning, with students working in groups while the teacher plays the role of facilitator; and finally, both attach equal importance to the end product and the process itself.
The technique of linking learning to real problems has been applied in the university sphere for over 100 years now, since the Harvard Business School started to develop its Case Study methodology during the second decade of the 20th century. During the 1960s, the Faculty of Medicine at McMaster University, in Canada, innovated by including Problem-Based Learning in its curriculum (Woods, 2006). In Europe, two benchmark institutions in the application of these methodologies are Maastricht University in Holland and Aalborg University in Denmark (Kjersdam and Enemark, 1994). In the field of Project-Based Learning, it is also important to cite the Buck Institute of Education in California (pbl-online.org; biepbl.blogspot.com.es), although to date it has mainly focused on pre-university levels (Lamer, 2009; Markham et al., 2003).
In Spain, two National Conferences on Project-Based Learning have been held (San Sebastián, 2011 and Seville, 2012), and several interesting websites exist on which the community working with PBL shares their experiences: pbl-abp.blogspot.com.es, proyéctate.ning.com, etc.
Steps to Design a PBL Experience
When designing a project, the following steps should be taken into account:
(1) Establishing context. The following elements should be clearly identified: the period of the year in which the project is to be carried out; the number of hours which, on average, students should dedicate to the project, and how many of these hours will consist of class time with the teacher; the previous knowledge that students have in relation to the project topics; and the size of the groups and the criteria to be used to determine them.
(2) Establishing the project topics and aims. The first thing to do here is decide upon the driving question which will serve as the starting point for the project. The next step is to enumerate the topics to be dealt with and draw up an initial list of educational aims to be achieved: what are students going to learn? and what are they going to learn how to do? Abilities to be developed may include (among others) “autonomous learning,” “searching for information,” and “design skills.”
The driving question must ensure that the project is intriguing, challenging, complex (i.e., it should encompass various activities and require students to synthesize different kinds of information), problematic (i.e., it should have no clear means of resolution) and connected to the real world. It should also have different possible solutions for which discussion and decision-making are required. Some examples of driving questions are: How can I design a telecommunications antenna? How can I send a rocket to the moon? Should institutions intervene in the price of natural resources?
Two of the basic considerations to bear in mind when designing the proposal are the degree to which it should be a structured proposal (more structured in the first years of the degree course, more open in later years) and the difficulty level of the task itself. In this sense, different types of projects can be identified, ranging from shorter ones lasting 3 to 4 weeks, which are highly structured with a limited variety of solutions, to longer ones lasting 6 weeks or more, which are extremely open and have many possible solutions.
(3) Drafting the first version of the project statement, which reflects the topics and learning aims involved.
(4) Establishing a list of deliverables. It is important to specify what products need to be developed and delivered during the course of the project, and clear indications should be provided regarding whether the deliverable is a group or individual one.
(5) Establishing quality criteria for the deliverables and specifying the evaluation processes to be used for them and what percentage they contribute to the final grade awarded. It is best to start by outlining the general evaluation context for the subject as a whole, before explaining how the project itself will be assessed. A separate document should be drafted for the most important deliverables, outlining the criteria to be used to assess the quality of the product. An estimation of the evaluation process for each deliverable should also be carried out, in order to guarantee that feedback is given to students as soon as possible, so they can take any corrective measures they deem pertinent.
(6) Drawing up a list of the types of activities to be engaged in. Some examples would be: reading the material, explanatory classes, cooperative learning techniques, and task resolution sessions.
(7) Establishing the way in which the project will incorporate the five ingredients for cooperative learning: positive interdependence, personal accountability, face-to-face interaction, interpersonal and small group skills, and group processing.
(8) Drafting detailed weekly plans: tasks to be carried out in and outside the classroom, indicating which are individual and which are group tasks, estimated time for each and deliverables expected, etc.
(9) Specifying the materials to be prepared, indicating the handing-in deadline for each in order to ensure the project moves forwards in accordance with the established time schedule.
(10) Drafting the project guide. This is a document for students which clearly outlines the following points: the project aims, the project statement, the list of deliverables and partial results, the quality and evaluation criteria, the references of the reading material, and the detailed weekly plans.
PBL Assessment
For project assessment, the first step is to draft a list of clear evaluation criteria linked to the project aims, which are normally focused on developing competences (finding information, originality, drafting of scientific reports, cooperative work, oral communication, etc.).
When working with projects, in most cases both the end product and the process itself are assessed. This means that teachers need to supervise students while they are carrying out their tasks (plans, sources of information, preliminary drafts, initial versions, etc.). This also helps students learn that good results are not always achieved the first time round, and that success is a process of constant revision. To this end, in addition to being evaluated by the teacher, students also engage in peer review. This consists of each group of students periodically reviewing the work carried out by other groups, and assessing it in accordance with a set of common, shared criteria. This peer feedback system helps improve both the corrected work and the work carried out by the reviewer group, since it offers them the opportunity to compare their project with the one they are charged with supervising.
The evaluation system should be clearly established before the commencement of the project (what is to be evaluated and how?) and it is important to provide timely feedback so that students have the chance to rectify and correct their work. The evaluation rubrics or sheets designed to measure competences help ensure objective, systematic assessment processes.
Given that, in the majority of cases, Project-Based Learning is carried out in small, collaborative groups, special attention is paid to individual responsibility in the written or oral tests, in which students are required to explain the work process followed and the results obtained, both to their peers and to the teacher.
Method: Planning and Implementing the Project
Based on the training received in Project-Based Learning during the 2011 to 2012 academic year, within the framework of a 350-hour program coordinated by the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching Quality and Innovation at University of the Basque Country, over the following three academic years we tested and evaluated this methodology in the subject Sociology of Education, which is taught during the first common term of the Pedagogy and Social Education undergraduate degree courses.
Preparing the Teacher and Student Guides
The specific competences developed by the subject are: (1) Learning about and understanding the contributions made by sociology to the analysis of the educational field; and (2) Learning to analyze society from a scientific perspective, particularly in terms of the relationship between society and education. And the cross-curricular competences: (3) Oral communication (4) Drafting of scientific reports (5) Cooperative work, and (6) Positive attitude to learning.
The six topics which together make up the subject are as follows: (1) Education and society. The main contributions made by sociology to the scientific study of education: Durkheim, human capital theories, reproduction and correspondence theories, and resistance theories. (2) Education and social change: postindustrial and postmodern society. Education in the global information society. The principal social problems of our time: global inequalities and environmental issues. (3) The socialization process and its agents. (4) Education, economics, work. Social and educational inequality. Transitions from school to employment. (5) Education for an intercultural, democratic and non-sexist society. (6) The sociology of the curriculum, educational institutions and education stakeholders (professionals and users of educational institutions).
The project comprised an analysis of a specific social context. Students were asked to analyze what their chosen context (a neighborhood, town, city, or region) is like now and how it has changed over recent decades. It is an exercise in applied sociology, in which the aim is mainly to develop the subject’s second specific competence, as well as the four cross-curricular competences. It is most closely linked to the second topic (education and social change).
In order to present and describe the project, a statement or scenario needs to be issued which acts as a kind of simulation of the type of tasks students will be required to complete during their professional careers. In the subject Sociology of Education, we used the following statement: “As part of its strategic plan for the coming years, your Local Council wants to carry out an analysis or diagnosis of the situation regarding education in your city. Well aware of the relationship which exists between education and the social context, it has charged your consultancy firm with conducting the initial phase of the diagnosis, namely the sociological analysis of the city.”
The justification for the project is based on the idea that, through the work carried out, the students will develop and improve the competences required to become good social educators and pedagogues (scientific analysis of society, drafting of scientific reports, teamwork, and oral communication skills).
The project accounts for 20% of the time dedicated to the subject, as well as 20% of the final grade awarded. In other words, it accounts for 30 hours of a 150-hour subject and is worth six ECTS credits. The scheduled activities, deliverables, work load, and project timeline are outlined in Table 2.
Weekly Project Schedule.
As regards the grade awarded for the subject, 20% corresponds to the project and the remaining 80% is distributed as follows: 50% the portfolio containing the subject exercises (one per topic), 20% minimum level tests (mid-term exams), and 10% class participation.
The first draft corresponds to 20% of the final project grade; the final report 50% and the project poster and oral presentation 30%.
The first draft and final report are evaluated in accordance with a rubric that takes into account the quantity of the work, the amount of information found and presented, and originality. Other factors included in the rubric are: in addition to providing a list of institutions, organizations, and facts and figures related to the political, cultural, and educational fields, does the project highlight and describe in detail one, two, or three different cases, experiences, or projects? In the political field, does the project include issues other than voting? Does the project identify links with themes and theories featured on the subject syllabus? In addition to descriptions, does the project offer any kind of analysis or interpretation? Does it include qualitative data? Have students gone out and talked to people? Does the project include quantitative data? Have any new data been generated? The presentation is assessed in accordance with another rubric which takes into account content (the level of preparation, the clarity of the explanation, and timekeeping), talking style (force and volume, tone, use of silences), and body language (eye contact, hands, posture, and movement).
Working Schedule for Students
Given that students are in the first term of their first year at university, a more structured, less open type of project was chosen here. Consequently, in addition to the usual sections (driving question, statement, aims, planning, grading system), the project guide also proposes a working schedule with the following minimum phases: (1) an introduction and an analysis of history, geography, and demography. Students must locate their town or city in the world and in history, linking with Topic 2 (Social Change): how has society changed from a traditional one to an industrial-modern one, and then again to a postindustrial-postmodern one? What is required is a brief historical overview, underscoring only the most important facts or moments. Here, an initial interview is proposed (it can be either formal or informal, i.e., the interviewee could be a family member), the aim of which is to ask about the most important changes that have occurred over recent decades. Students must also analyze how geography has influenced their town or city, and in the section on demography, must analyze aspects such as total population, distribution among neighborhoods and age groups, among others (i.e., data published by the National Statistics Institute or Local Councils). (2) In the second phase, students must carry out a political-economic analysis covering electoral results, the make-up of the local council and main political debates, etc. In the economic analysis, they should focus on their city or town’s principal economic activities, most important companies, and economic data. They should also be encouraged to analyze social inequalities, either using official data or by conducting a small survey: what is the mean salary level in the neighborhood? How many wage earners are there per household? How many computers per household? How many cars? What type of jobs do people have? (3) In the third phase, students focus on culture, popular figures, and festivities, conducting an in-depth analysis of the most important or interesting cultural activities and organizations, rather than simply listing all of them. The analysis of migratory movements is also important in this phase: facts and figures (percentage of immigrants in the neighborhood, town, or city, comparing the data with those from other similar size areas or geographical contexts). Students are expected to conduct interviews with both immigrants (their stories and reasons for leaving their country of origin, their relations with local citizens and goals for the future, etc.) and natives (analyzing their attitude to immigrants), as well as with principal intercultural and immigrant associations, etc. Here they must use the data and reports published by the Immigration Observatory of the Basque Government. (4) The fourth phase focuses on education. Since participants are students of Pedagogy and Social Education, this should be the most important part of the project. Students should, at the very least, compile a map of the main school-based and non school-based educational centers-organizations-projects, seeking to answer the following question: where do pedagogues and social educators work or where can they work? Furthermore, in addition to this description, they should also try to engage in some form of analysis: main projects, challenges, problems, nature/prestige of each center, etc. In this section they must also conduct at least one interview with someone working in the educational field, asking them what they think about the situation of education within the chosen context, and the principal problems and challenges associated with it, etc. For international data, students are encouraged to consult Eurostat (Education and Training), Eurydice (Key data on Education reports), UNESCO, and the OECD (statistics, Education at a Glance and PISA reports, etc.). (5) Finally, students summarize the most salient results of their research, the gaps detected in the social-educational field and their proposals for resolving these problems in the form of a series of conclusions.
To give students an idea of where to find information and how to present their results, they are encouraged to consult both studies published by professional sociologists and projects submitted by students during previous academic years on the virtual campus or the university intranet’s e-repository. They also conduct interviews with experts from the local council, for example (head of social services, head of the child and adolescent affairs department, head of the immigration and multiculturalism department, etc.).
Since the study plan last reform, the undergraduate degrees in Pedagogy and Social Education run by University of the Basque Country have been organized in accordance with a modular structure, with each term focusing on a specific module in which the subjects and practical sessions are coordinated and integrated in order to improve interdisciplinary work and the coherence of the degree as a unified whole. Within this structure, the subject Sociology of Education forms part of the first module (“The contexts of education”) and the subject project forms part of the module’s Interdisciplinary Activity, an exercise which aims to develop the module competences and which consists of drafting and presenting a written report on a real educational context (a school, social education institution, or educational reality). The idea is to give students the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the different contexts in which their profession is carried out. Each group of students chooses a social context and then describes and analyzes it in an interdisciplinary way from the perspectives of the different subjects that together make up the module, following the general guide for the exercise and the specific guides proposed by the teaching team.
Results
An analysis of the work submitted by students (i.e., their final report) reveals that the research project helps them acquire the main competence identified for the subject, namely “learning to analyze society from a scientific perspective.” For example, they learn to identify and apply what they learn in Topic 2 in their own social environment: Our city was an industrial port, but during the 1970s it was hit by a harsh recession which gave rise to a sharp drop in economic activity and high levels of unemployment. Moreover, this change did not just affect production, it also had a cultural and ideological impact, with the worker movement and struggle losing force after the 1980s. But as we learned in Topic 2, this did not occur only in our city, but was rather a process echoed in all places that made the transition from industrial-modern societies to postindustrial-postmodern ones.
By using data, students also learn to make comparisons: Looking at the economic activity and GDP per capita data for our city, it becomes clear that it is both wealthier and more industrialized than many other similar size cities. However, if we analyze disposable income, we see that the mean is lower than that of the region. As discussed in class, the key to explaining this is most likely the way in which the wealth is distributed, and this is probably what underlies the difference detected between the GDP per capita and the mean level of disposable income.
Some students even venture a personal critical analysis-interpretation: We sold ourselves cheap in our town. As a coastal town with a beach, during the early 20th century we became a tourist resort, with people coming first of all to “take the waters” and later on to surf. At first, this brought money into the town, but slowly certain problems began to emerge: there was no longer any space on the beach for locals, residents found it harder and harder to park their cars, real estate prices soared and life became more difficult for the local townsfolk.
The instruments used to measure the results of the experience were: (1) comparison of final grades with those obtained by previous year groups not using PBL and (2) opinion surveys among students.
Since the subject is taught in both official languages of University of the Basque Country, a total of 390 students have completed the course over the past three academic years (2012–2013, 2013–2014, and 2014–2015), with a mean of 80 students per academic year in the Basque-speaking groups and 50 students per academic year in the Spanish-speaking classes.
With all the reservations linked to the fact that only 20% of the final grade for the subject corresponds to PBL, the data reveal that results improve when students work with this methodology (Table 3):
Comparison of Results Between Groups Working with and without PBL.
Results of the Opinion Survey Administered to Students About PBL. 2012–13, 2013–14, and 2014–15 Academic Years.
In the opinion surveys (Table 4), the students claimed to learn more with PBL than with other, more traditional methodologies. They also said they obtained better grades, but at the cost of having to work more and in a more independent fashion. They said they felt they had been more active, had related theory and practice better, had learned to work as part of a team and had kept up with the subject better. They also said they felt they had been fairly evaluated.
It would be interesting to complement this assessment with other surveys exploring employers’ opinions regarding the quality of the training provided to pedagogues and social educators, as well as the opinions of graduates several years after graduating, regarding the training they received in the competences required by their professional activities (Kjersdam & Enemark, 1994).
Students claim to have felt motivated and to have learned, although some complained of the large amount of independent work they had to do in order to complete the project. In this sense, and although one of the characteristics of PBL is to foster cognitive conflict and not give students too many clues about how to go about the task, given that here we were working with first-year students, we decided it was better to have a fairly well-structured and guided project, and to gradually increase the degree of autonomy expected from students during subsequent years and in postgraduate degree courses.
Five Positive Results
The first positive result of this experience is that the methodology is ideal for developing competences. Due to the social changes that have taken place over recent decades, it is now increasingly evident that in addition to “learning contents,” students must also “learn how to use them,” and in this sense, Project-Based Learning is designed specifically to foster learning through the real, practical, and application of knowledge.
The second positive aspect is the conceptualization of work as an ongoing process. The very concept of project-based work breaks away from the space-time unit of a traditional lecture and places the project in students’ heads throughout the entire experience, as well as in many different locations. The situation in which the project places students, that is, they are given only the initial statement and the final goal, without too many clues as to how to go about achieving it, generates the need to “constantly search for information,” a state which is hugely beneficial for ensuring effective learning.
A third interesting aspect for sociology instructors is the conceptualization of work as a group effort. The project statement, which frames the task as a collective one, breaks away from the individualistic view of learning as the means to achieve a good final grade, and fosters the development of competences linked to cooperative work.
The fourth positive result is that this methodology fosters more active participation in the learning process. When the subject is evaluated through a final exam, passing that exam becomes the ultimate aim of everything the student does. Moreover, the fact that the stimulus is “far off in the future” encourages a passive attitude during many weeks. With PBL, however, right from the very start students are faced with an unknown situation that they know they have to explore and understand in order to successfully complete the project. Consequently, even explanatory classes are more effective, because students listen, prompted by the need to find answers to questions that have already been asked within the framework of the project. The project integrates and makes sense of all activities carried out, locating them in a scenario similar to that students will face later on in their professional careers. Rather than just training them to pass an exam, PBL prepares students for the tasks that will be required of them in their profession.
A fifth positive aspect is that the publication of evaluation instruments (rubrics) enables students to gain a much clearer idea of what is required of them in each activity. Peer review exposes students to different solutions from those they themselves have come up with. It also teaches them to use objective criteria to assess their classmates’ work.
Finally, the drafting of Teacher and Student Guides helps us to prepare, organize, and visualize the exercise more clearly.
Discussion: Limitations and Recommendations
The changes that have occurred in society and higher education over recent years and decades require us to innovate in relation to teaching methods. Project-Based Learning is an active methodology which has proven effective for developing one of the key competences of the subject Sociology of Education: “learning to analyze society from a scientific perspective.”
The project proposed during the last three academic years (2012–2013, 2013–2014, and 2014–2015) fosters active participation among students, their contact with the real world and significant learning for their future professional careers, much more than traditional methods.
Nevertheless, certain improvements are proposed for the coming years. Firstly, when using this type of methodology, it is not easy to work with large groups of students. Although the project was the focus of some classroom sessions, during the “practical sessions” when the large class split into two smaller groups (30/40 students in the first practical session and another 30/40 in the second one), it became clear that strategies need to be designed and prepared to lighten the teacher’s work load. For example, in the case of oral presentations, from the second experience (2013–2014) onwards, we used a draw-based system: all groups prepared a presentation, thereby ensuring that all worked on this competence equally, but given the time constraints of the course, only some actually gave it (one group per practical session during the last three classes of the term).
The high number of students in the class also makes it harder to detect cases of unequal contributions to the group effort, in terms of both quantity and quality. It is therefore important to refine both the evaluation instruments and the protocols to be followed in the event of disagreements, scheduling random project vivas (with each student defending a part not prepared by them or a student chosen at random to present the entire project), co-evaluations by group members, and different intra-group assessments.
Another aspect that is difficult to gage is the most appropriate “degree of openness.” While very open, free projects would be ideal for some students, in our case, and bearing in mind the student profile (first term of the first year of the undergraduate degree course), we proposed a fairly structured project, with a fair degree of guidance. In other words, the possible topics to be covered were outlined in the project guide, along with possible information sources, and some specific tables and graphs were also suggested (“search for information to complete the table outlining the percentage of people aged between 0 to 18, 19 to 65, and 66 and over, comparing the data from your social context with that of the “Author’s Institution location, Spain, and Europe”). This also enables comparisons between the groups.
Another aspect that could be improved is the integration between “theory” (traditional lectures, reading of notes and other texts, minimum level tests to assess knowledge acquisition) and “practice” (search for and organization of information for carrying out the diagnosis of the chosen social context).
Students asked for more focus to be placed on the competence Cooperative Learning, and for this competence to be developed more effectively. Many of the difficulties and conflicts that arose during the weeks of the project were related to students’ lack of experience with teamwork.
Another aspect which requires further work and improvement is coordination between the teachers of the various subjects taught during the term, in order to ensure a greater degree of interdisciplinary work in the activities of the first module of the Pedagogy and Social Education undergraduate degrees, within which our project is located.
Learning these new ways of working requires an effort by students, which only really bears fruit in the context of a community in which all members use these working methods. If we apply Project-Based Learning or other active learning methodologies in just a few isolated subjects within the framework of a syllabus mainly characterized by more traditional methods, such as those centered around a final exam, we run the risk of having very little overall impact on students’ global education, while at the same time generating an (understandable) feeling of frustration during the initial experiences of group work and task planning, etc.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
