TOWARDS IMPLEMENTATION OF INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGIES IN CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING IN CHILE. A CASE STUDY

Pedro Muñoz,Luminita Bibire,Luis Muñoz,Viviana Letelier

doi:10.29081/jesr.v22i4.95

Abstract

The demands of society are changing rapidly, which in turn enhances the need to prepare qualified professionals with up-dated skills and competencies. Due to this fact, universities must be able to develop new teaching strategies which should be focused, not only in the curricula, but on teaching methodology. This paper shows an experience, developed for the subject matter of electrical installations within the Construction Engineering degree of the Autonomous University of Chile. The aim is to show a Project-Based Learning model using cooperative as well as collaborative strategies, while taking into ac-count both the particular situation of higher education in Chile and the socio-cultural factors of students. The methodology and tools used for its implementation are described and related to obtained results within the Chilean context. It concludes that this teaching method contributes with learning enhancement in terms of strengthening of technical and transversal competencies, while also resulting in a significant improvement of grades, as well as a marked reduction in the absenteeism rate.

Highlights

Since their origins, main objective of engineers has been to contribute to the technological development of society
The outcome was that 30 out of 36 students agreed on the Project-Based Learning (PBL)+cooperative and collaborative learning (CC) implementation
This paper shows the design, implementation and development of a project-based learning with a collaborative and cooperative methodology in the subject of electrical installations within the construction engineering degree

Summary

Introduction

Main objective of engineers has been to contribute to the technological development of society. Chilean higher education institutions have tried to face this issue by modifying, incorporating, and/or deleting subject matters but without paying attention to the pedagogical aspects of these decisions As it was stated by Van der Bergh et al (2006), higher education engineering must con-sider all requirements of society by incorporating new pedagogical methodologies and new curriculum proposals [4]. Developed strategies are based on foreign models such as Tuning EU (2013) or its Latin American adaptation, called Tuning Latin America (2013) Despite these have been tested in other countries, for a successful implementation in Chile, some particularities must be taken into account [5, 6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion