Teaching Innovation Project Research Articles

Enhancing a Comprehensive View of the Infrastructure Life Cycle through Project-Based Learning

This paper describes a teaching innovation project that adopts the project-based learning approach to introduce civil engineering students to their future professional roles and tasks throughout the infrastructure life cycle. The successful development of the whole process and completion of the infrastructure in the best technical and sustainable conditions require a comprehensive view of the infrastructure life cycle. Courses on Project Design and Project and Business Management at the B.Sc. in Civil Engineering simulated practical experiences in bidding, design, estimation, preliminary analysis, and construction planning, linking theory to professional practice. This study describes the organization of both courses to implement the simulations. To analyze the experience from the student’s point of view, a survey examined the students’ perceptions of the achievement of higher-order learning and their comprehensive view of the infrastructure life cycle. In addition, the learning results were compared with the students’ perceptions. Results indicated that students are aware of the learning improvement after performing the proposed activities. In addition, this approach helps the students to develop the professional competencies needed for the curricula. The coordination of the courses to align the learning activities with the life cycle phases enables students to deepen their understanding of the phases of the infrastructure life cycle while they acquire a comprehensive view of the process. In addition, this approach has improved the motivation and engagement of the students. This teaching innovation project is easily adaptable to other engineering curricula.

A statutory requirement: Teaching innovation for gender equality at university

The present article examined the meaning adopted by gender equality policies during their development in the field of university teaching. Discourse provided by 26 teachers in charge of teaching innovation projects pertaining to this topic and members of the committee charged with promoting the program were analysed. The theoretical approach taken indicated two different viewpoints. The first, opportunism, involved specific classroom actions and resulted from a weak reasoning about gender equality. The second, opportunity, visibilised and recognised feminist teaching, involved more robust actions that were sustained over a longer period of time, and evidenced the need for gender equality to continue to permeate institutional culture. Findings encourage greater commitment to innovation as a political act. Such innovation should seek out more horizontal approaches that join project foundations together with the postulates of feminist pedagogy in order to achieve greater impact.

Interteam PERINAT - interprofessional team collaboration in undergraduate midwifery and medical education in the context of obstetric emergencies: Presentation of simulation scenarios and empirical evaluation results.

To promote the expansion of interprofessional training objectives in the curriculum of health professions curriculum at the Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig, the interprofessional teaching project between the Department of Obstetrics, the Skills and Simulation Centre and the School of Midwifery was selected to promote innovative teaching projects, supported by the University of Leipzig [https://www.stil.uni-leipzig.de/] grant "StiL - Studying in Leipzig". Using scenarios with simulated patients, students were to recall and apply theoretically learned procedures and immediate measures in an obstetric emergency under supervision and to communicate these clearly in the team. Final-year medical students from the Medical Faculty (n=15) and midwifery students (n=17) from the vocational school went through teaching situations together, in which two simulation scenarios (shoulder dystocia and postpartum haemorrhage) were implemented. The aim of the project was to integrate interprofessional collaboration into training and to learn together under simulated conditions in the Skills and Simulation Center protected environment. The following questions was intended to be clarified in the project in addition to the establishment of a sub-professional teaching unit What do students benefit most from in interprofessional teaching units? Are there differences between midwifery and medical students? Is the learning success the same for team-communicative and professional learning goals? To clarify the questions, an evaluation was carried out using an exploratory questionnaire with a Likert scale. All students particularly liked the exchange and contact with other professional groups, the communicative aspect and situational action in unforeseen emergency situations. The participants stated that they had benefited from both interprofessional teaching units, in terms of team communication as well as in professional terms. However, medical students experienced significantly higher cognitive overload regarding prior acquired knowledge compared to vocational midwifery students. Overall, the team communication learning objectives were more difficult to fulfill.

Teaching about chronicity in medical schools — A review of the current situation

In recent decades, progressive population aging in developed countries has led to a significant increase in the number of people with at least one chronic medical condition. As a result, acquiring knowledge about chronicity in medical school is key for physicians to be able to provide proper management for these patients. However, the presence of chronicity in educational curricula is scarce and highly variable.On the one hand, this work consisted of a review of the educational programs of the main medical schools on each continent with the aim of identifying whether they included chronicity and, on the other, a literature review focused on identifying educational projects in the field of chronicity.The presence of chronicity in most medical schools’ curricula is marginal and only a few universities include specific skills or competences linked to chronicity. In most cases, this topic appears as a global, cross-curricular competence that students are supposed to acquire over the course of their entire education. The literature review retrieved 21 articles on innovative teaching projects on chronicity. Direct contact with chronic patients, most times as “health mentors,” the role of the student as a teacher, and continuous evaluation and feedback from all participants are the main characteristics of the projects analyzed. Some previously published experiences support the usefulness of innovative methodologies for better approaching this capital field in current medical practice.Despite the current situation in which chronic patients consume most healthcare resources, the presence of chronicity in medical schools is marginal. However, a literature review did identify some useful experiences for improving education on chronicity in medical schools. Medical schools should change their academic curricula and redirect them towards providing students all the necessary tools for improving their knowledge on chronicity.

On the Instruction of Legal Translation with Innovative Techniques: Unveiling Semantic Relations

Overall, the search for translation equivalents is a highly difficult, time-consuming task within intercultural legal communication. It is directly linked to legal systems, with their own lexicon and meaning. In this paper, we try to display and argue how legal translators may also resort to a specific semantic relation, such as hypernymy, as an innovation to find a wider lexical equivalent. To reach our aim, we will select a list of 18 (British and North American) legal terms featured by their Spanish translation difficulty -parting from our UAM University legal translation trainees’ renderings (within an Innovative Teaching Project)- and by their allocation to court judgements. These terms will be searched (and contrasted) by using a two-headed methodology, checking both print and online dictionaries, and we will then provide one (or more) hypernym for each of them. The main findings of our study unveil how helpful hypernyms are in providing innovative translation alternatives beyond traditional translation techniques.

Laboratory as a tool for innovation in social science teaching

This article analyzes the results of a teaching innovation project developed during the academic year 2021-2022, whose main objective was to assess the need to in- clude a compulsory subject of mediation and collaborative conflict resolution in the degree in Social Work at UCM. To this end, an international working group has been formed in the form of an Ideas Lab that has developed a research combining quan- titative (questionnaire) and qualitative (Design Thinking) tools, whose results have allowed to develop a proposal that has been submitted to the dean's office for consideration in the future modification of the degree. But undoubtedly, the most remarkable thing is that through the laboratory it has been possible to guaran-tee essential elements for the quality of the training of our university community: transversality, transdisciplinarity, internationalization and transfer of knowledge.

APRENDIZAJE ÁGIL EN MARKETING: SCRUM EN EDUCACIÓN SUPERIOR

The main objective of this article is to show the results of a teaching innovation project that proposes the use of agile methodologies, typical of the business world, to adapt them to teaching. To this end, the agile technique Scrum is applied, a practical and experiential method in which learning by doing is used. Scrum facilitates the development of important skills for the students' future employment (working under pressure, adapting to new situations, teamwork, communication and conflict management). The specific objectives of the project are: 1. To design practical classes based on Scrum. 2. To use digital technologies and resources efficiently. 3. To bring the university and business worlds closer together. 4. To measure the perception of university students after the application of the teaching innovation project. To analyze descriptive results, a survey was carried out among the students who participated in the project, reaching a sample of 425 students (Faculty of Economics, University of Valencia). Most of them have had previous experience with learning-by-doing methodologies and consider them much more useful than the traditional methodology. The aspects they value most highly in the agile methodology are team performance, interactivity and commitment. In addition, the students involved mainly value them as interesting, entertaining, useful and dynamic.

Training transversal competences in a bachelor’s degree in translation and interpreting: preliminary evidence from a clinical trial

ABSTRACT Transversal competences are now essential not only for employability but for the well-being of students, and thus for society as a whole. However, these competences are not commonly taught or researched as part of higher education degree programmes. This evidently leads to a gap between ideal teaching goals and what students actually learn in their undergraduate studies. To meet this need, a psychoeducational intervention was designed and implemented in an undergraduate programme in translation and interpreting within the framework of a teaching innovation project. The impact of this intervention was tested on transversal competences such as emotional intelligence and regulation, creativity, psychological distress, and cultural intelligence, among others. This parallel exploratory study compared the effectiveness of two mindfulness-based programmes. In both mindfulness-based training programmes, the preliminary results seemed to indicate an improvement in these transversal competences. Limitations of the study were the design, sample size, and the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of our study led to recommendations for degree programme design as well as a platform for discussion and debate on the relationship between higher education, competence-based training, and social demands. The clinical trial was registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04392869).

Service Learning in the Nursing Bachelor Thesis: A Mixed-Methods Study.

The Final Degree Project (FDP) is a module that, although intended for the completion of a bachelor thesis (BT), consists of theoretical and clinical teaching. Therefore, introducing service learning (SL) can support student adjustments to the real-world professional role. This study plans to evaluate a teaching innovation project that combines BT and SL through Kirkpatrick’s four-level model (reaction, learning, behaviour and results). It takes the form of a convergent parallel mixed-methods design study. The participants were 15 final-year students obtaining a Bachelor of Nursing degree, 4 BT supervising mentors and 4 nurses. At the request of a hospital institution, in their BT, students completed a review of evidence-based nursing protocols. For data collection, the researchers used: an SL questionnaire, student narratives, mentor field diaries and nurse interviews. According to student opinion, the results showed high satisfaction rates (4.44 out of 5), the most developed skills were Independent Work and Information Management, but they signal the need to reinforce the research methodology skills. Finally, positive feedback from all participants is that using SL promotes both the opinion that the BT is useful and also promotes a collaboration between academic and clinical settings.

Enhancing business professional competencies in a virtual educational environment

This paper provides an example of the successful incorporation of a virtual project-based learning (PBL) assignment as a significant component of two business courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In these courses, undergraduate accounting and global business students worked with local nonprofits to solve real-world business problems in a virtual environment. This collaboration afforded students the opportunity to practice professional competency skills while growing in their understanding of business and of nonprofits. This paper discusses the challenges and successes that occurred during the implementation of the virtual project, encourages the use of PBL and other innovative teaching projects when teaching online, and facilitates faculty design and implementation of virtual learning programs.

Digital Storytelling: Sharing Palliative Care Experiences as an Innovative Educational Approach.

When students are exposed to digital stories about a particular nursing field, they feel more prepared to practice in that field. The purpose of this innovative teaching project was to introduce undergraduate nursing students to palliative care nursing through digital storytelling. Digital interviews with experienced nurses from five specialties were compiled and shared with students. Student responses indicated a positive impact on their professional identity and greater awareness about palliative care. Students benefited from hearing about "real" experiences and exploring diverse specialties and reported that this activity helped decrease their fear, find beauty in death, and value nursing presence.

Epistemological Breaks for Social Work Training and Practice: Participatory Research Through Photovoice in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods

ABSTRACT The capabilities approach and participatory research are effective means to promote epistemic justice in higher education. Both have important roles, given the current commoditisation of University knowledge and professional practice, which do not promote inclusive epistemes that take into account the social problems of disadvantaged groups. Facilitating educational experiences that generate epistemological breaks and promote epistemic justice is a necessary task. Contributing to it was one purpose of the teaching innovation project carried out by the University of Jaén (Andalusia, Spain). The project aimed to stimulate collective reflection and dialogic encounters between complementary knowledge fields. It had three focal points: developing capabilities in students; fomenting participation and collective reflection in the community; heightening the visibility of people living in disadvantaged areas and conveying these realities, and people’s knowledge and concerns, to policymakers. The results show that co-production of knowledge by universities and local communities favours learning and practical reasoning; increases recognition and respect for diversity; foments participation and the environment necessary for citizens to exercise their political capabilities. This paper presents only the project’s first focal point; specifically, it shows how horizontal knowledge production using Photovoice can enhance in students certain capabilities of great relevance in their future profession.

Responding to the Popular Demand: Itinerary for the Socio-Political Learning of Situated Agroecologies in Chile

Agroecology has proven to be successful in responding to the demands and needs of a collective due to the relevance of its approach and proposals, which are built collaboratively between all the actors under a specific context that focuses on the actions developed. This is facilitated when spaces of horizontal interaction are generated through dialogues between different perspectives and experiences. In this perspective, agroecological training in higher education, i.e., university level, requires structural changes that go beyond the incorporation of technical content. Based on a critical documentary analysis of the records generated in the implementation of teaching innovation projects, the learning itinerary in agroecology is presented, consisting of four certifications based on transformational learning and supported by active methodologies. The potentialities, including marketing potential, of the proposed learning itinerary relate to curricular design, the articulation of the itinerary, the suitability of the learning methodologies used, the performance of the teachers, and the participation of the students. It is concluded that the implementation of flexible itineraries allows for addressing the transformation processes necessary for an agroecological transition in which we see a convergence of students’ skills, the learning objectives, and the requirements of the various actors with which they interact.

‘Localizing English in town’: a linguistic landscape project for a Critical Linguistics Education on multilingualism

ABSTRACT This article presents the outcomes of a 2-year pilot study of a teaching innovation project in an English-medium instruction course on sociolinguistics, in a languages degree at a Catalan university. Following the tenets of Critical Linguistics Education, our proposal aimed at promoting the students’ development of metalinguistic awareness of linguistic diversity; particularly, of Englishization phenomena in their socialization spaces. Firstly, we detail the project, based on the students’ interpretive analysis of the social meanings of a series of Linguistic Landscapes involving local and global languages that they gathered ethnographically. This required the use of two technologies of citizenship participation, employed as Foreign Language learning/teaching instruments: A geolocating map and a 2.0 web. We then analyze the students’ productions, and their marks, course ratings and project-assessment reports. We show that the required disciplinary content and advanced English level were attained. Students became knowledge generators of sociolinguistics phenomena and developed an intercultural, plurilingual competence in ‘localized Englishes’. We conclude that the use of Linguistic Landscaping is an effective means to develop the multilingual literacy, technoliteracy and learning-to-learn competences required by the European Council. This contributes to the design of pedagogical strategies fostering the students’ commitment to an ethics of respect towards multilingualism.

Knowledge Transfer in a Two-Mode Network Between Higher Education Teachers and Their Innovative Teaching Projects

Knowledge transfer (KT) and innovation diffusion are closely related to each other because it is knowledge regarding an innovation that gets adopted. Little research in learning analytics provides insight into KT processes in two-mode networks, especially in the context of educational innovations. It is unclear how such networks are structured and whether funding can create a network structure efficient for KT. We used a case-study approach to analyze a two-mode network of 208 university members (based on archival data) who worked together on 91 innovative teaching projects. Our results show that the two-mode network displays a decentralized structure and more clustering than can be assumed by chance, promoting KT and learning. To gain a deeper understanding of the kind of knowledge that is transferred in the network, we analyzed the effects of different educational innovation elements (e.g., game-based learning) as attributes of higher education teachers. Overall, our results suggest that funding and the creation of project structures in the context of educational innovation is a sustainable way to create KT, and therefore organizational change. Furthermore, the results imply that university practitioners need to implement networking interventions to create more connections between subgroups in teacher-related networks.

Audio description and subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing

Abstract This paper presents the teaching innovation project AUDIOSUB, which aimed at assessing the didactic potential of audio description (AD) and subtitling for the deaf and hard of hearing (SDH) in foreign language education. Within an online setting, 25 undergraduates of English Studies in a Spanish university worked collaboratively for two months and a half, in groups of five, so as to provide accessibility to complete short films. To that end, they were provided with a number of ad hoc tutorials and guidelines on technical issues related to AD and SDH, the two media accessibility modes used for this proposal. A pre-experiment was designed for data collection: pre- and post- writing and oral production tests, as well as general translation pre- and post- tests, were administered, and quantitative data were exploited using SPSS; pre-and post- questionnaires and observation were also used to triangulate and complement the analysis. The results show evidence of improvement both in written production and in general translation skills thanks to the pedagogical application of media accessibility and point towards a more systematic exploitation of didactic SDH and AD in the foreign language learning context.

University education in entrepreneurship. The experience of a teaching innovation project

This article presents an experimental teaching innovation and entrepreneurial training project where first year university students respond in teams to an entrepreneurial challenge with a product or service associated with the UN Sustainable Development Goal. One group of students received complementary training in entrepreneurship. The effect of the project on the motivation and preparation for entrepreneurship was measured through a self-evaluation questionnaire and the evaluation of the project by experts. We can conclude that multi-disciplinary education in entrepreneurship, integrating projects and training sessions, is effective and favors the acquisition of entrepreneurial competences and increases the interest in transformative thinking and behavior.

Innovación docente en educación superior: acciones desde la didáctica de la lengua y la literatura

This paper describes the creation and development of the Word and Image Teaching Innovation Project of the University of Valladolid. It shows the objectives set by the project in their respective calls, as well as the actions carried out to achieve them. The claims, always with a continuing line, have focused on the constitution of a reference space from the area of ​​language and literature didactics, which will enable, through the coordination of various educational acts, the expansion of knowledge of undergraduate students and provide them with practical resources, fostering interdisciplinarity. With a consolidated trajectory –after six editions of Word and Image, five linked to the degrees of Education at the María Zambrano Campus–, the members of this project have been recognized, by the Office of the Vice President for Teaching Innovation and Digital Transformation, as an Innovation Group Teacher, a fact that has provided the necessary support to make it a reference innovation action in the field of literary education.

Virtual environments of teaching learning for training in experimental techniques. Innovation in multidisciplinary groups

In this research, through the development of a teaching innovation project, the aim is to highlight the importance of educational and pedagogical changes that require both the adaptation of teaching to new situations and the possibility of taking advantage of the available resources to be applied in different degrees (master and degree) simultaneously.For this, the innovation experience carried out by a group of professors from the University of Granada who teach subjects in the CiTPA Master, MARA Master and Degree in Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Assets is presented. It addresses the development of unpublished teaching material (videos, manuals for the application of analytical techniques and the use of specialized software, all in a bilingual version), for its integration into different subjects in which it is necessary to make different research techniques known, use of specific software and precise operational activities that are used for the characterization of materials.Competency-based learning through innovation offers students a real and applied experience that has an immediate practical and professional implication, taking advantage of the skills of the new generations. The results, expected in future evaluations, must be analyzed both individually and for the group of subjects, being recognized in advance the good result and the facilities that teamwork, the recognition of skills and the facilities entail in the field of the teacher, the selection of common competences between different subjects and training levels.

Inclusive Practicum: Creating Networks of Learning and Collaboration between Students, Teachers, and the Faculty of Education

The presented Teaching Innovation project deals with establishment of support, learning and collaboration networks between university and non-university teaching staff. This was done with two fundamental purposes in mind: on the one hand, improving the training of Practicum students through joint reflection and, on the other hand, promoting inclusive education in schools through support networks among teachers. Participants were the Practicum students from the Faculty of Education, specifically students with the major in Special Educational Needs. The project included creation of joint seminars between Practicum tutors of the Faculty, tutors from schools and Practicum students. Moreover, initiating support networks allowed involving two different schools in two Autonomous Communities, which has been a highly enriching experience for all participants.