Use of Active Methodologies and Evaluation System Improvements in Structural Concrete Teaching within the Framework of Polythecnic University of Valencia Europe’s Project Authors: José L. Bonet, José R. Martí, Juan Navarro, Carmen Castro, Pedro F. Miguel Polythechnic University of Valencia, Detp. of Construction Engineering and Civil Engineering Projects, Higher Technical School of Civil Engineering – Building 2, Camino de Vera s/n 46071 Valencia (Spain). Phone: +34 963 879 561 Fax: +34 963 877 569 e-mail: ,
[email protected]
Abstract Since the academic year 1999-2000 the Reinforced and Prestressed Concrete Teaching Unit (RPCTU) has been developing several Educational Innovation Projects (EIP) with the objective of generating teaching materials to improve the educational methodology of the subjects imparted in the RPCTU and incorporating practical activities by means of the use of laboratory experience, computer classrooms and the most advanced audio visual media. In this moment, the pedagogic material generated through the EIP in the last years (slides in electronic format, educational software and videos,...), on the one hand, allows to establish initiatives to improve and develop new educational materials, on the other hand, allows to review the system evaluation. Thus, the student’s continuous evaluation is improved, the evaluation format is more in agreement with the professional activity the student will carry out in the future, and finally, it is eliminated part of the dramatic experience of the final examinations. All in all, several initiatives for the improvement of the teaching quality, within the framework of the Polytechnic University of Valencia Europe’s Project, have been established in the subjects imparted in the RPCTU during the academic year 2002/2003. In this communication, several pedagogic methods, teaching techniques and didactic materials are described to show how are coordinated in various educational activities (theoretical lessons, practice in classroom, laboratory or computer). In all of these activities, advantages and disadvantages of each method, technique or material are evaluated. Furthermore, the evaluation systems applied to the imparted subjects are also exposed. Index Terms Active Methodologies, Didactic Resources, Evaluation Systems
INTRODUCTION The Innovation Teaching Plan of Polytechnic University of Valencia (from now on UPV) was born in the 1988-89 course with the purpose of making an auto critic analysis of the most deficitary aspects of the educational system in order to establish corrective measures. The objectives of the Innovation Teaching Plan are: • To reach a higher level of integration between the theory and the praxis as a learning structure • To settle an environment that favours the students’ activity, initiative and effort • To incorporate new teaching methods that integrate the “knowledge” and the “technical knowledge”. In the Innovation Teaching Plan framework, every year it is possible to propose new “Projects of Educational Innovation” (P.I.D.) by the teachers of the UPV. In the 1997/98 course, after a deep process of reflexion in the school, we managed to establish the studies of Civil Engineering, obviously, taking into account the rules of the study plans reform (2). The different degrees that are offered are the following: • Civil Engineer –from now on CI- (1st+2nd Cycle) • Technical. Engineer in Public Works, Civil Construction Branch –from now on, TEPW-CC (1st Cycle) • Technical. Engineer in Public Works, Hydrology Branch– from now on, TEPW-HB (1st Cycle) • Technical. Engineer in Public Works, Urban Transports & Services Branch – from now on, TEPW-UTS (1st Cycle)
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The study plans of these four degrees were designed in a coordinated and integrated way, including the cyclic spirit present at the reform (3), (4). The forced reduction of credits that, in a general way, every degree suffered, determined the necessity of considering again the contents of the subjects and the way of teaching them. Because of this reason, the RPCTU has been developing different “Educational Innovation Projects”, with the purpose of generate new educational material to improve the methodology of the subjects of this Teaching Unit. We have integrated practice activities by using laboratories, computer classroom, and advanced audiovisual methods. The general objectives have been: • Creating teaching material: Preparing practice applications in problems, creation of an informatics packet and making theoretical monographs. • Redesigning the praxis in laboratory • Application of the most advanced audiovisual methods that exist nowadays. • Creating the adequate conditions in order to reach a higher efficiency in the teaching-learning process, stimulates the students’ curiosity for the matter and their initiative to complement their formation. • To encourage the students self-learning. The material the we have nowadays (slides in an electronic format, videos, informatics applications, etc.) reached thanks to the P.I.D developed in the last years, has allowed us on the one hand, to establish new initiatives to improve and develop new teaching methods for those subjects imparted in the RPCTU and, on the other hand, to review the evaluation system, favouring the continuing evaluation of the student all along the course, more accordingly with the professional activity that he will develop in the near future, and avoiding the dramatism of the final exams. For all these reasons, it has been planned to establish some pilot experiences all along the 2002-03 course, during the second four-months period, in the framework Europe’s Project, AME 2 and 3 programme “New Teaching-Learning Methods” and “Improve the Evaluation Systems”. The implied subjects are: “Prestressed Concrete Structures” 3rd course, TEPW-CC Degree, “Construction in Concrete” 3rd course TEPW-HB and TEPW-UTS , “Construction in Concrete Technology” 5th course, CE. We are talking about three optative subjects where the students are very motivated and show a special curiosity for concrete structures. Besides, as the number of the students is about twenty, we have an excellent environment for teaching, making it possible to introduce new initiatives to improve the educational quality. For the next course, if we realise that these initiatives to improve the educational quality are as successful as they are expected to be, they will be exceeded to the other subjects imparted in the RPCTU. The general objectives of these initiatives are: • To create the adequate conditions to achieve a more efficient teaching-learning process • Encourage the students’ creative, analyzing and critic capacity • Improve the student’s training when entering the professional world, developing their abstraction capacity and problem solving. • Promote the students to work altogether, to debate and to communicate. In order to reach the general objectives just described, we established these specific objectives relative to: • The improvement of the Teaching-Learning Methods o To introduce active methodologies in the classroom with the object to keep the student’s interest active and alive by using different resorts (making collective or individual questions, favouring and provoking a discussion after a question, introducing anecdotes or personal experiences, etc.) o To Integrate the computer praxis in the subject teaching o To Incorporate a concrete structure design and calculus in the educational activities by making a complete project of this structure. • The improvement of the Evaluation Systems o In the subject “Prestressed concrete structures”: to substitute the practical examination by a guided project about a lineal structure of prestressed concrete. o In the subject “Construction in Concrete”: to substitute the practical examination by a guided project about a reinforced concrete structure. o In the subject “Technology of the Concrete Constructions”: to substitute completely the only evaluation tests, by a continue evaluation of the cases proposed all along the course and the project of designing a complete concrete structure
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We are going to expose how to coordinate the different methodological activities, in the frame of the subjects that belong to the Integral Study Plan of the Civil Engineering Degree in the UPV’s ETSICCP, related to the Structural Concrete. In the first place, we will describe the didactics measures nowadays available. Then, we will explain the different educational activities developed, emphasizing in those activities carried out both by the teacher and the students. And to finish with, we will explain the evaluation systems adopted in each subject where there have been methodological changes or changes in the evaluation system.
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES AVAILABLE The educational resources are those ones the teacher makes use of in order to transmit his knowledgments to the students. The resources that we have in the ETSICCP in Valencia and concretely in those subjects imparted by the T.U.. RPCTU are as it follows: Books During the last years, the RPCTU has been making an special effort in order to publish several books, both of theory and practical exercises. Nowadays, we have two books of problems specially adapted to the obligatory subjects imparted by the RPCTU in CE 4th course and “Concrete” in TEPW-CC. These books are also very useful in the other optative subjects imparted by the T.U.. In these books, the problems have been classified in thematic blocks according to the Thematic Unities that are imparted. In each block there are some solved problems in a very detailed way, and others proposed to be solved by the students.
FIGURE. 1 PROBLEM BOOKS : (A) CE, (B) CEPW
(A)
(B)
Blackboard The blackboard is an essential resource for an improvisation of a non-programmed explanation or the clarification of ideas that have not been understood. Transparencies or slides Nowadays the 100% of the contents of the programme is already available in transparencies. This resources are given at the beginning of the course as a substitute of a theory book. This way, the students are released from transcript in their notes the teacher’s explanation, except those clarifications that the student can write straight into his photocopies. an adequate combination of a blackboard, transparencies and a textbook makes it possible to have an adequate rhythm in the classroom and the student can follow the explanation without having to write everything on the blackboard. Informatic applications
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In a technical discipline like the one we are facing, the use of informatic resources is essential, not only for the presentation of the contents, but also as an analysis tool, and all this because of two reasons. The first one, in the professional life, the daily contact with this tools is very habitual. It is necessary to train the students with the necessary knowledge to develop this activity. The second one, the use of the powerful analysis tools that are incorporated in the computer, makes it easier to solve difficult and repetitive problems. In this point, we should distinguish, from the educational application’s point of view, between activities that need commercial programmes, because the objective is to show the students how to make use of these programmes in a professional way, and activities whose objective is make the teacher’s activity easier in order to transfer some knowledge to the students. In this last case, it is not easy to find commercial programmes in the market that can get adapted to the particular educational necessities of some subjects and also that please the teachers. Because of this reason, one of the first objectives in the “Educational Innovation Project” developed by the authors of this report, was to make an informatic packet adapted to the educational necessities. Nowadays, this packet is about to be finished (figure 2) FIGURE. 2 INFORMATIC APPLICATIONS (A) SERVICE AND ULTIMATE STATE LIMIT SECTIONAL ANALYSIS (B) PRESTRESSED CONCRETE DESIGN
(A)
(B)
As the Spanish saying goes, an image is worthier than one thousand words, in the educational aspect this proverb has a grand applicability specially in those themes related to the constructive aspects. The current digital resources for audiovisual recording, both in video and photography, the programmes to edit them and the audiovisual programmes, are leaving in a second place the use of the slides and the magnetic video players. Nowadays, the “Reinforced and RPCTU has a wide range of educational material specially designed for those construction themes, including a lot of photos in a digital format of the most prominent buildings of the city of Valencia. FIGURE. 3 SLIDES AND VIDEO
Internet or Intranet During the last years, the students in the UPV have taken advantage of the use of the university’s intranet. The student can get the contents of the subject, the qualification rules, the marks, interesting links to internet, photos, videos, etc. All of this because of the subjects’s MicroWebs. This way, the student can have a free access to the subject’s information from anywhere. (Figure 4)
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The use of this tool makes it possible that the students receive the educational resources that are going to be used all along the course: slides used during the class, problems and solved problems, details of the laboratory or computer praxis, programmes, notes, etc. This way, the students have a more comfortable access to the subject from any place provided with internet. . FIGURE. 4 MICROWEB SCREEN OF THE REINFORCED AND PRESTRESSED CONCRETE SUBJECT OF THE 4TH COURSE OF THE CE DEGREE
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES The educational activities are the measures used in order to reach the established objectives. In the subjects imparted by the “Reinforced and Pre-stressed Concrete” T.U. we have many different activities: • Theory lessons (lecture) • Practical lessons • Seminar • Laboratory praxis • Computer praxis • Tutorial Theory lessons (lecture) The theory lessons are the fundamental axis around which revolves each subject’s programme. All the other educational subject are overriden by them. The groups in the theory lessons are usually very numerous, specially in the obligatory or compulsory subjects. Obviously, in the more advanced courses and, specially, in the optative subjects of the last courses, the size of the groups tends to be more reduced. In these conditions, the techniques used in the theory lessons vary according to the subject. We use expositive techniques and lectures in every subject. All along this activity, the teacher explains the theoretical fundaments, whereas the students assimilate and take notes, about the slides or the problems book. Besides, the students ask complementary questions and doubts. Practical lessons The practical or problems lessons are the necessary complement for the theory lessons in subjects with a technologic and applied condition as the ones we are talking about. The essential function of the problem lessons is to apply the knowledge acquired in the theory lessons. Therefore, it maintains an important balance between theory and praxis and it helps to stimulate the students in order to maintain their interest in the course as a whole because they can see how their abstract knowledge can be translated into a reality on a real practice application. Besides, many times, the practice application discovers aspects that in the theory lessons can remain hidden or confused. This way, this practice lesson can be a recapitulation exercise about the theory lessons, reinforcing the knowledge acquired The end of the practical lesson should be a discussion about the problem done, where there should be established an open dialog between the teacher and the students about the method used and the possible alternative solutions with their advantages and disadvantages. It is also important to emphasize aspects relative to the obtained results, such as magnitude orders of these aspects and coherence with the enunciate of the problems.On the other hand, it can be now the right moment
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to vary the problems so that its resolution also varies and this way, to excite the student’s curiosity, and at the same time, to emphasize the particularity or generality of the studied case. To sum up, the objective could be to obtain from the problem’s resolution the highest number of nuances as possible. Therefore, the teacher’s duty is to explain the methodology in order to solve the problem, to develop and propose exercises and solve them on the blackboard. Whereas the students have to solve these exercises and check the results, propose alternatives and discuss the different solutions to the exercises Seminars They have a clear objective: to serve as a guideline for the compulsory projects that the students have to make. They are also used as a forum where the students and the professors can discuss and analyze the different solutions adopted for the exercises. Laboratory praxis The laboratory praxis have a double educational mission. On the one hand, they suppose an important motivation element for the students. On the other hand, to arouse the critical sense of the students, by observing the real behaviour of the structures, concrete elements and its comparison with the theoretical models. (figure 5) The groups for the laboratory praxis have a reduced number of students, more reduced than those of the theory or problem lessons, so that the student can take part in a more active way. However, the necessary resources to develop practical lessons in the laboratory in concrete subjects, don’t permit the individualization of each practice. According to this, the student is not supposed to operate straight away, he is supposed to be an active spectator. In order to achieve a more profit of these laboratory praxis, this activity should conclude with the realization of an individual project by the students, where they have to express the objectives pretended with the praxis, the possible incidences that may have occurred, the experimental results obtained, the theoretical models that could be applicated to predict the behaviour of the analyzed phenomenon and a comparison between these theoretical results and the experimental ones. FIGURE. 5 LABORATORIO PRAXIS
Computer praxis The everyday use of the computer in the calculus office, has made that we include the computer praxis among our educational activities.
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The groups of students in the computer praxis are not very numerous, maybe a little bigger than the laboratory ones. There are between 25 or 30 students per group. The availability of having one computer per student makes that the students can participate in a very active way. (figure 6) The computer praxis shows, the same as in the laboratory praxis, a very important motivating component. The student feels that it puts him nearer to the professional world. This activity cannot be considered as a substitute for the praxis in the classroom. It is necessary to program activities in which the object is not only to solve a proposed problem, but also to reach some conclusions from the obtained results. When the praxis finishes, the students should make an exercise by using the computer, that will act as a reinforcement of the theory or problems lessons or will act as an introduction to a certain theoretical lesson. FIGURE. 6 INFORMATIC PRAXIS
Tutorial The tutorial is, obviously, the most individualized educational activity. It is at the same time, the one in which the student most participates, because the inicitive for its use depends only on the students’will.
EVALUATION SYSTEM The evaluation systems that we have adopted for each one of the subjects are as it follows: Evaluation system in the subjects “Pre-stressed Concrete Structures” and “Concrete Construction” The evaluation has two parts, one theoretical and one practical. The theoretical part is evaluated in a final examination in June or September. The practical part is evaluated by making a project about the design, analysis and calculus of a structural concrete lineal structure. The project will be carried out by pairs all along the four-months period. There should be three deliveries that will coincide with the three stages that define the designing process of a concrete structure, structure designing and effort analyzing, limit state services, last limit state, and map definition. Each group will have a professor-tutor, they would be able to ask him any queries and will deliver their projects to him. Each delivery will be evaluated and then returned to the students with their academic mark and the opportune information about possible mistakes that may have not been detected. These corrections should be incorporated in the following delivery. This way, the students won’t accumulate any mistake in the final delivery. The final academic mark will be obtained considering the project mark as a 0.60 and the theoretical mark as a 0.40 Evaluation system in the subject “Technology of the Concrete Structures” Technology on the Concrete Structures is an optative subject, and as the students show a very high motivation and taking into account the special characteristics of the subject, we have decided to avoid the final exam evaluation system. On its place, we have developed a system of continuous evaluation in which we incorporate the activities that are being made all along the course. The final evaluation will consider 50% the solutions of the practical problems carried out all along the course and the final project of design and construction of a precast structure. We understand that, although not explicitly, the activities carried out all along the course in the theoretical and praxis lessons, will be perfectly included, from the point of view of its evaluation, in this system
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CONCLUSIONS It has been observed that during the 2000-01, 2001-02, 2002-03 courses the application of the different educational techniques and resources there have been established the adequate conditions in order to achieve a greater efficiency in the teaching-learning process, stimulating the curiosity and initiative of the student regarding the subject matter. We have also verified the great acceptation of the different didactic resources employed. With regard to the different educational activities developed, we have obtained the following conclusions: • We have noted that for each activity there are many different combinations of educational resources and techniques depending on the objectives to achieve, on the size of the group and on the subject’s programme. • We have noted that the indiscriminated application of the new technologies in the didactic activities can become a mistake and we should use them in a moderated way. We should, then, decide which didactic resources to use. • The combined application of electronic slides, blackboard and textbook permits to maintain an adequate rhythm. • We should not forget the use of the blackboard as an essential resource in order to make an explanation of concepts not well understood. • The computer praxis never have to substitute the praxis in the classroom. They have a double mission. In first place, the student, helped by the different computer programmes, should analyze the behaviour of the concrete structures (learning by discovering). In second place, by using these programs it is possible to obtain certain objectives that are not possible to obtain by using the blackboard, because of time reasons. • During the computer and laboratory praxis the students have to be very active, because their participation is required • We have observed that the combination theoretical-practical in the classroom or computer-laboratory experimental is essential to arouse in the student a critic sense thanks by observing the real behaviour of elements and structures made of concrete and the respective comparison with the theoretical models. • In the technical degrees we should promote an active methodology (guided projects, work in groups and self-teaching, as a simulation of the real professional world in the School. • • • •
With regard to the evaluation systems we obtain the following conclusions We have noted that this change in the evaluation system permits to reach the totality of the objectives of the subjects imparted and a substantial increase of the students’ knowledge about the subject matter The realization of a project allows the student to have a global and orderly vision of the subject. However, if we don’t limit the extent of the project proposed, this can be turn into a real dramatism and a stress situation because of the continue delivering that the students should make. The project’s design should be pondered. We should take a compromised solution, in which the totality of the subject’s contents should be included but, the extent should be also limited, because the students have more than just one subject.
AKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the Polytechnic University of Valencia for the financial support received to develop the EIP nº 10.059, 12020B, 12.003C y 13.114C. These projects have allowed us to create the teaching material referenced in this report.
REFERENCES [1] Universidad Politécnica de Valencia “Proyectos de Innovación Docente. Curso 1989-90”. Servicio de Publicaciones de la UPV [2] R.D. 1497/1987 de 27 de noviembre (BOE 14/XII/1987) por el que se establecen las directrices generales comunes de los planes de estudio de los títulos universitarios de carácter oficial y validez en todo el territorio nacional [3] Andreu Álvarez, J.; Bonet Zapater, F.; Fernández Prada, M.A. “Plan Integral de Estudios de Ingeniería Civil en la E.T.S.I. Caminos, Canales y Puertos de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia”. II Jornadas Nacionales de Innovación en las Enseñanzas de las Ingenierías. Comunicaciones, vol. II, pp. 5265. ICE. Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Madrid, 1996 [4] Bonet Zapater, F.; Fernández Prada, M.A. y Aguilar Herrando, J. “Ciclicidad en las enseñanzas técnicas en España. El caso concreto de la Ingeniería Civil”. I Simposyum Iberoamericano sobre didáctica universitaria. Santiago de Compostela, 2-4 de diciembre de 1999.
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