Educational Project to Improve Problem-Based Learning in Architectural Construction Courses Using Active and Co-operative Techniques

Resumen

This article presents a Project for Teaching Innovation (PTI) for theimprovement of teaching practices in the Construction 1 course at theArchitecture School of Barcelona (ETSAB). Since the 1980s this coursehas successfully made use of Problem-Basic Learning (PBL); howeverover the last ten years, various learning problems have arisen andbecome endemic. This PTI has been designed and implemented with theintention of solving this situation, and has been evaluated to determinethe viability of its application. This design has been developed by theteaching team and assessed by experts from the University, which hasconsisted of drawing up strategies for improving each one of the identifiedproblems. These strategies consist of incorporating new activities,and active and co-operative learning techniques. For the purposes ofevaluation, indicators were designed to control the functioning of eachstrategy, to collect and analyse data for each indicator, and to drawconclusions. To summarise, this project has provided a means to startresolving the problems faced by the Construction 1 PBL and, at thesame time, has created knowledge about the success of the techniques,activities and indicators used in this PTI which may be of use to futureteaching projects.