Students’ and teachers’ perceptions: initial achievements of a Project-Based Engineering School

ABSTRACT

A unified academic model based on the project-based learning (PBL) methodology was implemented, in the 2012–2013 period, in the School of Engineering at Universidad Europea de Madrid. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether teachers and students participating in the capstone projects feel that the objectives for which this methodology was designed for are being achieved. The data were collected through interviews to participants at the end of the PBL experience. The results are encouraging, as students seem to be more motivated, and they say that they are experiencing deeper learning, and have developed key competitive skills required for their professional lives. Findings also suggest that teachers face positively the PBL as a learning approach since they perceive that students obtain a deeper learning, develop transversal skills with the projects and are more engaged with their studies. Implications and recommendations for the future of the model are also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Project-based learning
• students’ perceptions
• teachers’ perceptions students’ motivation
• learning process

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

María-José Terrón-López holds an MSc degree in physics, master on Electronics (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1990) and Ph.D. from the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid on the Photovoltaic Solar Energy programme (1997). She is a teacher at the School of Architecture, Engineering and Design at the ‘Universidad Europea de Madrid’ (UEM). She has been in charge of the teacher training programme of the UEM. She has participated in several research projects focused both on photovoltaic and on university education, skills development and employability. She has participated in conferences and workshops as a part of the teacher training programme of several Spanish Universities. Her research interests include, among others, improvement of key skills in degree students.

Paloma-Julia Velasco-Quintana holds Ph.D. in Education (UEM, 2010), and a Mathematics Degree (Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 1998). Currently she is Head of the Department of Informatics and Communications at the Polytechnic School (Universidad Europea) and full professor since 2001. She combines her dedication to higher education with research focused on educational innovation. Her research interests are on the development of peer tutoring programmes, new teaching and learning methodologies, as well as the development and evaluation of generic skills. She has participated in several research projects related to these areas, some of them as Main Researcher. She has published more than 20 publications in both national and international scientific journals and books in the area of education.

María-José García-García holds an MSc degree in Mathematics (Universidad Complutense, 1994). She is a professor at the Universidad Europea de Madrid (UEM) since 1998, when she joined the Department of Computer Science and Communications. During these years, she has held several academic management positions: coordinator of the Bachelor Degree in Computer Engineering (2004–2006), international coordinator of Industrial Degrees (2007–2008), Coordinator of the teacher training programme of the UEM (2009–2011) and Academic Director at Engineering School (2011–2014). Since April 2014 she is the Director of Student Services at the School of Engineering and Architecture. She has participated in various research projects on university innovation, skills development and engineering employability, and written numerous articles in journals, books and conferences. She is a member of the Spanish association of university teachers of informatics (AENUI) since 2001.

Jared R. Ocampo holds an MSc (2002) and BSc (2000) in Mechanical Engineering (Brigham Young University), and is currently working on his Ph.D. thesis at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. He has been a full time professor at the Universidad Tecnológica Centroamericana since 2004 and currently works as a researcher in the Industrial and Mechatronics Engineering Department. He has previously held positions such as Academic Head of the Faculty of Engineering and Coordinator of the Mechatronics Department. He has published several articles in the areas of industry automation, simulation of industrial processes and engineering education.

ORCID

María-José Terrón-López http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8423-6795