On the perceptions of students and professors in the implementation of an inter-university engineering PBL experience

ABSTRACT

The new educational paradigm has led to a change in the teaching methodologies toward those more focused on the student, among these, project-based learning (PBL) is postulated as one of the most promising. This work is focused on the description of the experience of using PBL methodology in Materials Science courses, conducted by four different Spanish universities on different engineering degrees. The other main objective is to analyse and evaluate how the PBL was perceived by the students and the lecturers that took part in the PBL process. This investigation was an embedded, sequential mixed-methods study, which began by administering a survey to one hundred and four students and then a focus group with six students and six lecturers in four different engineering degrees of four Universities. Results generally show a good degree of acceptance of this approach by all parties involved.

KEYWORDS:

• Problem-based learning
• Materials Science and Engineering
• higher education
• inter-university

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Lidón Moliner is Professor in the Department of Education of the University Jaume I in Castellón (Spain). In June 2011 she received her Ph.D. degree in Science Education. Her research main interest is the inclusive education, peer tutoring, cooperative learning and service-learning. She has done research stays at Universidad Central of Santiago de Chile, Çukurova University or Universidad de las Artes of Cuba.

Luis Cabedo is Professor in the Department of Industrial Sistem Engineering and Design of the University Jaume I. Dr. Cabedo conducted his Ph.D. between the New Materials and Nanotechnology in the Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the University Jaume I (Spain). He has done several research stays at Danish Polymer Centre of the Risø National Laboratory (Dinamarca); Department of Chemistry, Binghamton University SUNY (NY, U.S.A.); and Fibre and Polymer Technology Department in KTH – Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Suecia).

Marta Royo received her B.Sc. in Industrial Design Engineering at the Universitat Jaume I de Castellón in 1997, and a master’s degree in Secondary Education, vocational training and language teaching (2013) and a master’s degree in Design and Manufacturing (2014) at the same university. She has been teaching at the Universitat Jaume I since 2004. In June 2016 she received her Ph.D. degree in Industrial Technologies and Materials. She has already published several communications in conferences such as the ICED or the international Congress on Project Management and Engineering.

Jose Gámez-Pérez has been teaching Material Science for 12 years at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and Universitat Jaume I (UJI). He graduated in Chemistry (1998 – Universitat de Valencia, Spain) and Chemical Engineering (1999 – Ecole de Chimie, Polymeres, Materiaux, France) before pursuing his Ph.D. in the structure-properties relationships in plastics at the Centre Català del Plàstic, associated to the Material Science Department of the UPC. His research goals are headed towards sustainability in plastic materials reducing their overall carbon footprint, by using renewable sources for polymers and optimising their use in the fields with the highest consumption (i.e. packaging, building, etc.).

Pablo Lopez-Crespo is Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Materials Engineering of the University of Malaga. Pablo studied his Ph.D. at the University of Sheffield (U.K.). He then conducted post-doctoral research at Ecole Normale Nationale de Cachan (France), University of Sheffield (U.K.) and University of Manchester (U.K.). During his time spent in the U.K., France and Spain, Pablo has learned both novel teaching methodologies and research knowledge.

Mercè Segarra has the Degree in Chemistry (1989) and Ph.D. in Chemistry (1994) from the University of Barcelona. Since 2003, I am Associate Professor, and in 2005, I was ascribed to the newly created Department of Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Barcelona. For the last years, my research interest has been focused on the synthesis and microscopical characterisation of ceramic materials, such as superconductors, or electrolytes for fuel cells, as well as the characterisation of their mechanical properties at nanoscale by instrumented nanoindentation.

Teresa Guraya is Professor in the Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science of the University of the Basque Country. Teresa studied his Ph.D. at the University of Navarra (Spain). She then conducted post-doctoral research at University of Standford (CA, U.S.A.) and University of Drexel (PA, U.S.A.). During her time spent in the U.S.A. and Spain, Teresa has learned both novel teaching methodologies and research knowledge.

ORCID

Lidón Moliner http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0143-898X

Additional information

Funding

Authors wish to thank the Vicerrectorado de Estudiantes, Ocupación e Innovación Educativa from Universitat Jaume I de Castellón for the financial support through the Project (PIE 2907/14). Additionally the authors thank the Vicerrectorado de Innovación Docente from University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU the financial support.