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Application of PBL Methodology to the Teaching of Engineering Project Management

2010; American Society of Civil Engineers; Volume: 136; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000002

1943-5541

José M. Fernández, José Valeriano Álvarez Cabal, Joaquín Villanueva Balsera, Gemma Martínez Huerta,

Engineering Education and Curriculum Development

In the UNESCO World Education Report “Teachers and Teachingin a Changing World” UNESCO 1997 , it has already beenpointed out that new generations are entering a world that is un-dergoing important changes in every field, including those of sci-ence and technology, politics, economics, society, and culture.The emergence of the “knowledge society” is transforming theworld economy and the status of education.There exists a growing awareness among those responsible fordesigning education policies, business leaders, and educators ingeneral that the education system designed to prepare students foran agricultural or industrial economy will not afford individualsthe skills and knowledge necessary to triumph in the knowledgeeconomy and society of the 21st century.The conception prevailing until now as regards the learningprocess arose from the industrial model of education at the begin-ning of the 20th century and served the purpose of providinga great number of individuals with the necessary skills forjobs requiring little qualification in the areas of industry and ag-riculture.The traditional focus of teaching centers upon the teacher, whois the expert transmitting information to students UNESCO2002 . In conceptual terms, teaching deals with a univocal modelfor learning in which the teacher is understood as a “storehouse”of knowledge that should be transmitted to students.In contrast to the traditional teaching–learning paradigm, anew conception has been developing in which the fundamentalchange considers that it is the students who must play the lead intheir own educational process, such that the teacher points out theobjectives and advises and encourages students to help correctany serious deviations or excessive waste of time and energy Table 1 .The change from teacher-centered learning toward student-centered learning creates a more interactive and motivating learn-ing environment not only for students, but also for teachersthemselves Newby et al. 2000 . As shown in Table 2, the role ofthe teacher ceases to be exclusively that of transmitting knowl-edge to become that of a knowledge facilitator and advisor, aswell as a participant in the learning process along with the stu-dent. This new role does not diminish the importance of theteacher, but it does require new knowledge and skills. Studentsmust be more responsible for their own learning insofar as theylook for, find, synthesize, and share their knowledge with theirclassmates.The new ways of conceiving the learning process and thechange toward student-centered learning are based on researchinto cognitive learning and the convergence of diverse theoriesconcerning the nature and context of learning. These theories arederived from the basic idea that students are active agents whosearch for and construct knowledge for a specific purpose withina meaningful context.