A NEW ACTIVE AND CREATIVE TEACHING-LEARNING METHOD ASSEMBLED OVER A CLIENT-PROVIDER MODEL
A. Domingo, A. M. Bajo, A. Chiloeches, V. GarcĂa
University of Alcala (SPAIN)
The current global economy demands education models that can meet new challenges in the formation of world-scale competitive professionals. The academic contents are important, but also a real training in personal and professional skills to confront the future with a greater chance of success in global professional market. We have developed an active teaching-learning method based on continuous assessment without expositive lectures or exams, assembled over a "Client-Provider" model for the "Teacher-Student" roles. The result is a meaningful and formative teaching-learning process with effective training of personal and professional skills, not only informative of academic facts. The course consists of ten successive units. In each unit "the provider" (each student) have to meet a demand from "the client" (the teacher), which is a short original manuscript, due-dated and adapted to a given subject and orientation. The quality of the product is paid with a score. Delays in submission or plagiarism are penalized with negative scores. The submission day four students read in public other four manuscripts at random, and evaluate the scientific content as well as the writing form. Here the evaluator may obtain bonus points with a good analysis. Positive values and skills as cooperation, solidarity and teamwork are encouraged while maintaining the individual responsibility and assessment. The academic content is adapted to be seen around ten "focal subjects", each acting as a seed to nucleate and unfold a network of concepts and relationships. All this knowledge is perceived as discovered and understood for a realistic use, not as a boring lesson to learn for an exam. This method has been put in practice for four years in several subjects. It has a very general applicability and meets most of the challenges and goals of a modern and productive teaching-learning process.