The innovation group in university teaching CEFOCID-Copolis of the UB (GIDCUB-13/140), develops and successfully refines at the national (since 2008) and international level (since 2012) a renewal of teaching methodologies for integral and articulated development of four fundamental cross-cutting competences in the area of knowledge of the social sciences: professional interdislinaryness, group work, problem solving and case studies, and the use of ITCs for the acquisition of instrumental and self-learning skills.

This has enhanced, within the framework of the priority lines indicated by the University of Barcelona and the Government of Catalonia, on the one hand, the acquisition of the cross-cutting competences in social sciences necessary for the exchange and integration of knowledge into different teachings and universities, both in the initiation to applied research of future professionals, as well as in the tools involved in the theoretical-critical and methodological approximation of research results raised as cross-cutting content. On the other hand, with the proposed teaching and pedagogical devices and the synchronization and/or timetable implemented has significantly facilitated the task of adequacy of new degrees and postgraduates in the process of convergence and internationalization of higher education.

This action is inserted in the context of four broader axes of action: linking R&D research with university teaching; promote scientific and social outreach programmes, based on cross-sectoral, interinstitutional and multidisciplinary action; expand the international scientific and associative networks around the driving teaching innovation group; and enhance the intense work of innovation and improvement of teaching quality, developed over five teaching quinquenia of several team members,  and consolidated together more than ten years ago.

Axes of the activity performed:

  1. Development of a critical and alternative proposal to adapt the degrees and master’s degrees to the requirements required by the European Higher Education Area (EEES) about the competitive paradigm that characterizes it, designing a teaching methodology -and comparatively analyzing its application in different groups of students- oriented to the development of four basic cross-cutting competencies around Social Sciences:

1.1 Professional Interdisciplinarity

1.2 Group work

1.3 Case study resolution

1.4 Developing instrumental and self-learning skills through ITCs

  1. Semi-presidency as an end and as a resource: enhancing interdisciplinary, interinstitutional, and cross-sectoral character through a semi-presidential formative offer.
  2. The introduction of a cross-cutting thematic axis in subject programs as a means for the creation of interdisciplinary groups and student groups of different teachings, cohorts, levels, and cycles (horizontal and vertical integration).
  3. The formation of Teaching Teams as a means for the coordinated development of subjects and the improvement of quality in university teaching.
  4. The development of experiences of internationalization of the teaching methodology and its transcultural evaluation, in the context of the creation and management of lines of action (research, training, transfer and university extension) and international networks of University Teaching Innovation (IDOSOFA Network) as a way of promoting and consolidating the internationalization of projects and their impact and replication capacity.
  5. The construction of its own assessment and self-assessment survey as a specific assessment tool for experiences of improving teaching quality.

The activity is seen in an extensive curriculum (see PMID-UB’s review of the teaching innovation group) which includes: Teaching Innovation Groups (6); Aid for innovation and research in university teaching (1); Teaching innovation projects (21, With adjustments such as teaching innovation projects 10, 2 Help from AGAUR, 5 adjustments of the UB, 3 UV adjustments and 2 UNRN-Argentina aids); Reference publications on university teaching (7); Participation in review processes Curriculum and reforms (5); Participation in adaptation of European appropriations (2); Action Plans tutorial (5); Exchange stays and teacher training (12), and other actions oriented to quality teaching: Individual Guardianship Plan for Initiation to Social Research (5); Organization of congresses and conferences (3); Leadership of Thematic Networks (2); and more than a hundred advanced human resources training sessions at specific seminars and workshops involving more than 30 trainers and involving nearly 70 teachers, along with multiple presentations, communications and publications in specialized journals and publishers.

All this allowed contextualization and development of the proposal within the framework of a university policy that, when it came to ensuring the solidity and viability of the line of work, poured in the same proposal R&D research, the transfer of results to society, internationalization, and scientific dissemination, with innovation and excellence of university teaching quality.

 

(Darrera actualització: 31/05/2021)