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Sinergias educativas
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The display to build knowledge with
projects
El monitor para construir conocimiento con proyectos
Néstor Rafael Perico-Granados
*
Carolina Tovar-Torres
Ángel Miranda-Bitar*.
Paula Andrea Suárez-Alvarado*.
María Alejandra Puerto-Cristancho*.
Abstract
The traditional teaching method in higher education in Colombia focuses
on memorizing processes and theories, taking notes and repeating them and
paying attention to the permanent protagonist of the classroom, who is the
professor. In this way, the student is distanced from the construction of
knowledge and favors student desertion and academic mortality, which
prevents the development of key competencies to develop in the social and
work environment. This research approached a methodology of knowledge
construction outside traditional stereotypes, based on project-based
Doctor in Educational Sciences. University
Corporation Minuto de Dios-UNIMINUTO. Bogotá,
Colombia. nestor.perico@uniminuto.edu.co,
orcid.org/0000-0003-1768-793X.
*
Doctor in Educational Sciences. University
Corporation Minuto de Dios-UNIMINUTO. Bogotá,
Colombia, carolina.tovar@uniminuto.edu;
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3019-9092.
*
Specialist in Project Management, Master in
Environmental Management ( c ), Universidad Santo
Tomás de Tunja. Tunja. Boyacá. Colombia.
lab2.civil@ustatunja.edu.co. orcid.org/0000-0003-
0610-5949.
*
Civil Engineer. Independent researcher Tunja. Boyacá.
Colombia. ing.paulasuarez@hotmail.com.
orcid.org/0000-0002-8383-3248.
*
Road Geotechnical Specialist. Independent
Researcher. Tunja. Boyacá. Colombia.
mariapucri@hotmail.com. orcid.org/0000-0002-8383-
3248
Article
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learning applied in Civil Engineering, in several universities: Corporación
Universitaria Minuto de Dios-UNIMINUTO, Juan de Castellanos and
Universidad Santo Tomás de Tunja, years 2012 to 2020, in the academic
spaces Introduction to Engineering and Research Methodology. It was
done in different semesters, with the guidance of the principal investigator
and the work of nine monitors and the collaboration of about two hundred
and fifty students. Surveys, interviews, observation grids and field diaries
were applied to students with a selective sample.
Keywords: Active Learning, Dropout, Higher Education, Civil
Engineering, Monitor.
Resumen
El método tradicional de enseñanza en la educación superior en Colombia
se centra en memorizar procesos y teorías, tomar apuntes y repetirlos y
poner atención al protagonista permanente del salón que es el profesor. Así
se aparta al estudiante de la construcción del conocimiento y favorece la
deserción estudiantil y la mortalidad académica, lo que impide el desarrollo
de competencias claves para desenvolverse en el ámbito social y laboral.
Esta investigación abordó una metodología de construcción de
conocimiento fuera de estereotipos tradicionales, a partir del aprendizaje
basado en proyectos aplicado en Ingeniería Civil, en varias universidades:
Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios-UNIMINUTO, Juan de
Castellanos y Universidad Santo Tomás de Tunja, años 2012 al 2020, en
los espacios académicos Introducción a la Ingeniería y Metodología de
Investigación. Se hizo en diferentes semestres, con la orientación del
investigador principal y el trabajo de nueve monitores y la colaboración de
cerca de doscientos cincuenta estudiantes.
Palabras clave: Aprendizaje Activo, Deserción escolar, Enseñanza
superior, Ingeniería civil, Monitor
Introduction
Higher education continues under the academicist orientation of its
teachers, who turn the acquisition of knowledge into a routine that
privileges note-taking, memorization and an evaluation that is
almost always an exam (Hadgraft and Kolmos, 2020). According to
Perico-Granados, Dávila-Bonilla et al., (2020) the importance of
fostering expertise, as a continuous relationship between theory and
practice that helps the construction of professional knowledge, to
mention only one, is often forgotten. Thus, the possibility of
cementing about thirty different competencies that can be promoted
with the project method is wasted. However, in higher education
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students are faced with doing tasks and assignments that may
become obsolete in less than a decade.
Pozuelos et al. (2021) state that it is necessary to overcome the
classical procedures used for the memoristic and mechanical
transmission of knowledge. It is necessary to apply strategies that
allow articulating the contents, analyzing them, understanding them
and thus constructing knowledge. For Rodríguez-Mesa et al., (2017)
the active participation of students in the construction of knowledge
is evidenced by the fact that with words they forget, with figures they
remember, if they participate they can understand and if the teacher
pushes them the students act.
In the third decade of the 21st century, engineering education needs
to focus learning on students and really prepare them to face the
future (Rodríguez-Mesa et al, 2017). In this regard, reality demands
that students have skills and competencies to face the challenges of
the fourth industrial revolution, which is not compatible with
traditional curricula that revolve around the teacher and do not
consider social and professional needs.
Regarding the poor implementation of practical processes in higher
education, the Association of Civil Engineering Faculties of
Colombia, ACOFI (2010) reports that, for the construction of
knowledge, this education does not take into account the importance
demanded by the needs of today's society, so that learning often lacks
leadership, interdisciplinarity and teamwork. In this regard, the
challenge remains for academics to establish methods to build
appropriate knowledge.
In accordance with the above, it is considered necessary that a civil
engineer begins to develop work skills during his career, such as the
ability to identify and solve the problems that today's world
demands, as well as the development of personal skills that allow
effective communication, promote ethical behavior, development of
autonomy for decision making and socio-environmental
responsibility increasingly important considering the problems
facing the world today (ACOFI, 2010).
On the other hand, in 2013, Colombia had a dropout rate of 44.9%
in university education programs. In that year, in the first semester
only the highest dropout rate was recorded in technical and
professional education with approximately 34%. In the field of
engineering, architecture, urban planning and related fields, in
Colombia a dropout rate of about 44% was found, during 2015.
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Departments such as Boyacá have records above that with a rate
above 45%, in the same year. Then, it is essential to use new
pedagogies and new didactics that allow the students to be
enthusiastic in order to decrease these indicators, such as the project
method (Guerra et al., 2017). These aspects urge the search for
strategies that allow students to play a leading role for greater
motivation and interest in professional training.
In the cases studied, the first four semesters of the civil engineering
programs are mainly taught basic science subjects, which focus on
theories and methods. There is little application to the professional
field for which they are being trained and the didactics that are
worked on, mostly lack motivation for autonomous learning (Perico-
Granados, Umba et al, 2020). In the same way, few learning
environments are elaborated, with a low number of activities,
different from those of the classroom, that allow the student to
approach the field of civil engineering and that help him/her to
propitiate the development of communicative skills. Students with a
good academic performance are observed, but at the same time it is
not easy for them to speak in public (Perico-Granados, Dávila-
Bonilla, et al., 2020).
It was decided to apply the project method in the research to promote
the construction of the competencies of the engineering profession
and in parallel to cement the human competencies that are very
useful to engineers during their personal life and professional
performance. The work focused on the contributions that the
monitors can generate in the different processes, as collaborators of
the teacher in the field work and in the laboratories. Students,
monitors, laboratorians, teachers and the main researcher were
involved in a team work with defined purposes to optimize the
construction of knowledge.
Satisfactory results were found in the implementation of this
methodology, which were recognized by students, monitors and
teachers, since they are processes that allow building knowledge and
forging professional and personal competencies. Among these are
autonomy, teamwork, decision making and respect for what is
different and labor competencies such as the recognition and good
use of laboratory equipment and tools, with the appropriate use of
the language of engineering and especially with the development of
communication skills.
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Materials and methods
The research was carried out in three universities: Corporación
Universitaria Minuto de Dios-UNIMINUTO, Fundación
Universitaria Juan de Castellanos and Universidad Santo Tomás de
Tunja, in the Civil Engineering programs. Students were involved in
projects of the profession and in practices of the environment,
aspects that sometimes ask them to face problems of different kinds,
including ethical ones, related to social needs. Then, they must learn
to act, based on reflection on changing situations with a certain
degree of uncertainty (Hadgraft and Kolmos, 2020).
It was decided to work with project-based learning, which promotes
teamwork, among other characteristics, and students change the
traditional actions summarized in listening and reading about generic
concepts. They, with the method apply theory to solve real-life
problems, allowing these to establish the relationship between the
work they develop and the professional world beyond the academic
(Gonҫalves, 2014), (Perico-Granados et al., 2019).
Within the educational classification, project-based learning is
immersed in active learning, with a great protagonism of the student,
who has to solve real and genuine problems. Teachers and monitors
always acted as guides and avoided active participation. They only
did so when necessary, in moments of feedback or when students
were getting off track. In this regard, this strategy is based on
democracy and participation, it offers students independence,
autonomy and responsibility in the construction of knowledge, since
they make decisions about what, how, when and why to learn
(Rodríguez-Mesa et al., 2017).
In the same sense, the teacher changes his role in the construction of
knowledge, since he does not act as a transmitter of concepts, but
becomes the guide, who guides the student to find the solution to the
problem that prompted the research, in which he applies the
knowledge acquired in the subjects (Reverte, et al., 2007). It is worth
mentioning that project-based learning helps to develop skills for
good teamwork, to plan the time and the work to be carried out, to
know effectively the processes to be executed. It also promotes
autonomy to make decisions appropriately throughout the process.
Then, projects with these purposes turn out to be more motivating
for students, aspects that are usually reflected in their interest in the
subjects they study and finally in their academic performance,
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elements that prepare them much better for their work performance
(Kolmos et al., 2021).
In the same way, the method allows students to approach with their
field and laboratory activities to the activities they will encounter in
their professional work, for which they are preparing. It significantly
increases the motivation for their own training and their commitment
to study, since the projects become challenges that awaken the skills
and creativity to build real solutions to real problems, acquiring
human and professional skills (Perico-Granados et al, 2017),
(Kolmos et al., 2021).
In terms of the principles of project-based learning, common
approaches can be found, despite the variation in the models that are
implemented. On the one hand, there is the approach to learning that
is oriented to problems and the student's experience, an aspect that
calls for a more thorough analysis to solve it. On the other hand,
there is the approach to content, taking into account that
interdisciplinary learning is sought, in order to go beyond the
traditional limits of the subjects. Finally, the social approach that
translates into teamwork and autonomous learning, where there is
dialogue and communication, a space in which students learn to
share knowledge and organize processes together in the search for
solutions (De Graaff, Kolmos and Du, 2017).
The project-based learning method, for this research, was
implemented in the construction of knowledge with students in the
first semesters of the Civil Engineering programs of the three
universities mentioned above. The principal investigator together
with the teachers at different times, specified the aspects of the
method to work and during the work period there was interaction
with the monitors, young researchers, laboratorians and in almost all
of them with members of the communities affected by the problems.
Thus, the teachers urged the students to form working groups of
three people each, to identify a problem in their immediate
environment, related to their profession, with the guidance of the
teacher.
The problems encountered, studied and analyzed in the projects are
related to road geotechnics, building pathologies, deficiencies in
drinking water supply, sewage contamination, solid waste disposal,
vegetation cover and landslides, among others. The projects were
worked on during one semester and in some cases in two, obtaining
results expressed in team presentations and good quality written
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reports. In this way, decision making and autonomy in the different
processes that were carried out during this time were cemented. In
this aspect, decision making by the students becomes a requirement
to take ownership of the project and thus become more motivated by
its development (De- Graaff and Kolmos, 2007).
The method was implemented between 2012 and 2020, during which
time nearly one hundred and ninety projects were carried out with
students, with the guidance and collaboration of seven teachers from
different academic areas, the follow-up of nine monitors and the
support of five laboratorians, at different times, in the three
educational centers. In one specific case, there was the collaboration
of a monitor, who participated in the follow-up of about sixty
projects during three years. In this way, evidence could be collected
more effectively and the contribution of his participation in the
process could be established, based on the fact that he had experience
in the development of the method and in several subjects in which
the method was implemented. Surveys, interviews, workshops,
observation grids and a field diary were applied. The information
was triangulated and the results and conclusions presented in this
research were obtained.
In all cases, the students were motivated to explore their
environment to find engineering problems that they were interested
in investigating. In the few cases in which they did not find them,
the researcher presented a list of possible problems so that they could
take them from there. This covered the various fields of the
profession and each group had the autonomy to choose the topic they
thought best to develop the project. The projects followed the
methodology used in these university centers, from an excellent
construction of the problem, state of the art, elaboration of objectives
and theoretical framework, to methodology, schedule and budget
(Perico-Granados, Caro-Camargo et al., 2015), (Perico-Granados,
Garza et al., 2020). Likewise, the execution of the projects was
carried out with a variable duration, depending on the case.
In 90% of the projects, students were taken, with the guidance of
teachers and the accompaniment of monitors, to take field samples
of geotechnical, structural, water, or solid waste. In this way, they
had an approach to professional work, which was deepened with
laboratory tests and then with the analysis of the results. The teacher
guided them and the monitors, in the absence of the teacher, to
investigate in the books the concepts to put against the data obtained
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and to find by their own means the conclusions that they themselves
built. The field work was complemented with visits to construction
sites under construction and in a few cases to others already
completed.
The monitors always made the students keep in mind the application
of the technical standards for the elaboration of the laboratory tests,
taken to the soils of the areas studied and to materials such as asphalt
and concrete. Among the main ones worked with the students are the
Colombian Technical Standard (NTC), the INVIAS (National Roads
Institute) and the American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM)
standards. The laboratory tests were carried out with the help of
laboratorians from the three universities and with the
implementation of the experimental work guides. However, the
students played a central role in all processes and activities.
The main tests carried out were related to the characterization of
materials and the obtaining of their strength properties. Among
them, the following stand out: granulometry by sieving, obtaining
consistency limits, simple compression, direct shear, concrete
compressive strength, design of cold mixes with asphalt emulsion,
stability and flow of hot asphalt mix, with the use of Marshall
equipment, and granulometric analysis of aggregates extracted from
applied asphalt mixes, among others. In this way, the students, with
the timely guidance of the monitors, began the construction of the
expertise, as the symbiosis of theory and practice.
At the end of the development of the projects, in order to evaluate
the impact of the application of the method, with the active
participation of the monitor, in the students' training during the
process, a survey of ten (10) questions was applied, focused on
evaluating the effectiveness of project-based learning. Likewise, the
development of personal and professional competences was
measured, as well as the students' interest in the professional field,
the ease of remembering the knowledge obtained in the process, the
decrease of academic desertion, the relevance and effectiveness of
the inclusion of monitors and the help provided by the monitors
during the progress of the projects, among others (Miranda, 2016).
Results
As a result of the application of the method with the collaboration of
the monitors, in the three university centers, several positive results