Improving teamwork competence applied in the building and construction engineering final degree project

Abstract

In Building and Construction Engineering field, one of the most needed and valued skills by the professional sector is the teamwork ability. The affirmation is based on previous researches that have demonstratedhowsuch competence is not only required in this sector, and identified as key by the professional world, but also necessary in academic processes. Based on this premise, the present work focuses its research on the design, implementation and assessment of a methodological change applied in the Final Degree Project (FDP) of Building and Construction Engineering degree, going from being an individual work to a teamwork. It has been demonstrated, how main specific competences required by professional sector are properly worked and validated in the design of the current curricula and in the FDP development. However, the same researches have allowed us to identify transversal or generic competence as teamwork that should be improved. Starting from current FDP development, traditionally based on the PBL (Project Based Learning) method, this work is focused on evolving FDP towards a CBLI approach (Challenge Based Learning Initiatives), through a collaborative work between student's teams, assessing what happens during the different stages of the learning activity and what each team member has done. For the proposal assessment, we focused on a mixed study (quantitative and qualitative), which will allow us to analyze in a specific way the relationship between the research variables such as motivation, competency requirements and academic results. This approach bases its effectiveness on previous researches that demonstrate its usefulness when study sample is reduced, as the case in question. © 2020 TEMPUS Publications.