Spanish Universities shaping to European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by means new teaching methodologies. A case study

Abstract

This paper describes briefly the transformation of the obligatory subject Introduction to Statistics (IS), in the first year of degree in the Faculty of Business Administration and Management (Administración y Dirección de Empresas FADE) at the Universidad Politécnica of Valencia (UPV) during the academic course 2009-2010. That course which a pilot European Credit Transfer System (ETCS) credit program was initiated, previous to its obligatory implantation in 2010, in the context of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The purpose of this research is to provide an overview of changes on the didactic model of this subject regarding previous academic years. Our work describes the new methodologies followed by teaching staff, the main problems troubled and the solutions adopted to solve them. Finally, a questionnaire was developed to evaluate the students’ perceptions about new active methodologies and teamwork that let us to know how these aspects influence in the development of competences and abilities, especially the interpersonal and systemic ones. In spite of the need for a larger study, the results draw that students have been fitted well to the new active methodologies and cooperative work.