Initial Debate as an Innovative Method to Introduce a New Subject

Abstract

[EN] The first class of a course is normally devoted to introducing students to the different aspects of a subject such as the themes, contents, evaluation methods, professors, contact information, among others. However, the first class is normally considered by students an unimportant one as there is little interaction between educators and them. The first class is generally a master lecture and students¿ participation is unusual. In order to overcome this tiresome situation, this paper proposes an innovative method where an initial debate is performed. The main conclusions of such debate are registered with twofold objectives. Firstly, the professor obtains valuable information about the initial students¿ knowledge level related to the aspects of the subject in order to adapt the subject¿s features to fulfil efficiently the learning objectives. Secondly, the responses obtained through the debate are used during the running of the course to show students the differences between their first impression and the real and exact meaning of the different aspects included in the subject. This method is applied in a subject of an Engineering Master Degree as an original method to help professors in their teaching activities and motivate students in their learning activities.