Development and assessment of generic competences in engineering degrees through creativity

Abstract

Now more than ever, the social demands on the University require huge amounts of creativity to respond to the socio-economic context of today’s society. Creativity is an ability that requires teamwork as a framework for discussion of the particular ideas of its members, and a scenario for the development of necessary attitudes of tolerance. The experience described was developed with the help received by the University of Seville, within the Call for Teaching Innovation and Improvement Projects of the University’s First Teaching Plan during the 2010-2011 academic year, in a subject corresponding to the second term of the first year of Building Engineering. The experience was designed to develop a very short video with subject-related content to motivate the development of creativity among the students, and which would allow them to understand their own strengths and weaknesses in this area. It was also designed to achieve certain transverse competences included within the learning objectives of the subject, such as the ability to communicate through word and image in the context of a project in which teamwork is promoted. Given that such competences are always difficult to assess, the experience also sought to explore different approaches through peer assessment (using rubrics designed specifically for this case) and assessments involving agents external to the educational process. The results obtained show that, from the context of teaching technical subjects, it is possible to develop creativity together with the specific knowledge of the subject, and this experience is proposed as a new model for its teaching.