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A method used to allow the joint acquisition of generic skills such as teamwork, design creative proposals, select information, oral and written communication to University students from different study programs is presented in this paper. To achieve this goal, first, a project using the methodology of Project Based Learning (PBL) was designed and, second, it was tested carrying out two pilot plans which involved different numbers of students and courses. The students had the challenge of converting an episode of the television show of a famous Spanish cook (Karlos Arguiñano) into a scientific radio program. For this reason, the project was called Arguiñano Project. The radio show had to be filled with a testable scientific content and to do so students had to work collaboratively and share their own knowledge background. The project was reorganized after the evaluation of the first pilot plan and it was developed again in a second pilot project, which involved more students and allowed to compare scores between students that work under PBL and others of the same course and study program that performed a similar task but without following the PBL method. The results show that PBL-based activities have a great potential for the acquisition of generic skills and also improve the achievement of specific skills and a higher degree of satisfaction when compared to a more traditional learning method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the new challenges which, in the context of the European Space of Higher Education, the legal studies are facing at the present moment, specifically Roman Law. The different ways, through a teaching resource like the group tutorial classes can be very useful for this project, have been studied. Very special attention has been dedicated to its role in the preparation of the Final Project. Many competences, generic and specific, acquired during years of study must be used in his development. In consequence, from which its importance as a thermometer of the quality of the given formation and the learning actually achieved. Tutoring developed in small groups of four or five students as maximum, in accordance with the methodological structure of a seminar, increases each of the papers and allows the tutor to make a more realistic evaluation of the educational proceedings. The necessity of proposing appropriate instruments for a more efficient management of the Final Project has led us to adopt this resource, based on previous experience of innovation teaching that we have successfully been applying for more than ten years. The results obtain greatly benefit both the students, who learn to work in a cooperative way, and the tutor, who is therefore able to provide them counselling of a more integral and complete nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Law students as well as the companies that recruit recent graduates have identified a gap between what is taught in the classrooms and the actual practice of law as a professional. Although there has been much written about the transition between law school and the labor market, there is a lack of literature on how recent graduates are to acquire and develop skills to better prepare them for their entry into the labor market. Developing authentic performances and simulations, this paper presents an innovative pedagogical approach which seeks to address this issue by creating a greater synergy between what is taught in universities and the actual processes that a lawyer that has specialized in the administrative field will be undertaking. We found that students were able to build knowledge departing from their own experience, as they faced problems related to their everyday life that involved role assumption. This allowed them to develop the skills required to excel at the workplace as well as to get motivated to study law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the widespread concern in society about young people's shortcomings in terms of writing skills, this article aims to analyze whether that competence is developed and assessed at University. The academic community cannot remain indifferent to this problem, so it is important to include the improvement of this skill in the academic curriculum. The development of writing skills is a general competence and it is considered, therefore, necessary for any study and any profile. Particularly in Business Administration, the acquisition of good written expression is not restricted to any course, but can potentially be developed in several of them over the degree, and the subject *Final Research Project* is one of the courses which can best frame the acquisition of this skill. Therefore, in this paper we develop an analysis of the design, organization, content and assessment of the Final Research Project in all universities of the Community of Madrid, both public and private, in which the degree in Business Administration is offered. The study was compiled with information obtained from the curriculum and the academic catalogue for the course, both of them available on the websites of the different universities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers' coordination is based on a horizontal organizational structure, with the fundamental premises of voluntariness and interest in participating in joint activities in order to promote social learning networks. Thus, interdisciplinary projects or practices that play an important role in order to promote learning of and by competences in the new degrees emerge. Hence, we present this paper, whose aims, firstly, to provide a reflective analysis of the contribution of interdisciplinary practices to students' learning by competences and on the other hand, to present the evaluations and perceptions of the teachers involved in this new way of working. For this purpose, an interdisciplinary practical work is presented comprising three 3rd year subjects of the Degree in Social Education of the Faculty of Education, University of Murcia. Data have been collected by using the following tools: questionnaire (students) and the interview (teachers). The chosen research methodology was both, quantitative and qualitative in order to understand, analyze and reflect on the object of study and approach the experiences and perceptions of respondents, drawing conclusions and offering suggestions for improvement. The results show that this king of activities contributes to the acquisition of learning competences, and to the training of a competent teacher, arising as an alternative to isolated work creating an organizational culture open to networking among teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Academic writing in European higher education is a little explored field hidden behind fifty major language and fifty national educational systems of which it is part. The article aims at developing a perspective for studying the diversity of writing in Europe and finding a shared language for analyzing student writing. The article recaps baselines theories for the teaching of writing and reports on three important European writing traditions. The main part of the paper is devoted to three foundational conceptions for writing: The role of genres in understanding student writing, the function of writing practices for the organization of student writing and the meaning of writing competences for the teaching of writing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The units or training centers (ICE IDES CQUID, ELC) of the eight public universities in Catalonia, constituted as Interuniversity Group on Teacher Education (GIFD), are currently undergoing a reformulation process concerning the training activities and plans being offered to university teachers, in order to facilitate the development of their teaching activity. The rethinking of their actions is born from a common interest linking the quality of university teachers' training with coherent approaches in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). This interest and concern has led the group to conduct a research study with the objective of establishing a set of standard teaching skills for the faculty staff to master, with the purpose of successfully undertaking the development of the new degree courses in line with the directives of the European Higher Education Area. This paper contains a thorough examination and analysis regarding the main features that activities and training programs aimed at teachers should include, in order to facilitate the performance of the teaching activity itself, by focusing at the work of training units or training centers, at the academic institutions where they belong, and at the related agencies, and by requesting them to update their educational tasks in order to meet the new requirements that the role of teachers demand. The aim of this work is to stimulate thought and to generate a debate on the direction that university teachers' training must follow, not only as a strategic element of the institution, but also contributing to achieve the quality objectives to which universities have committed themselves in the process of validating the new degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current social, cultural and technological context along with the design of the new degree in Primary education and Infant requires a reflection on how the training of new teachers should be and which skills would enable them to successfully adapt to the present demands. In the Information and Communication Society it becomes essential to change the roles and scenarios of teaching and learning to ensure the training of competent individuals, i.e., able to apply knowledge in a satisfactory manner. Teachers play an important role in the education of future generations under this approach and, therefore, they are the key to facilitate adaptation to changing times. Hence teacher training becomes crucial and the practicum period constitutes a privileged situation to develop competences associated to the new professional profile of teachers. In the present work a variety of people related with these competences (Practicum tutors in educational centers, researchers and university tutors, senior, graduate students… collaborated with us to outline a training plan stemming from the conclusions of the investigation. The main aim of the study is to determine the consistency between the current demands of active teachers in exercise and the real offer provided from university. This paper shows results of content analyses over the competences described for teacher training degrees as a first step of further analyses to be accomplished by the different agents previously mentioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]