Methods
3.1. Context, objectives and justification
Spanish Economy is a basic course for Business students at the University of Huelva. It is offered during the second semester of the second year and, together with World Economy, makes up a teaching block that focus on the economic context where enterprises perform their activity. The contents of the course are predominantly theoretical and descriptive and the traditional teaching methodology has been the master class, complemented with practical activities like texts and graphs analysis.
The revision of the teaching methodology is justified by two principal reasons. Firstly, the traditional methodology did not fit the requirements of the EHEA, since the student was considered to be a mere information recipient, playing only a passive role in the learning process. Secondly, the teachers observed a low rate of class attendance which was interpreted as an evidence of lack of motivation and satisfaction between the students.
Due to these reasons, the teachers of the course decided to develop a new teaching
methodology conducting to reach the following objectives:
1. Improving the students’ experience in class.
2. Motivating the students.
3. Helping the students to prepare the final exam.
4. Improving their general satisfaction.
To reach these goals, the teachers designed an IBL methodology, elaborating a guide for the students in order to help them to prepare the course. For each unit, the students receive an introduction, a glossary, a set of questions and bibliographic references. The students have to answer the questions with information extracted from the referenced texts. All this process takes place in class, guided by the teachers. The final exam of the course is based on the questions prepared by the students in class.