FACULTY DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PEER-LEARNING IN THE TELECOM-BCN DESIGN-BUILD PROJECT SUBJECTS

Standards 9 and 10 clearly state that faculty development is a key aspect in the design and implementation of CDIO oriented curricula. In our institution, the courses for competence learning and assessment programmed by the University Faculty Training Unit cover the insertion of competences in ordinary subjects, but they are not enough to fulfill the needs of design-build project courses and, in addition, faculty members with consolidated positions are often reluctant to follow them. To overcome this drawback, we have designed a peer-learning procedure. New faculty members in the design-build project subjects are required to start teaching in the first year subject (introduction to engineering) and then continue in the second year one (basic engineering project) and then the third one (advanced engineering project). The first time that a lecturer teaches each course, is escorted by a colleague that already did it. In 3 and ½ years (7 semesters), the initial 5 people team has grown to 25 faculty members. Lecturers who were reluctant to enroll in training courses are now making puzzles, using rubrics and evaluating competences, and is reasonable to think that they will be prone to use these tools in other subjects they teach.