• The participants evaluated the meeting very positively, as it provided constant feedback and the possibility to learn about new teaching methodologies from concrete experiences in the Centre for Vocational Training Tknika, in Spain. Tknika is well positioned and has a long experience in the field of technical vocational training.
• Antonio Gil and Víctor Arias, experts in project-based learning, were the keynote speakers. This method is focused on the student’s performance and it encourages his/her to lead his/her own progress. The researcher Kitte Marttinen, a Finnish expert in educational innovation, also participated in the activity.
• “The concept of challenge is interesting. I think we are going to see the way of implementing this method that involves making students to face a challenge that demands their intellectual and practical efforts,” Gabriel Bosque, director of Liceo Industrial de Nueva Imperial, said.

 

When technical vocational training is getting increasingly stronger, our University contributes with new knowledge for the directors of technical vocational schools managed by Universidad de Santiago (under the system of delegated administration) who participated in an intense activity, in order to learn innovative methodological experiences in the field of technical education. The activity was held on July 8th, here, in Santiago.

Some of the participants were: Patricia Silva Sánchez, director of Instituto Comercial Eliodoro Domínguez Domínguez, Santiago; Marcelo Riquelme, director of Liceo Industrial de Angol, Angol; Gabriel Bosque, director of Liceo Industrial de Nueva Imperial, Nueva Imperial; and Aliro Ramírez León, director of Liceo Industrial Presidente Pedro Aguirre Cerda, Rancagua. The heads of the pedagogical and vocational training units of these schools also attended the activity.

They all learned about the experiences and new methodologies presented by Antonio Gil de Gómez y Víctor Arias Rodríguez, Spanish experts from the renowned Centre for Vocational Training Tknika, Basque Country, and by Dr Kitte Marttinen, Finnish researcher with a long experience in educational innovation.

This valuable initiative is part of the school directors’ training program coordinated by the academic in charge of the administration of these institutions, Jorge Torres Ortega. He said that it was a rewarding activity because it was focused on concrete actions to improve technical vocational education, in a context in which a lot is spoken but little is done. “I do not know if someone in Chile is working on this at the level we are at the University,” he said.

Professor Torres invited the Spanish researchers to participate in the meeting to provide the above school directors with new methodological and management tools. With regards to Antonio Gil, Torres highlighted his experience using the project-based learning (PBL) approach that will provide and innovative view in the country, because it makes students to be protagonists of their own learning.

Universidad de Santiago has maintained a partnership with Tknika since last year. “Besides, in August there will be a scholarship competition for technical vocational schools’ teachers. That is why I particularly asked them to inform us about the specialization alternatives in the centres of the Basque Country,” he said.

The voice of the experts

The project-based learning (PBL) is a competence-based model for technical training teaching developed by Antonio Gil and Víctor Arias. Roughly, this method is focused on the student’s performance and it encourages him/her to lead his/her own progress.

According to Antonio Gil, the PBL means an evolution, a new way of facing the learning process, in accordance with current times.

“We have realized that education is evolving and shifting to this type of teaching. It is no longer the type in which the teacher knows his/her subject very well and then recites it to the student and, if the latter is paying attention, he/she will learn; and if he/she gets distracted, he/she will not learn that much,” he explained. 

In this sense, the researcher thinks that the student is the protagonist and the teacher should be a facilitator that provides the necessary tools for the student to have the results expected for the process. 

For his part, Víctor Arias highlighted that implementing these new technologies would involve big efforts. “Teachers need more training, and therefore, more resources are required,” he said.

The participants

According to Patricia Silva Sánchez, director of Instituto Comercial Eliodoro Domínguez Domínguez, “Listening to the experts from the Basque Country was an interesting experience, because they have had very good results with these innovative initiatives and good results in technical vocational education.” She highlighted the novel approach proposed by the PBL, in which the student is an essential agent in the educational process and which dynamics gives the student important tools for his/her professional development.

“The learning process is student-centred, as he/she starts looking for information; he/she plays different roles in the working groups and together they are able to reach the final results. This is the work that they have to face when they enter the world of work.”

Marcelo Riquelme, director of Liceo Industrial de Angol, said that the activity was important because it provided significant feedback on world-wide successful experiences that could improve the projects already implemented in Chilean institutions.

“It is really important because we are implementing projects in that direction. We still have work to do, but having this type of exchange and learning about these experiences will help us a lot,” he said.

Gabriel Bosque, director of Liceo Industrial de Nueva Imperial, said that the meeting was very significant. “The opportunity of having these experts here, listening to them directly and having the possibility of asking questions, generates a quite interesting interaction that will allow us to improve the implementation of our own projects.”

However, Bosque stressed that one of the main hurdles in introducing new pedagogical methodologies in the classrooms of our country is the paradigm change that it involves.

“This is the main problem posed by any deep, structural change in education, in general. We teachers were historically trained in one paradigm, so it is hard for us to change methodologies,” he said. However, he thinks that basing the educational process on challenges is really innovative and attractive.

“The concept of challenge is interesting. I think we are going to see the way of implementing this method that involves making students to face challenges that demand their intellectual and practical efforts,” director Bosque said.

According to Aliro Ramírez León, director of Liceo Industrial Presidente Pedro Aguirre Cerda, the activity was rewarding, because it opened paths to learn about state-of-the-art educational methodologies.

“For us, all training initiatives are welcome, because they allow us to compare what we are doing with what they are doing in Europe,” he said.

Finally, he described the occasion as a call for innovation. “We are completely aware that we must innovate,” he concluded.

 

Translated by Marcela Contreras