DEVELOPMENT of COMPETENCIES in A TRANSDISCIPLINARY ENVIRONMENT through CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING

Abstract

Over a course of 5 weeks, undergraduate students of the “Creative Studies” entry, developed a research based on discovering insights focusing on cultural and social aspects on a previously selected community into the city of Querétaro, México. The students are enrolled in a new educational model in which they study their first year with an exploration academic core and then they select their major field in order to eventually graduate with a minor specialization. In the 5 week course, the students developed a secondary investigation to contextualize themselves before beginning the collection of data on site. Work in the field and in the classroom was alternated to guarantee experiential and immersive learning based on theoretical content taught in the classroom and then applied on field. This paper describes the process to discover the main findings in the implementation of this new academic structure called Block, in which there are content modules, a research challenge and the evaluation of research and transversal competencies.