Effectiveness of a programme to promote the acquisition of solidarity in university students

Abstract

The European convergence process establishes the need to use active learning methods in the university context, with the aim of developing cross-curricular competences in students.  Among such competences, the following are included: citizenship competences, solidarity competences, professional and ethical conduct, and selfregulated learning, which takes place in complex situations where new knowledge needs to be applied in order to cope with the real problems and demands of the profesional world. A training programme to promote solidarity values and professional ethics was carried out within the university curriculum (PIE10-127 Programme of Educational Innovation). Then, a comparative study was performed on a number of questionnaire variables from the socio-affective dimension. Such study involved university students before and after the implementation of the aforementioned programme.  Likewise, the present study assessed the satisfaction reported by students in relation to the activities aimed to promote the acquisition of solidarity competences which they undertook.  The efficiency of the methods used to evaluate the final academic performance was also assessed. Participants were 4103 university students, aged 18 to 57, from the Psychology and Education Faculty at the University of Málaga (Spain). Results show an increase in scores on related variables scores after the implementation of the programme. Additionally, students were satisfied with the activities and active methods had a positive impact on academic performance.