New Perspectives in Science Education

The teaching-learning process involves a complex set of relationships, in which some critical aspects are involved, such as cognitive and emotional characteristics of students; conceptions of teaching and learning for teachers and students; educational vision, objectives and resources of the institutions and others. All of them take part of the environment in which the process unfolds, and exert direct influence on the quality of achieved learning. These variables have a direct effect on the success or failure of the implementation of any educational innovation. In this work the evolution of the implementation of a hybrid PBL approach in general chemistry courses for engineering students at a Peruvian university is analyzed. The interest in applying PBL arises from the need for a radical change in teaching practices in basic science courses in our university, which led to start a project at institutional level just over ten years ago. The achievements in some aspects involved in the methodology, such as motivation, development of skills for problem solving and critical thinking have been studied at different times of the experience, with varying results that can be analyzed taking into account the changing context in which it has been developed.