EL APRENDIZAJE BASADO EN LA EXPERIENCIA

el metodo de las pasantias y su aplicación en agronomia

Abstract

Many formal educational programs in agronomy have been basically designed to transfer agronomic knowledge in a mechanistic way. With the progressive advance of complex problems, such as natural resource degradation, rural-city migration, and others, whose solution requires interdisciplinary approaches, finding new educational strategies becomes a pressing need. The article argues that a specific learning strategy, the internship, can be an useful educational tool for educating professionals able to meet the challenges of the near future. The internship is an experiential learning method which enables students to: (1) integrate theoretical knowledge with real life; (2) gain understanding of their future labor situation; and (3) define their specialization areas. For the internships to be successful, it is necessary to transform lived experience into knowledge for action. Furthermore, curricula which incorporate internships must be carefully designed and implemented in order to establish a fluid relationship among the intervening parts.