A reflection about the relationship between the learning-teaching system and the presence rate

Abstract

This paper propose a reflection about the relationship between the learning-teaching system and the presence rate taking on as starting point the experience developed in three obligatory subjects of the Bachelor of the Actuarial and Financial Sciences (CAF) in the University of Barcelona: Life Insurance Mathematics (MAV), Non-Life Insurance Mathematics (MANV) and Numerical Analysis (AN). All them are obligatory subjects in the bachelor and consist of 9 credits in MAV and MANV (6 of theory and 3 of practice) and 6 credits in AN (3 of theory and 3 of practice). The introduction of a continuous evaluation system starting from the course 2004-05 has supposed a change in the learning-teaching process that has affected both implicated teachers and students. This evaluation system has been based on controlling the student’s presence, the joint valuation of theory and practice and the teaching portfolio as working instruments for the students and evaluation instruments for the teachers. In the course 2007-08 the University of Barcelona establishes a change in the rules that regulate the evaluation and the marking of learning, so that the evaluation will be continuous as a general rule. Due to this change and the student’s valuation (through an opinion poll) of the new evaluation system applied in past courses, teachers decide to introduce modifications in that system for the course 2007-08. At the end of the first term in the course 2007-08 it has been analyzed how these changes have affected the academic results, and teachers raise how to approach this subjects that, due to their contents, require a high rate of presence of the students. Because of a lot of students bring work into line with studies; the implied teachers consider if it would be convenient to tend to a new learning-teaching system with a less required rate of presence.