Basic notions to implement prototypical problems and critical incidents methodology

Abstract

Since the beginning of the year 2000, diverse initiatives have emerged from critical pedagogy, to meet the demands of an increasingly changing environment to which traditional teaching approaches couldn´t fully answer. One of these initiatives is the methodology called “Prototipical Problems and Critical Incidents” for teaching a course or academic module. Prototipical problems can be defined as the construction of a relevant, realistic and useful scenario, made up of complex situations wish must be solved by the student and from whom the mobilization of knowledge and cognitive and non-cognitive sources is demanded. To support the understanding of prototipical problem, a Cognitive Learning Organizer can be builded-up, to visually represent it and show its relationship with the program contents, as well as with the antecedent and consequent knowledge. Critical incidents are understood as specific events in daily professional practice that cause perplexity, create doubts, produce surprise or uneasiness and motivate reflective thinking and a quick, accurate and creative answer by the student. Both concepts have specific characteristics and follow a series of steps for their construction but are the teachers who will give them an authentic meaning and the right dimension to their usefulness as one more resource to achieve the educational goals of their students.