Problems-based learning for teaching forensic anthropology in Secondary Education

Growing interest in Criminology degrees over the past few years is mainly due to various television series on forensic matters. These programs have created a distorted image of forensic anthropology which has led not only to an increase in the number of degree applicants but also, in many cases, disappointment among stu-dents regarding the course contents. Consequently, knowledge of forensic anthropology in pre-university environments involves designing educational innovation projects with active methodol-ogies that manage to train students in the essential areas of this discipline and in the tasks performed by forensic anthropologists. This work presents the results of an educational innovation pro-posal, based on Problems Based Learning (PBL), implemented among students to assess the effectiveness of PBL in the learning of forensic anthropology. In a workshop, students work as anthro-pologists for a day, applying forensic methods and techniques to identify several individuals by determining their stature, gender and age. The results show that PBL encouraged a motivating envi-ronment and significant and collaborative learning to determine the identity of the individuals, and more advantageous acceptance is perceived of the method and workshop techniques both by the participants and by teachers in the school.

Automated summary

The growing interest in Criminology degrees can be attributed to the influence of television series on forensic matters. However, this has resulted in a distorted perception of forensic anthropology and dissatisfaction among students regarding course contents. To address this, educational innovation projects using active methodologies, such as Problems Based Learning (PBL), have been implemented to train students in essential areas of this discipline.