Promoción del desarrollo de estrategias de mediación pedagógica en docentes de ingeniería en construcción, para el fomento de las habilidades de comunicación en las personas estudiantes

The development of Communicative Skills (CS) is essential for the success of construction engineers, as
the industry depends on strategic alliances where effective communication is key for mutual understanding,
task flow, and conflict reduction (Aulich, 2013; Cheng & Tsai, 2003; Eddie et al., 2001). Despite its
importance, the promotion of these skills has been secondary in higher education worldwide (Jackson,
2010; Donell et al., 2011). In the case of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (TEC), the Construction
Engineering program offers communication courses only in the early semesters, which limits their impact.
For students to effectively develop CS, it is necessary for construction engineering faculty to integrate these
skills into the curriculum (Hanson et al., 2017). This requires the design of appropriate strategies that
consider the situated nature of communication; the integration of content and language through educational
approaches that promote authentic and contextualized activities, such as situated learning and task-based
learning; and the application of assessment techniques that effectively address CS (Artemeva, Logie, & St-
Martin, 1999; Barney et al., 2012; Boettger, 2010; Ellis, 2018; Ford & Riley, 2003; Paretti, McNair, &
Leydens, 2014; Ruiz-Madrid & Fortanet-Gómez, 2023). However, although teachers possess practical
knowledge of effective communication in engineering contexts, they lack formal training to design and
implement these type of strategies, which is exacerbated by an overloaded curriculum that limits their
possible application (Seguí & Galiana, 2023; Toropoviene, 2017). For this reason, through the phases of
this action research project we seek to diagnose the needs of the professors regarding the promotion of
CS in their courses, to design and implement an intervention in which faculty members, together with the
research team, develop and evaluate pedagogical strategies that integrate these skills into the courses,
and finally, to evaluate the results of this process and offer feedback to the stakeholders, with a view to
future actions (Marqués & Fernández, 2011; Sandín, 2003). Through this cyclical, participatory, and actionoriented
working methodology, we aim to transform teaching practices regarding CS in the construction
engineering courses and enhance the professional development of students (Carr & Kemmis, 1986;
Coghlan & Brannick, 2014). Additionally, we aim to provide a systematic and innovative approach to
improve the teaching of CS integrated into the curriculum of disciplinary courses. This will not only benefit
TEC students but will contribute to engineering education in general by integrating robust theoretical and
methodological frameworks that combine task-based learning, discourse analysis, situated education,
communication assessment principles, and action research.

Promover el desarrollo de estrategias de mediación pedagógica en
docentes de ingeniería en construcción, para el fomento de las habilidades de comunicación en
las personas estudiantes.

Investigación pedagógica relacionada con temas de planificación urbana y sectorial, desarrollo económico y sostenible, resiliencia, gestión de riesgos y adaptación al cambio climático.