La cultura material prehistóricaDocumentos de ayuda para su reconocimiento y estudio

Abstract

The study and recognition of prehistoric societies, as opposed to historical societies, can only be addressed from the material evidence preserved in the archaeological record. The profound changes that have taken place in the development of curricula currently in force within the framework of the EHEA have meant important transformations in the Degrees in History, as the one taught at the University of Alicante. This has implied a considerable reduction of the credits dedicated to teaching the development and sociocultural behaviour of prehistoric societies with different modes of production, varied ways of life and very diverse material cultures. For some years, this new situation has meant deterioration in the quality of the training offered to students, with the consequence of worse academic results. The detection and analysis of this problem, since three academic years at least, has allowed not only to reflect on the causes but, above all, to try to solve it and improve the teaching-learning processes of prehistoric material culture by introducing educational innovations in two ways. On the one hand, implementing new teaching methodologies in various subjects fully dedicated to prehistoric societies; and on the other, creating new teaching resources. In relation to the first of the innovations introduced, several teaching experiences have been carried out in subjects of the second year of the Degree in History, consisting of the development of teamwork projects (with no more than five students) in which the search, recognition and analysis through ICT of outstanding aspects of the material culture of certain periods or archaeological cultures wasa priority. At the time, these works were accompanied by several experimental workshops related to the study of prehistoric materiality. The results obtained so far have been highly positive in that, notonly better academic achievements have been achieved, but also students have acquired new habits in relation to the development of cooperation in team work and have been stimulated for the sake ofachieving higher levels of quality in their training. And, in relation to the second aspect, the teaching team responsible for this area of knowledge, considered necessary to prepare new illustrated materials that, in a concise manner, collect basic information that facilitates the teaching-learning processes. The absence of works of this kind among the available bibliography has not been supplemented by documents such as Powerpoint presentations or similar, widely used currently among lecturers, since in recent years they have been proven to be insufficient in achieving optimal results.The illustrated dossiers on prehistoric material culture, in process of elaboration, have been adapted to the contents included in the teaching guides of the subjects on prehistoric societies. The information contained in each dossier consists of a general introduction to each section of descriptive sheets classifiedby archaeological periods or cultures. Each sheet collects the information of a significant element of prehistoric material culture, including images, its denomination in three languages, description,characteristics, archaeological context and bibliography. We must emphasize that these documents are presented in both Spanish and Valencian.The first impressions of the students who have had access to the drafts of these dossiers have been positive, since it is a fundamental advance that facilitates the learning of prehistoric material culture,even more if they are combined with experiences of teaching experimentation where cooperativework is strengthened.