ACTION-RESEARCH IN THE LAW PROGRAM AT UNIANDES: TRAINING OF RESEARCH COMPETENCIES IN TIMES OF PANDEMIC

ABSTRACT

The Law career at the Universidad Regional Autonoma de los Andes, within its curriculum, placed the subject Action Research in the second academic period. For its development, it incorporated practical actions in the teaching-learning process, strategies of formative research, which from the total virtuality in times of pandemic by COVID-19, is a bit paradoxical. The purpose of the research is focused on making a qualitative assessment of the formation of research competences in students who took the subjects from May 2020 to March 2021 in full virtuality. The methodology applied is based on participatory action research with a tendency to the qualitative modality, from the interactions of the researcher with the students in two academic periods, applying in-depth interviews, participant observation and analysis of the products of synchronous and asynchronous activities. The research showed that the formation of research competences had significant impacts on the technical, methodological and social dimensions, in addition to maintaining stability in the propaedeutic and epistemological dimensions. The actions were increased from the virtuality that allowed a deepening of the bibliographic and documentary studies, as well as to identify the need for corroboration in the practice of activities that were prevented by the complex situation of pandemic by COVID-19, and that were empirically supported from the interview and virtual surveys, as well as from the results of audiovisual materials consulted.