La mejora continua y la calidad en instituciones de formación profesional. El proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje

The overall objective of this research is to analyze the impact of continuous improvement processes in Regulated Professional Training Centers on the teaching-learning processes. To fulfill this general objective the following specifics objectives were defined: a) knowing the educational policy of Spain and, especially, the one related to the professional training; b) identifying and understanding the characteristics of the continuous improvement and management quality of professional training models; c) analyzing the characteristics of the quality management model proposed in the Quality and Continuous Improvement Project (PQiMC) of the Educational Department of Catalonia; d) designing a methodological model under the parameters of qualitative research, as a guide to a multiple case study; e) identifying the characteristics of the teaching-learning process in regulated professional training centers in Catalonia; f) understanding and interpreting the effect of the implementation of the PQiMC on the teaching-learning process in regulated professional training centers in Catalonia, from the perception of the participants in the process.

The research has a qualitative form, with a descriptive and interpretative multiple case study. This study was performed in seven regulated professional training centers of Catalonia that: during the academic year 2009-2010 are assigned to the "Quality and Continuous Improvement Project" (PQiMC); have dissimilar characteristics from their domestic context; their choice is intentional.

In the seven centers are analyzed and interpreted the perception of students, teachers, director, educational coordinator of professional training and quality coordinator, about the changes occurred in the teaching-learning process since the PQiMC implantation at their center. By applying the design of multiple case study conducted from a holistic perspective of quality we obtain: a) the results of descriptive analysis for each of the professional training centers studied, which are recorded in the "Report Center"; b) the results of the interpretative analysis from cross-case analysis of the three groups of centers categorized by the date of the center quality accreditation (in 2005 or before, or after 2005), by the size of the center (number of students) and by geographic location (inside or outside Barcelona); obtaining as results the identification of the internal context features and the teaching-learning process features (2009-2010), and the detection of changes that were carried out in the teaching-learning process since the implementation of PQiMC.