Some of the most important engineering skills required nowadays, such as the ability to co-operate to find appropriate
information, to solve problems through critical and creative thinking, to make decisions and to communicate
effectively, are dealt with in this study carried out with chemical engineering students. The study investigates how
certain competences needed by students may be developed through co-operative learning. Learners were given clear
evaluation rubrics to know what was expected of them. Data were obtained from a survey form, assessment results
and meetings with individual groups. The main results indicate that the teacher’s involvement in creating a challenging,
integrated teaching unit and students’ effort in co-operating to create their final written and oral reports led
to considerable improvement in understanding unit operations as well as to very high student motivation. The data
support the hypothesis that well-defined comprehensive protocols, rubrics and co-operative work direct students
towards successful learning.