A FLIPPED CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE IN MATHEMATICS TEACHING AT HIGHER EDUCATION

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the experience of teaching selected mathematical topics in the computer engineering degree under the flipped classroom pedagogy. The “flipped classroom” also called “inverted classroom” is a teaching methodology under which students take the leading role in the learning process. Meanwhile, the teacher guides the procedure by designing rules and guidelines to starts up and develops the activity. Therefore, searching for information and adequate bibliography, designing proper activities, making oral presentations regarding each subject’s session, are some aspects that become largely dependent on the students. This allows the integration of the student in the environment of the class through sharing their knowledge with their mates, enhancing student interest in specific subject topics and as consequence increasing the percentage of approval.

The abstract nature of certain mathematical issues usually taught in engineering as numerical successions, classification of series and the suitable choice of their convergence methods, makes necessary designing new activities attractive to perform, that encourage the students the practice of these concepts, and therefore to promote deeper understanding of the related contents.

In this work, a review of different phases regarding to flipped experience in a subgroup of 30 students within a group of 100 students of the Calculus subject in the Computer Science degree is presented. The design of the proposed activities related to key subject questions, how students inquire into them and transmit to the rest of their classmates, the technological tools that have been used and how can it be otherwise, the influence of the model in the final assessment are provided. We compare the results of evaluation obtained in this subgroup with the corresponding ones to another group of around 100 students taught under traditional master class methodology. Also, the opinion of the undergraduate about the inverse learning strategy and their preferences about different methodologies of teaching is collected through anonymous questionnaires and numerically analyzed.

We also study numerically the provided opinions and also how this pedagogical experience influences the final assessment through the statistical analysis of its influence by studying the correlation between all the variables involved in the process. Finally, the positive and negative aspects of the proposal from the point of view of students and teaching staff are exposed, and new future lines improving the model are suggested.