Abstract:

Introduction:
Analysis and modification of the educational methodologies has been associated to the incorporation of the universities to the European Higher Education Area. Currently, the teaching-learning process establishes that the student must acquire a starring role in their education, developing their motivation towards research and knowledge production. In this sense, including cinema in the classroom can be an innovative element that contributes to complement traditional classes.

Objective:
The main purpose of the programme Cineforum is to include cinema as a learning/teaching tool and to assess the level of satisfaction of students in relation to this innovative methodology.

Methodology:
Three phases have been conducted for the implementation and assessment of the programme Cineforum:
• Phase 1. Material selection. Students have been divided into groups of 4-5 students. Each group had to select one of the following topics (all of them are included in the curriculum of the subject Public Health and Community Physiotherapy): The right to health; Communicable diseases, Functional diversity and Environmental issues related to health. Each group of students should find a specific movie related to the chosen topic; they should watch the movie together out of the classroom, in order to present it to the rest of peers in on-site sessions.
• Phase 2. Development of on-site sessions of cinema. The responsible group of students projected a fragment of the film in the classroom. They exposed the important aspects of the film and its relationship to the topic of the subject to the rest of the group. There were debate moderated by teachers in order to promote an active discussion among students. Oral expression and participation of the students were assessed.
• Phase 3. Evaluation of the innovative methodology. A basal questionnaire was used to collect academic and demographic information of students. Subsequently, a final assessment questionnaire was designed ad hoc to evaluate the degree of satisfaction and motivation of the student about Cineforum including 15 Likert-scale questions.

Results:
The basal questionnaire determined that 57% of the sample were male and the average age was 20 years. A total 98 final assessment questionnaires were filled. 93,5% of students considered that Cineforum is better than the traditional methodologies such as for example a masterclass and that it promotes the understanding and analysis of the theoretical content of the subject. In addition, more than 70% of students confirmed that this methodology allows students to improve generic skills as the use of ICTs, summaries elaboration or data processing.

Conclusions:
Students consider that cinema can be a suitable tool to achieve the objectives of the subject, turning out to be a motivating tool. Finally, students concluded, that this teaching/learning methodology has boosted their ability to listen and accept other colleagues ideas even if they are opposed to his ideas.

Keywords:

Cineforum, Public Health, Community Physiotherapy, learning-teaching.