DEVELOPING TEACHING-LEARNING STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE STUDENTS’ UNDERSTANDING, AUTONOMY AND MOTIVATION

Introduction:
Traditional learning assumes that teachers should transmit their knowledge and experience to their students through lecture courses. However, new tendencies demand to modify conventional practices. Connected to this idea, present work is focused on educational learning at the University level. This work pretends to illustrate how using a set of teaching-learning tools, including Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) students’ autonomy and motivation could be enhance.

Objective:
The aim of this work was to analyze the effect that a set of articulated pedagogical strategies combined with flipped/blended classes could have on the learning process in a science course.

Material and Methods:
Virtual workshops and face to face activities combined with flipped/blended classes were designed for a module of an integral formation course focused on Science and Technology at los Andes University, Bogotá, Colombia. For a unit named “The Macro - The universe and its exploration”, recorded class podcast and a prior reading, served students to prepare the flipped sessions. During face-to-face sessions, students guided by the teacher, participated in the discussion about the topic, asked some questions in order to solve their doubts and dealt with some particular problem or did some exercises prepared by the teacher in order to dominate the knowledge and to acquire critical thinking skills. Each work session was followed by a teacher´s feedback. A Perception of Learning Environment Questionnaire (PLEQ) was designed in order to seek students’ opinions about the strategies used. As a part of a complete teaching/learning process, the teacher´s point of view was also taken into account.

Results:
The students’ perception was that the strategies applied contributed to improve their autonomy, motivation and critical thinking skills. The Teacher agreed with the students’ insight and also perceived that students who followed the instructions and thoroughly revise designed material made rapid progress compared with those who used the material casually.

Conclusions:
The study indicates that the approaches used, supported by an appropriated instructor guide and timely feedback, constitute good tools in order to improve self-directed learning, understanding, as well as some social abilities and critical thinking skills.