Abstract:

The inclusion of the university system in the European Higher Education Area implies new changes in the teaching methodologies. Among others, it is highlighted the necessity of evolving towards new student-centered methodologies, in which they are actively involved in their own learning process. That is, the teaching-learning process should change towards what is known as active learning. Active learning refers to those pedagogical practices that moves students from passive receivers of information (i.e., classical methodologies) to active participants in their own learning process. In this sense, active learning methodologies have increased their popularity in recent years. Active learning methodologies can be defined as the technics, strategies or methods that professors use to transform the learning process in activities that encourage the active participation of students towards their own learning. However, despite its increasing popularity, today there are still many cases in the university setting in which the traditional magistral lesson is the predominant pedagogical practice for developing the teaching-learning process. Therefore, in order to make active learning methodologies more discoverable and to facilitate their understanding, the present work presents a review and description of the different active learning methodologies that can be applied in the university teaching-learning process. Additionally, this work also analyzes the evolution of the use and application of active learning methodologies in the university setting. To do this, a bibliometric analysis was carried out in the Web of Science database from 1997 to 2020. Specifically, the syntaxis introduced in the search field “topic” was the following: ("active methodologies" OR "active methodology" OR "active learning" OR "team learning" OR "flipped classroom" OR "group work" OR "cooperative work" OR "collaborative work" OR "case study" OR "problem-based learning" OR "role play" OR "blended learning" OR “gamification”) AND ("higher education" OR "university"). A total of 45,129 results were found, with an average of 1,880.4 works per year. In general, a trend of exponential increase in the number of works regarding active learning methodologies is observed over the years, especially from 2014 to 2020. Specifically, the years 2017, 2018, and 2019 are the ones with the highest production (30.1% of the total of publications). However, it should be highlighted the slight descent observed in 2020. In conclusion, active learning methodologies offer a wide range of options that professors can apply in the university teaching to make studentsʼ learning process more active and participatory. Furthermore, the exponential growth trend observed over the years with respect to the use of active learning methodologies in the university setting suggests that the way in which professors give and develop their lessons is changing to a more student-centered learning. Active learning methodologies could be a good resource in the university teaching to increase studentsʼ academic performance.

Keywords:

Higher Education, college students, innovative methods, participative, evolution.