Abstract:

Society is experiencing a continuous change, with education being one of the most affected sectors. In this context, teaching that takes place in the classroom using traditional methods is being repeatedly threatened by new methodological trends that are adapted to suit the wide diversity of students that exist today. Among these new methodologies are the so-called ‘Flipped Classroom’ and cooperative work, which are often supported by ICT with the aim of increasing the performance and meaningful learning of the students, while also reducing the segregation of the different capacities that students have in their educational contexts.

The objective of this research is to analyse whether there are any differences in the academic performance of students in the subject of Sciences when applying these types of methodologies using ICT as resources and materials. Specifically: for the Flipped Classroom methodology, information search engines and the Padlet 2.0 tool to create virtual walls; and for cooperative methodology, forums on which different videos and tasks of the teaching unit were posted.

With this in mind, a pre-experimental design has been used, with a control group and two experimental groups (Flipped Classroom, cooperative, and traditional, respectively) in a sample of 60 students of primary education (sixth year). The data has been analysed using an analysis of variance (ANCOVA) considering academic performance (dependent variable; DV) in each methodology (independent variable, IV), gender (independent variable; IV) and a covariate to control the effects produced in DV. The results showed that the cooperative work methodology had better results regarding the other groups that make up this research (Mcooperative= 7.56; Flipped= 7.03; Mtraditional= 6.16). With respect to gender, the results show that males (M= 8.28) have a higher academic performance respect female (M= 6.82) when an active methodology is used as opposed to a traditional one, while females obtain higher scores using a traditional methodology (Mmale= 5.74; MFemale= 6.56). The conclusions derived from this study can help to develop focused educational interventions: improve students' significant learning using more innovative techniques and educational tools 2.0 which engage students with good attitudes towards ICT and motivation in developing social skills when working in a team; and on the other hand, the improvement of unfavourable attitudes of the female sex when working in a non-traditional way.

Keywords:

ICT, active methodologies, primary education, flipped classroom, cooperative work.