Abstract:

Nowadays, the use of active methodologies in Spanish universities has been constant because it encourages centring the teaching-learning process in the student. Nevertheless, the use of such methodologies, although it is positively valued, does not mean an active participation by the students if they will not gain a direct benefit from it.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the degree of involvement of our students in non-compulsory learning activities based on active methodology developed in the current academic course for two different subjects of year 2 Degree in Physiotherapy.

It was an observational retrospective study on the students’ attendance and involvement in three active methodology activities developed in two different compulsory subjects of the Degree in Physiotherapy, academic year 2015-2016. The proposed activities were Aronson Jigsaw technique, an activity based on an educational video and autonomous working using different documents related to the subject. Variable assessed were the students’ attendance to the activities and their subject assessment on the different activities.

The students’ attendance was high for the three activities: Aronson Jigsaw technique, 47 of 49 enrolled students, activity with educational video 37/49 and autonomous work with different documents 39/46. The students involvement with previous working related to the different activities was clearly smaller than the attendance sections. In the activity with educational video, 18/37 students had read the documents previously delivered and 35/37 students attended the previous explanatory class. Related to the autonomous work, 15/39 students had read the documents previously delivered. The three activities were positively assessed by the students: Aronson Jigsaw technique 3/5, activity with educational video 4.41/5 and autonomous working 3.69/5.

In conclusion, we could point out that, although students positively assess those active learning methodologies, it appears necessary that their involvement in those activities should be encouraged through any positive or negative consequence on their final grades for each subject.

Keywords:

Active learning, Student participation, High Education, Physiotherapy.