Abstract:

Background:
Research is one of the cornerstones of higher education, so it is necessary to enhance learning this discipline. Lecturers teaching research should not only promote the students´ curiosity to be able to set out creative practical questions, but also drive their ability to turn those questions into problems of knowledge, achieving it by discovery. In this context, lecturers should promote learning methods that make students discover the knowledge by their own. On the other hand, an important feature of Health Sciences is that research is carried out in a team. Therefore, teamwork is a competence that should be trained.

Purpose:
To present the results of a teaching experience based on a cooperative-learning activity aimed at the development of scientific literature searching skills and teamwork competence in undergraduate Physiotherapy students.

Methods:
This study was carried out during the academic year 2015-2016, in the third-year course Research Methodology in Health Sciences of the Physiotherapy Degree at the University of Valencia. A 3-hour session of cooperative work was developed for the practical lesson about scientific database search. The cooperative learning approach used was the jigsaw puzzle technique (Aronson et al., 1978). To assess the satisfaction of students with the proposed activity, a 12-item questionnaire was utilized (Gal-Iglesias et al., 2009). Responses to questions were addressed using a 4-point Likert scale. A descriptive study of the questionnaire was performed.

Results:
A total of 132 students (50% men, mean age 22 ± 4.3 years) participated in the activity. The items with higher average scores were related to the organization of the lecture (item 10- All the team members worked equally, MN=3.63±0.75) and the value of the jigsaw classroom in training competences (item 6-The structure of this methodology is designed to stimulate team work, MN=3.28±0.79; item 9-Team work has been a good tool for studying, learning about the lesson topic and sharing knowledge and ideas, MN=3.11±0.76 and item 8-Searching in the databases contributed to a better understanding, MN=3.04±0.71). On the contrary, the lowest score was found in item 4 (using this methodology increased my motivation to study this subject, MN=2.23±0.96), although the other items regarding perception of better learning showed high scores (item 5-By using this new methodology I was able to learn more about the topic of the lesson, MN=2.85±0.96 and item 7-in comparison with other methodologies used in other lessons of this subject, I found that the jigsaw puzzle could improve learning by far, MN=2.78±0.86).

Conclusions:
For physiotherapy students, the most valuable feature of the proposed cooperative-learning activity was teamwork in terms of equally working, peer explanation and knowing each others better. However, this experience did not increase the motivation for the subject.

References:
[1] E. Aronson,N., Blaney, C. Stephin, J. Sikes & M. Snapp,”The jigsaw classroom”, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publishing Company, 1978.
[2] B. Gal-Iglesias, I. Busturia-Berrade, M.C. Garrido-Astray. “Nuevas metodologías docentes aplicadas al estudio de la fisiología y la anatomía: estudio comparativo con el método tradicional”. Educ Med, vol. 12, no.2, pp. 117-124, 2009.

Keywords:

Teaching Experience, Cooperative Learning, Teamwork, Physiotherapy, Scientific literature search.