Formative experience for intensive instruction physics courses: Evaluation and results in an Electromagnetism course
Marcela Vallejo, Ema Huerta, Joselen M. Pena, Jose Leiva, Ethan Rodriguez
TL;DR
El estudio aborda la eficiencia didáctica de Cursos de Instrucción Intensiva (CII) en física, específicamente electromagnetismo, ante la creciente demanda educativa y la diversidad estudiantil. Emplea un diseño mixto, combinando un grupo focal para construir una propuesta pedagógica basada en aprendizaje activo y evaluación formativa con un cuasiexperimento que utiliza el test BEMA para medir aprendizaje, expresado además mediante la Ganancia de Hake $g$ y la ganancia individual $<g>$. Los resultados muestran que la propuesta da lugar a mayores $<g>$ y $g$ en el grupo experimental (GE), con mejoras significativas en el pre/post y ganancias temáticas superiores, aunque las diferencias finales en porcentaje de logro entre GE y GC no siempre son significativas. Discute la validez de metodologías activas en CII y subraya la necesidad de formación docente, monitoreo continuo y futuras investigaciones para adaptar estas prácticas a distintos contextos, proponiendo el uso del BEMA en CII y la Ganancia de Hake como métricas útiles de eficiencia didáctica. En conjunto, el trabajo aporta evidencia de PER sobre la aplicabilidad de intervenciones activas en entornos intensivos y ofrece pautas para diseñar y evaluar CII efectivos en física.
Abstract
Currently, the increase in demand for higher education has motivated universities to offer courses in various formats, including Intensive Instruction Courses (CII), in order to adapt to the needs of an increasingly diverse student body. In this context, although active methodologies have been shown to improve conceptual understanding of physics in regular courses, little research has been done on their effectiveness in CII. This research explored the most efficient methodologies for promoting meaningful learning in intensive physics courses. To this end, an integrated pedagogical proposal was designed based on the opinions gathered from a focus group of teachers with previous experience teaching these courses, as well as on existing literature, highlighting methodologies, types of assessment, and characteristics of intensive courses. To evaluate its efficiency, a quasi-experiment was conducted in which students were divided into two groups: an experimental group (EG), which followed the teaching proposal, and a control group (CG), which received non-innovated lessons. Results were measured using the BEMA electromagnetism concepts inventory before and after the intervention. Statistical analysis revealed that Hake's gain was greater in the EG, both in general terms and in each thematic unit of the course. The intervention in the EG shows that the use of active methodologies proved to be more efficient than that of the CG in the context of CII. The results obtained suggest the need to continue investigating other factors involved in the teaching-learning process of CII.