Flipped classroom for teaching digestive system to high school students: Performance, perception and inquiry competence level

Abstract

This article presents an educational experience with 30 high school students based on the flippedclassroom methodology and inquiry-based learning on aspects related to the pathophysiology of thedigestive system during the 2017/2018 academic year. The main goal of this study was to investigate theeffectiveness and acceptability of the flipped classroom approach at this educational level. This study wasalso used to assess the level of inquiry competence that high school students present when they have tocarry out a research project and the main difficulties encountered in carrying it out. The results of thestudy show that the experience was clearly positive, since there was not only a significant improvement instudent learning but also greater autonomy for students to work with the content, prepare for classes andactively participate in the tasks or practical activities that take place in the classroom, demonstrating itsapplicability in high school classrooms. The results also indicate that the students perceived advantages intheir learning after experiencing the flipped classroom pedagogical model. Most of the students presentedserious difficulties in carrying out their research work, probably due to a lack of experience when facingeach of the stages that make up the process of inquiry