Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Introduction: Teachers are currently trying to change the traditional model to one based on learning needs of the students. The flipped (inverted) learning model seeks to promote learning through a work jointly led by teachers and students.  Objective: To analyze the implementation of the flipped learning model in the achievement of goals in the Research Methodology course. Methodology: a prospective, longitudinal, quasi-experimental research design. Place: Health Sciences Faculty, at a private University. Participants: 81 undergraduate students. Interventions: A convenience non-probability sample was selected; then, the flipped learning model was implemented. The first analysis was performed in the third week of classes, and the second one in the fifteenth week, using a valid instrument with a total reliability index of 0.79. The Edoome educational platform was also used; it has characteristics of an open source learning management system.  Results: 93.8% stated that the teacher and the students develop the class, 29.6% previously study the contents, and 39.5% make a summary of the class, meaning that the collaborative work predominates. 74.0% stated that the flipped learning facilitated their learning and obtained better grades in the final exam.  Conclusion: The flipped classroom model proved to be effective to achieve learning goals in the Research Methodology course, and its implementation is becoming a need for the university education system.

Considering environmental education as a social tool allowing individuals to achieve a significant knowledge of the inhabited environment, to reduce the probability of occurrence of a disaster, and to respond to the presence of natural phenomena to which people are vulnerable, this article aims to generate a space for reflection on the importance of environmental education in the management of the social and natural risk in five countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. For this purpose, the paper presents a descriptive review of primary and secondary bibliographical sources referring to the performance of the management of social and natural risks related to environmental education in Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile, and Jamaica between 1994 and 2015. In this period, a solid administrative and legislative organization of this management and environmental education is evident, but these two themes are clearly separated when implementing citizen projects: a situation that has generated shortcomings in the management of natural disasters, specifically under the principles of precaution and prevention. For this reason, this article offers a series of recommendations that include the dissemination of information, the creation of centers for the management of risk reduction, the strengthening of communication strategies, and the establishment of response plans and post-disaster recovery. 

This paper presents the results of a study on the systematization of an experience based on the implementation of a leveling course in mathematics at the School of Mathematics of the National University of Costa Rica. This course is addressed to high school students, college students, and the general public; it approaches certain topics on real numbers and the fundamentals of algebra, which constitute the base of the mathematical formation in college education and whose understanding stands out as a cognitive limitation of college students. The objective of the study was to evaluate the design and development processes of the course and assessed its achievements in the participating population in order to obtain inputs for curricular noticing and decision making on its design and implementation in later years. Regarding the methodology, the study was framed in qualitative-descriptive research; the anecdotal records of the tutor-teacher were the instruments to collect information. Categories were defined in a process of systematization of experiences, and the units of analysis were defined from relevant aspects of the course to analyze the information. The systematization of this experience and its analysis have allowed the identification of cognitive and motivational specificities in the students, as well as methodological and evaluative particularities in the teachers. Also, from the results based on critical interpretation, some suggestions were proposed; these suggestions are addressed to the offer of the course and the curricular changes that can be made to improve its design and the student’s learning during the sessions.

This research article represents a prolongation of the case study on the perception of a good university teacher from the perspective of the Education Faculty students at Universidad Autónoma de Chile (Autonomous University of Chile), Talca. It intends to contribute with a different understanding of the phenomenon from the perspective of the actors involved. This second part of the research aims to disclose the characteristics of a good University Teacher according to the opinion of the teachers themselves and administrators belonging to that Faculty. The methodology in approach adopted consisted of a qualitative one as well as of a case study. Through a process of categorization and codification, four characteristic dimensions of analysis were obtained: human, ideological, technical-pedagogical and professional-institutional. It is concluded that a good University Teacher has mainly ethical, moral and affective features that structure the interactions with the students’ community. Concerning the main attributes of quality teaching, the permanent curiosity, search for knowledge, and dialogue between the different forms of it are recognized. Technical-pedagogical characteristics that appear in this research as the methodological adaptation of teaching and evaluation emerge as secondary aspects when it comes to qualifying a good University Teacher. 

This text aims to describe a methodological proposal to identify, classify, and organize the faunistic knowledge of students of rural schools. The research was conducted with twenty sixth graders from a rural school in the Department of Cundinamarca, Colombia. Through five types of activities, they expressed, in different ways, their knowledge about the animals of the region. The information collected was organized, categorized, and systematized in tables; these tables resulted from the analysis of the information the students provided. It is a possibility of school work that favors the recognition and valuation of the traditional and ancestral knowledge, and its incorporation to the dynamics of the teaching and learning of the Natural Sciences as a way to create “bridges” between that knowledge and the scholarly scientific knowledge. It is a proposal that, among other things, favors the development of more positive attitudes toward science itself, motivates students to ask questions, to recognize the importance of the cultural context, and to recognize themselves as part of a biocultural system.

This paper demonstrates that the notion of inclusion, which is used both in public policies and educational research, encompasses two distinct and incompatible concepts in the production of knowledge: inclusive education vs. social inclusion at school. This research deconstructs the notion of inclusion in education, based on the analysis of theoretical texts and international studies in education (2000-2015). Therefore, in this paper we identify three main findings that allow us to define the two concepts: (1) they are processes of a different nature, based on specific definitions and languages; (2) they have different conceptions of democracy, which influence the focus on school or on society; and (3) they are based on different ontological principles, equity or equality, determining contradictory practices of implementation. In conclusion, we recommend considering which concept supports future research in education to propose studies, policies, and practices consistent with the ontological frame adopted.

The purpose of this essay is to share the reflections about the meaning of politics to be able to think, from there, of the potential of a kind of education capable of giving back to the subject the right to take the floor and act, to exercise the politicization in the best possible way. From what is currently observed in countries of different continents, especially those with great inequalities, high levels of corruption and vulnerable sovereignty, the texts of Hannah Arendt (1997) are taken as a source of theoretical reflection in order to bring her into dialogue with more contemporary authors, like Bauman (2001), who invite us to recognize the many devastating faces of fear and their consequent paralyzing effect. After arguing the need to restore politics, reflection is opened to think about the implications of this need for the meaning of education.

In the current globalized world, the individualism is emphasized, threatening human values to capitulate within market relationships. In this context, education emerges as a powerful tool to revalue the human being as a person and in the relationship with others. Therefore, this essay aims to explore LGBTI groups’ human rights and analyze how these rights of sexual diversity work as a necessary analytical approach to promote tolerance, as well as respect, through education. To do this, it will be studied how the international scenario is channeled into the local level through the Ley 26150 de Educación Sexual Integral, 2006 (Argentinian law on Integral Sexual Education), and its compliance will be tested implementing surveys and semi-structured interviews. In this regard, specific analytical criteria have been used, such as the level of education of teachers, the existence of real situations of discrimination based on sexual motivations within school facilities, and the boundaries and resistances that come from other social environments. Therefore, we prove that, despite the new legal progressive advances, the daily enforcement of the sexual education law shows limits that derive from the cultural context, as well as from the lack of training of teachers.

This research aims to describe the pedagogical beliefs of differential educators on the specific difficulties of learning mathematics. This study employed a qualitative design with an ethnographic approach, in which four special education teachers participated, and the in-depth interview and participant observation were used as data collection instruments. The qualitative content analysis was used as a technical analysis of the discursive corpus obtained. Among the most relevant findings are the specific difficulties of learning mathematics that correspond to an intrinsic condition to the student, and the origin of these difficulties that are associated with both a health problem and inadequate methodologies of teaching mathematics. Likewise, it is proposed that students who have these difficulties have a problem at the level of mathematical reasoning, which prevents them from progressing in the learning of this school subject.

Fundamento: la evaluación formativa contribuye a la autogestión del conocimiento a partir de una concepción integral de la evaluación del aprendizaje.Objetivo: valorar la pertinencia del uso de la evaluación formativa en las clases taller de la asignatura Células, Tejidos y Sistema Tegumentario.Métodos: la investigación se desarrolló en la Facultad de Ciencias Médicas “Salvador Allende”, de La Habana durante el curso 2017-2018. Se aplicó el método de estudio de caso cualitativo, aplicando el procedimiento de la teoría fundamentada. Fueron utilizados como métodos teóricos el análisis-síntesis, la inducción-deducción y el histórico-lógico. Entre los empíricos se aplicaron el análisis documental y la observación científica.Resultados: el enfoque de aprendizaje superficial basado en la memorización de datos e información fue precisado como la categoría esencial emergente de los datos obtenidos, a partir de lo cual se aplicó la evaluación formativa y se desarrolló la retroalimentación basada en el uso de mapas conceptuales y esquemas para el procesamiento de la información; procedimiento que fue paulatinamente incorporado por algunos estudiantes, aunque prevaleció la resistencia al cambio de método en el trabajo independiente.Conclusiones: la evaluación formativa constituyó una alternativa didáctica coherente con las necesidades de aprendizaje que mostraron los estudiantes por lo que se recomienda su utilización en las asignaturas que conforman la disciplina Bases Biológicas de la Medicina.