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Author:
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Terrenghi, Ilaria; Diana, Barbara; Zurloni, Valentino; Rivoltella, Pier Cesare; Elia, Massimiliano; Castañer Balcells, Marta; Camerino Foguet, Oleguer; Anguera, M. Teresa
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Notes:
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Teaching is now experiencing a new centrality due to the fast socio-cultural
transformations, the vertical growth of digital media and, therefore, the new ways
children and young people learn. New paradigms and teaching methodologies are
emerging to meet the new educational needs; among them, the “Episodes of
Situated Learning” approach (EAS in Italian) was chosen for this study. This approach
broadly refers to the “Flipped Class” model, in which the lesson structure reverses
the traditional teaching/learning cycle with a positive outcome on engagement and
learning. The present study aims to explore whether the EAS teaching methodology,
according to literature about the Flipped Class model, has a positive outcome on
student engagement, focusing on its emotional, cognitive and behavioral components.
In particular, we hypothesize that the EAS teaching methodology changes teachers’
behavior in classroom, increasing their movements and body expression during the
lesson. Moreover, we expect higher levels of self-efficacy and positive emotions
and lower levels of perceived anxiety in teachers, thus improving students’ level of
engagement. The research was conducted in a secondary school, in Milan, and includes
a classroom of sixteen students and three teachers. We chose a quasi-experimental
nested design, a mixed-method approach that combines the qualitative and quantitative
collection and analysis of data, in order to reach, as far as possible, a holistic,
effective and exhaustive representation of the studied phenomenon. Pre-post measures,
including video-recording, systematic observation and questionnaires, of both students
and teachers were collected during the 8 months of experimentation. This research
project could foster positive outcomes for participants as well as the broader society,
in which school dropout is increasing. Many authors positively associate low levels of
students’ engagement to high rates of school dropout; for this reason, working on
improving teaching methodologies and students’ engagement measurement, could be
an effective way to enhance learning and opposing school dropout.
BD, VZ, MC, OC, and MTA gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish government subproject, Integration ways between qualitative and quantitative data, multiple case development, and synthesis review as main axis for an innovative future in physical activity and sports research (PGC2018-098742-B-C31) (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento y Fortalecimiento Científico y Tecnológico del Sistema I+D+i), that is part of the coordinated project New approach of research in physical activity and sport from mixed methods perspective (NARPAS_MM) (SPGC201800X098742CV0). In addition, MC, OC, and MTA thank the support of the Generalitat de Catalunya Research Group [Grup de Recerca i Innovació en Dissenys (GRID), Tecnología i aplicació multimedia i digital als dissenys observacionals] (grant number 2017 SGR 1405). |
