Proyecto colaborativo multimedia para la enseñanza del sistema nervioso y el dolor a alumnos de 3.º de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria

Abstract

Society is deeply immersed in a new paradigm where Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are modifying and conditioning the way which we interact with our surroundings and with our peers. All the facets of the world in which today’s citizen operates are gradually adapting to this new paradigm and yet, in many aspects, teaching remains firmly attached to the past and we teach twenty-first century students with the methodology used in the nineteenth century. The classic teaching methodology, with the teacher set up as the only and vital source of information, has been a complete failure for the teaching of certain topics whose contents are highly abstract and complex, as is the case with the topics being worked on by students of the third year of ESO (the period of compulsory secondary education in Spain) on the subject of the nervous system. This research article applied an innovative collaborative methodology for learning in the classroom, backed up by ICTs; the objective is to improve the acquisition of knowledge and skills in students of the third year of secondary education, at a point where the students are facing one of the most complex topics amongst those explored in the subject of biology and geology. A multimedia CD has been prepared to this end, which, in combination with text, images, videos and interactive activities, together with the indispensable guidance of the teacher in the classroom, will allow students to work cooperatively, so as to understand and assimilate each part of the contents explored in the topic of the nervous system. Analysis of the results obtained after the application of this collaborative methodology showed a significant improvement in the academic performance of the students, showing better results than those obtained when the methodology used in the classroom was more classic in style.