Aplicación del aprendizaje basado en fenómenos para mejorar el aprendizaje en calorimetría en estudiantes de bachillerato

Abstract

This research consists of a study conducted with second-year students of a unified general high school, who participated in the application of the active teaching methodology Phenomenon-Based Learning (PhBL). The objective of this research was to improve student learning in the study of physics using calorimetry as a base unit. To ensure fairness in the comparison, the groups were composed of students of the same age and academic level. This was confirmed by selecting the corresponding academic year and administering a pretest in the calorimetry area. The groups were designated as a control group and an experimental group (useful for a quasi-experimental design). The control group, made up of 36 students, learned calorimetry using the traditional methodology, while the experimental group, with 148 students, learned using the PhBL method. All of this with the objective of comparing both methodologies, both groups were evaluated through a posttest, and problem-solving. Through descriptive statistics, several results were compared, favoring the PhBL method. One of these was the test-score average before and after the intervention, where the experimental group considerably exceeded the control group's average, while initially they had similar averages. These results were clarified through more sophisticated statistical tests, which confirmed that the groups were initially similar in terms of prior knowledge and that in the end, the PhBL methodology had a significant impact on the students. It not only allowed them to limit themselves to a pencil and paper to learn physics, but also sparked their interest in exploring beyond what they were taught, questioning the physical phenomena that surround them. Advances in education require students to experience new ways of learning. In this context, an active methodology, apart from exceeding pedagogical expectations, is a viable solution for a more solid academic future, leaving behind the traditional and placing the student at the center of their own learning.