Theorical teaching of veterinary anatomy using the flipped classroom method: Evaluation of student performance and perception.

Abstract

The flipped classroom methods used in veterinary anatomy teaching helped students to take an active role in their learning and to use their knowledge, curiosity, and intelligence to solve real problems. Despite the increased preparation effort, the students´ overall perception of the experience was good. The samples of surveys carried out gives them a high degree of representativeness. The fact that the best performance in traditional teaching was on the memorization questions (cognitive level 1) and on the anatomical reasoning question to solve a real problem (cognitive level 4) in flipped learning suggests that the expectations generated at the beginning of this experience was met. It has become clear that active learning is not only an effective learning tool for teaching anatomy, but that is also capable of developing other skills. This is confirmed by the fact that active learning , and in particular inverted learning, produces better performance on questions that require a higher cognitive level to solve. The students´ lack of experience in the use of active methods means that in future it is considered necessary to intensify discussion and anatomical reasoning in the face-to-face sessions. This will require grater teacher involvement in guiding self-learning, specially at the beginning of the process, so that students better understand the value of their participation and the responsibility they should have in their own learning.