Motivation, learning and emotions: engaging students with science flipped classroom

Motivation is an important construct in the teaching and learning process. A low-motivated student is uncommitted, with little engagement in the learning process, is not available to focus on learning tasks or processes and has low relatedness/belonging with the school environment. Motivation and resilience are two facilitators of science’s teaching and learning process. In this context knowing teaching methodologies that promote school motivation is very important for physics and chemistry teachers. In a Portuguese upper secondary school class in the science field, an action research project was planned and implemented during a school year. The aim was to decrease apathy and disinterest in learning chemistry and physics, after confinement, improve study habits, and develop facilitators of the learning process. The intervention consisted of using active learning methodologies centred on students: an inverted classroom, accompanied by practical work with laboratory stations. These two methodologies allow a student-centred class and very diverse tasks to be performed during the teaching and learning process. So, throughout the research time, during the school year, the implementation of the intervention (the active methodology applied to it) was the focus of the research. This research, with the characteristics of quantitative research, followed the methodology of action research. The data were collected, through a questionnaire (already validated for the Portuguese population) at the beginning (after two months of intervention) and end of the school years (after the intervention). The questionnaire, containing statements, is structured as a self-response, with a Likert scale, ranging from totally true (5) to totally false (1). It is based on the achievement goal theory, self-regulation model, and instrumentally, and collects data regarding learning strategies applied by students. The results revealed that these methodologies allowed the students' motivation maintenance throughout the school year and that teachers as a relevant role in preserving the students' motivation.