New Perspectives in Science Education

Teaching science has always been a great challenge for teachers since frequently they must face with an attitude of little interest and involvement of students [1]. On the other hand, the different frameworks proposed for desirable skills and competencies in 21st century education pose even higher challenges as they include, among others, communication skills, collaboration, information and research skills, digital literacy, as well as critical thinking, metacognition, and autonomous learning [2]. The scenario became even more complex due to the health emergency, which forced most educational systems to adapt to the non-face-to-face or remote modality. In this adaptation process, several critical aspects related to the students, their environment, accessibility to the Internet, their skills for autonomous work, etc. can be identified. As for the teachers, an important critical factor is related to their abilities to use digital tools for teaching, in addition to their experience in developing a mediating role for learning through the design of pedagogical strategies in the environment of ICT. Institutions are also part of the process through the support they can provide in terms of resources, training, monitoring and evaluation of the educational process [3]. After the initial experience, it is necessary to think about the transition to new teaching models that include the most positive aspects for the achievement of quality learning in students. In this sense, this work reports the result of the satisfaction monitoring of first-year Science and Engineering students at a Peruvian university during 2020 and 2021, in the context of a General Chemistry course adapted to the remote modality. A survey was applied that considers the following dimensions: course design, course components, attitudes and abilities of teachers and students. The results show that students significantly value several components that are related to those that promote autonomous learning, although they maintain some more traditional perceptions in relation to teaching.

Keywords Student satisfaction, remote teaching, science education

References
[1] Polino, C.  “Las ciencias en el aula y el interés por las carreras científico-tecnológicas: Un análisis de las expectativas de los alumnos de nivel secundario en Iberoamérica”, Revista Iberoamericana de Educación, 2012, vol. 58, 167-191.
[2] S. Salas-Pilco, “Evolution of the framework for 21st century competencies”, Knowledge Management & E-Learning: An International Journal, 2013, vol. 5(1), 10-23.
[3] Propuestas Educación Mesa Social Covid-19, “Didácticas para la proximidad: aprendiendo en tiempos de crisis”, 2020, Santiago de Chile, 15-25.