IS FLIPPED CLASSROOM AN EFFECTIVE MODEL TO RESPOND TO THE TRAINING REQUIREMENTS OF OUR CENTURY'S ENGINEERING?

The development of professional competencies for the society of the 21st century can be benefited by the use of new learning methodologies, such as the Flipped Classroom (FC). In this paper, based on the competences required by the present and future types of work of our society, and after reviewing the relevance of active methodologies for the development of 21st century skills, we analysed the FC and the interest it generates in engineering related education. The FC is a pedagogical model that transfers the work of certain learning processes outside the classroom and uses class time, together with the experience of the teacher, to facilitate and enhance other processes of knowledge acquisition and practice within the classroom. However, "flipping" a class is much more than editing and distributing videos or different materials. It is a comprehensive approach that combines direct instruction with constructivist methods, increased commitment and involvement of students in the content of the course and improving their conceptual understanding. The FC keeps students more active and allows the situations in which they do what they need to learn to take place in the classroom, where they have the support and feedback of the teacher and classmates. However, this way of teaching and learning is not easy and demands more dedication from the teacher (it includes aspects such as preparation of e-learning material, manuscripts, learning objects, and individual student follow-up). We also present some training projects in Engineering where the FC has been used both as a unique methodology and as a well-complemented methodology with others. Results show a better performance by students due to an improvement in the study habits of students subjected to the technique of flipped classes, thus benefiting their academic results.