The analysis of the data collected from my study is complete, and I am ready to share some results. I will have a more comprehensive write-up of my analysis on my "Action Research" page of this website. In this post, I will give an overview. To refresh, my study looked at the effect of teaching a lesson on solving systems of equations (using the elimination method) using flipped classroom pedagogy versus a traditional approach. Specifically, I wanted to know how the flipped classroom effected historically low, average, and high performing students. Additionally, I wanted to know how the flipped classroom approach compared to the traditional approach when it came to solving problems that were process-based versus problems in context. The following graphic shows the average score of each group (historically low, average, and high performing students) for traditional and flipped instruction, and it is broken down to show the scores overall, on process-based questions, and on contextual questions. This is surely a lot of data to take in at once, so I am going to dive deeper by looking at the effects of the flipped classroom on each group of students. Below are the scores for the high performing students. The graphic shows that the flipped classroom resulted in lower scores among flipped classroom students than their traditional pedagogy counterparts on all types of questions. The percentage differences in scores among this group were relatively consistent ranging from 10 to 15 percent. The historically average performing students scored slightly less overall and on contextual based problems (1 and 3 percent, respectively). However, they scored considerably less on process-based questions by 11%. The historically low-performing group of students scored higher in all categories with positive percent differences of 10, 19, and 8 on their overall, process-based, and contextual scores, respectively. Conclusions I would like to make a point that this study covers just one lesson with a limited number of participants. The results are in line with the study done by Bhagat, Chang, and Chang, which I reviewed on this blog here. The flipped classroom approach seemed to have a negative effect on the learning of average and high performing students with high performing students being more severely impacted than average performing students, while showing gains in learning for historically low-performing students.
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I am very happy to have found and reviewed “How to flip the classroom – “productive failure or traditional flipped classroom” pedagogical design?”” by Yanjie Song and Manu Kapur. This study is very recent (January 2017) and addresses a question that I have been asking since I started looking into flipped classrooms: if I were to adopt a flipped classroom in my current teaching situation, how could I blend an inquiry-based style of teaching and curriculum with a flipped classroom pedagogy?
The article begins with the authors stating that the flipped classroom has become popular in recent years but there is no uniform definition of what exactly it is. Additionally they explain that generally a flipped classroom makes direct instruction something that happens outside designated class time rather than during class time and that how to enhance student learning and problem solving skills has scarcely been addressed by the research. This study inquired about the affects of using a traditional flipped classroom approach, in which students watch videos that are taught lecture-style at home and then practice the content from the videos during class, as well as using a productive-failure based flipped classroom approach, in which students problem-solve in groups during class and then consolidate knowledge outside of class by watching videos. The study was conducted at a Hong Kong secondary school in two 7th grade classrooms (11 and 12-year-old students) with class sizes of 25 students each. One class was taught using the traditional flipped classroom approach while the other was taught using the productive failure-based flipped classroom approach. The authors describe the students in the study as “students with better learning motivation and higher learning abilities” (Song, 2017). The two classes were taught separately by two male teachers, each with about 10 years of experience. The article states that both teachers were enthusiastic about using innovative pedagogies and had participated in some workshops related to flipped classrooms. The study looked at a 2-week covering polynomials of which the students were expected to have no previous knowledge. Data was collected in the forms of “pre-, mid-, and post-domain tests, the post-conceptual understanding questions, focus group discussions and student survey about their video-clip watching activities regarding location, frequency, and devices used” (Song, 2017). The tests got increasingly more difficult with the pre-test having 9 low-level difficulty questions, the mid-test having 10 fair-level difficulty questions, and the post-test having 10 questions that were comparatively higher in difficulty than the first two tests. In the post-test, there were 3 conceptual understanding questions used to test students gains in conceptual knowledge. The survey regarding students’ video-watching locations, frequency, and device usage revealed that 100% of students in both groups watched the videos, and all of them watched at home. 53.8% of students in the traditional flipped classroom watched the videos 2 or 3 times while only 42.9% of the productive struggle-based flipped classroom students watched the videos more than once. Furthermore, the authors state that 27% of the traditionally flipped classroom students watched the videos on tablets or computers and 47.6% the productive struggle-based flipped classroom students used those platforms. These results are interesting, but the authors do not mention whether or not they believe they are coincidences. In both styles of teaching, students improved their knowledge of polynomials and the differences in the results on the pre-, mid-, and post-tests were insignificant. However, the students who received productive struggle-based flipped classroom instruction significantly outperformed the students in the traditional flipped classroom group. The authors conclude that “the ‘productive failure-based pedagogical design’ indeed addressed the twin demands of covering the mathematics curriculum and motivating students to learn. My Thoughts I found this article to be very useful to me since my school uses an inquiry-based curriculum which ties in nicely with this study’s use of the productive struggle based flipped classroom. It seems that the findings are in line with previous research about the gains between inquiry, problem-based classrooms and traditional classroom only now they are in the context of flipped pedagogy. It is unknown whether either of these two methods are better than a traditional style of teaching since that was not used in the study. This would be good to know, but the findings are still valuable. I think it is important that students have conceptual understanding, so this study does suggest that productive struggle-based flipped classrooms could be a viable option for someone wanting to flip their classrooms. I think that the population of students in the study is crucial when making decisions about whether or not, and how to, flip a classroom. These students were Hong Kong 7th graders, all of which had high learning abilities, access to technology, and 100% of them watched the flipped instructional videos. I don’t think this relates to what is the reality in my school and many others in the United States. Regardless, this study was needed and has served as a useful resource for myself. References Song, Y., & Kapur, M. (2017). How to flip the classroom--"productive failure or traditional flipped classroom" pedagogical design? Educational Technology & Society, 20(1), 292+. Retrieved from https://ezproxy.western.edu/login?url=http://go.galegroup.com.ezproxy.western.edu/ps/i.do?p=PROF&sw=w&u=gun59497&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA482056371&asid=9c271f0b818a144f2eb6915d09dcd8e5 I have finished collecting my research and would like to share some reflections and insights I have had in doing so. I went into the data collection phase quite nervous about having everything go smoothly and according to plan. My data came from two classes taking an assessment in class, so I had a specific timeframe to execute the data collection, and it had to go efficiently. At this point, I had already obtained consent forms and done all the paperwork, I just had to be sure to not let any hiccups derail me from collecting the data this process has been about.
I found the collection to be quite smooth. Students knew ahead of time that they would have a short online assessment at the beginning or end of class based on whether their class received traditional or flipped instruction, respectively. The students were familiar with the platform I used to collect data as it is a website I use regularly in my classes (goformative.com). The combination of these things allowed for the data collection to go smoothly. My data can be downloaded from the site seamlessly into Microsoft Excel, which will allow me to effectively analyze the data. I have yet to analyze the data but will do that soon. However, to this point, the process has been smooth, and this was a crucial checkpoint to have met. I would like to credit the way that this class has been laid out for allowing me to easily accomplish my data collection. By finishing bits and pieces of this project at a time, I found the data collection piece to mostly stress free. This study, done by Nicholas Wasserman, Christa Quint, Scott Norris, and Thomas Carr, looks at the effects of the flipped classroom on students' performance and perceptions in an undergraduate Calculus III course. This study is useful because it addresses student performance. Because the flipped classroom is a new idea, the research regarding it lags.
The authors note that the flipped classroom has become a popular, revolutionary trend in education, but the research on its impacts are inconclusive and there are some negatives to using the model. There is no consensus on what flipped classroom instruction looks like, especially across contents, and if the model is effective, it is not known which element of the flipped classroom model is responsible for gains. The authors of this study define the flipped classroom as they implement in their research. "We adopt a definition of the flipped classroom as a classroom where students consume direct instruction primarily preceding class and engage in active learning activities primarily during class. This is not to say that we will include classrooms that require some active learning outside of class and some direct instruction during class" (Wasserman, p. 546). The study conducted by Wasserman, Quint, Norris, and Carr attempts to see if performance gains exist in a flipped classroom, and compare students' success solving procedural problems versus more conceptual problems. Methodology: The researchers provided twenty to twenty-five minute video lectures that students were required to watch before the next class. The students were then required to post to an online video lecture blog with questions and comments about the lecture and complete one to two procedural problems prior to class. At the beginning of the class, instructors answered questions or addressed comments from the blog and, half the time, gave a quiz at the beginning of class. Students worked in groups on more difficult problems, and the instructors answered questions on a group and individual basis. The instructor ended class with a discussion about the content and questions that arose during class. Finally, students completed any remaining problems from class as homework, watched the next video lecture, posted to the video lecture blog, and did one to two problems before the next class. 88% of students in the calculus III sections agreed to be part of the study, and the researchers verified that there were no significant differences in the control and experimental populations by looking at gender, student level (freshman, sophomore, etc.), age, major, AP scores in mathematics, Calculus II grades, and SAT scores. The courses were split into three sections, each followed by an exam. The first third of the course was taught in the traditional form of teaching by both professors. Then, one professor continued to teach in the traditional sense while the other professor used a flipped model. Doing it this way allowed the first exam to serve as a baseline when analyzing the data. The researchers found that the flipped classroom students scored better on some exam items, particularly more conceptual questions on the second and third exams. They say, "we regard this finding (that is, the distinction between more procedural and more conceptual questions) as a significant contribution, providing some empirical evidence that the flipped instructional model of freeing up class time to work on more conceptual questions and off-loading more procedural content onto videos has a desirable effect: modest improvement on more conceptual questions while not necessarily losing (or gaining) ground in procedural ability" (Wasserman, p. 563). Wasserman, N.H., Quint, C., Norris, S.A. et al. Int J of Sci and Math Educ (2017) 15: 545. doi:10.1007/s10763-015-9704-8 I am taking this blog post to explain the plan for and limits of my study on the flipped classroom. I am going to examine the effectiveness of a flipped classroom on freshmen math students, specifically those who are historically low-performing. To do this, I will compare the results of a short multiple-choice assessment given after lessons on solving systems of equations. I teach two sections of freshman math students that are comparable in performance. One of those sections will be taught systems of equations in a traditional method, using our school’s math curriculum and classroom strategies that are typical of a math lesson in my classroom. They will then be assigned practice problems as homework and take the assessment the next day in class. The other class will watch a video on solving systems of equations using elimination that I produce myself. The video will show only my hands and a piece of paper from an overhead angle as I narrate the strategy for solving systems of equations using elimination and work a couple examples. When they come in the next day, they will work examples in groups with support of their peers and myself. They will then take the assessment at the end of class.
This study may shed light on whether or not the flipped classroom is something that could be considered at Horizon High School. However, it is important to note that regardless of the findings, no clear conclusions can be drawn due to the very limited scope of the study. In addition to the study being just a small snapshot of the viability of the flipped classroom model, there are other factors that limit this study. I will be looking at three groups of students, historically high-performing, average-performing, and low-performing students. These will consist of students who earned grades of A’s, B’s or C’s, and D’s and F’s in the Fall semester, respectively. This way of grouping students is a very inexact and flawed way of grouping students. Many factors go into a student’s letter grade that may not be affected by their mathematical ability. Additionally, this will be the first time having a flipped lesson for most of my students, and one of my first times doing a flipped lesson. Both the students and myself likely would have room to grow in making a flipped model work, so each of us being rookies to this style of learning may not represent that true effects of a flipped classroom. I see these as the two biggest limitations of my study besides the fact that it is simply a small snapshot. There are other subtle variances in the study that may effect my results. Examples are that one class has math at the beginning of the day while the other is at the end of the day, or that the knowledge and readiness of the students in each class are not exactly identical. Regardless of the limitations, I am looking forward to implementing and understanding my study on the flipped classroom. In this review, I will be reviewing the fourth chapter of the book Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day by Jonathan Bergman and Aaron Sams. This book was written by two Colorado educators: Bergman, recipient of the Presidential Award for Math and Science Teaching in 2002, and Sams, recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence for Math and Science Teaching in 2009. The two teachers taught high school chemistry together using the flipped classroom model, and have written this book as a guide for teachers who want to use the flipped classroom.
Chapter 4 serves as a how to guide for teachers wanting to begin flipping their classrooms. The chapter covers choosing or making videos, recommended technology and equipment, stages in making a video, making videos students will love, and how to use class time in the flipped classroom model. The authors suggest that teachers should only make videos if they feel comfortable doing so, and cannot find what they need elsewher. They warn not to use "technology for technolgy's sake" (Bergman, pg. 36). When making a video, they suggest using Camstasia Studio which captrues the teachers computer scree, voice, face, and pen annotations. They also warn that doing this may be time consuming and suggest spending a year recording each lesson of live direct instruction to build a library that can be used in the future. When it comes to making pen annotations, the authors suggest using the Wacom Bamboo tablet for its compromise between quality and affordability. Bergman and Sams lay out four stages to making a video: planning the lesson, recording the video, editing the video, and then publishing the video (Bergman, pg. 41). According to the authors, planning the video is very important. They suggest using a script to keep videos on pace and concise. They add, "The more comples your final video product will be, the more you need to plan (Bergman, pg. 41). When recording the video, the authors say that it is as simple as pressing record and executing your plan. They give the tip that having two teachers conversing in the video has been helpful for them as it is more interesting. They make the argument "Not often do you listen to a radio show and hear only one voice talking" (Bergman, pg. 45). When editing the video, the authors say that this can consume a lot of time if the teacher allows. They warn that their rule of thumb is "Do I need this video perfect, or do I need it Tuesday" (Bergman, pg. 43). When publishing the video, the teachers offer the tip that besides posting the videos on the internet, teachers can also burn them on DVD's for students lacking internet access. Next the Bergman and Sams describe how to make videos students will love. They advise to keep videos short because we are teaching to the "YouTube generation" who "want things in bite-sized pieces" (Bergman, pg. 44). They also add that animating your voice, adding humor, and making your video with another teacher help to keep students' attention and interest. Finally, the authors discuss how to use class time. They say that despite the flipped classroom being known for students consuming the lecture outside of class, "The greatest benefit to any flipped classroom is not the videos. It's the in-class time that every teacher must evaluate and redesign" (Bergman, pg. 47). Since class time is not being eaten up by direct instruction, students can spend class time problem solving meaningful problems. In foreign language classes, the authors say, "This includes having more conversation, reading literature, and writing stories, all in the target language" (Bergman, pg. 48). In mathematics "Flipped math classes are becoming laboratories of computational thinking, inquiry, and connectedness with other STEM areas" (Bergman, pg 48). They add that in social science courses, "There is more time to debate, give speeches, conduct pro se court, and discuss what students are learning more deeply" (Bergman, pg. 49). My Thoughts Although this chapter does not reference any research, it is nice to have the teachers' perspectives who have taught using the flipped classroom. Since this is something I would like to try based on the research, this chapter will greatly influence how I go about flipping my classroom. References Bergmann, J., & Sams, A. (2012). Flip Your Classroom : Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. Eugene, US: ISTE. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com This article summarizes the study carried out by Mary BethGilboy, Scott Heinerichs, and Gina Pazzaglia at West Chester University. The study focused on student perceptions of the flipped classroom in two 400-level undergraduate nutrition/diatetics courses, Professional Skills in Diatetics, and Community Nutrition. The outcome of the study indicates that students in these courses had positive attitudes about the flipped classroom and its effects on their learning.
The authors introduce their study by explaining the idea behind the flipped classroom, and why a shift in the way students are taught is necessary. Those topics have been discussed several times on this blog, but the authors' multiple references to Alison King's work is notable. King calls for instructors to become less of a "sage on the stage" and more of a "guide on the side." (King, pg. 30), and this is the idea behind a flipped classroom. However, the authors state that both roles are necessary, saying, "When faculty members serve as both a sage on the stage as well as a guide on the side, the can transform their course to meet the demands of today's learners and the calls for accountability," and that lectures have there place in education adding, "Although the lecture has been criticized, it is well documents that this for of directed instruction is necessary to teach students in situations where they hold little or no prior knowledge." (Gilboy, pg. 109). These points are interesting because the authors are not dismissing lecture, but rather saying it needs to be delivered differently. Another point that the authors make to this end is that lectures need to be shortened because "research on lectures has demonstrated that a student's attention declines after the first 10 minutes of class, and although it may return at the end of class, students remember only about 20% of material presented during the lecture" (Gilboy, pg. 109). Next, the authors describe their study. Faculty members attended monthly meetings throughout the semester to help them deliver their course via a flipped classroom. Here they learned about the 3 components of the flipped classroom that they used: before class, during class (face-to-face), and after class. Before class, students watched or viewed online resources, then took a low-stakes assessment on what they had learned to help ensure accountability. This work focused on lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy. During class activities were built around active learning where students use application, analysis, and synthesis of what they had learned before-class. The effectiveness of the flipped classroom was analyzed using an end of course survey in which 142 of 196 students voluntarily completed. Some of the findings of the study were that:
The authors' offer some advice on addressing students concerns such as instructors doing a quality check at the beginning of class on low-stakes assessments so that students understand their work is values and thus more willing to comply. In the "Lessons Learned" portion of their paper, the authors state that it is very important to obtain student buy-in by explaining the rationale behind the flipped classroom and that lectures should be 10-15 minutes in maximum length despite traditional lectures often being up to an hour long. Finally the researchers admit that their study was limited because it only looked at the students' satisfaction with the flipped classroom and not its effectiveness on learning outcomes. They call for more research to be done in that area as it is very limited at this point. References Gilboy, M. B., Heinerichs, S., & Pazzaglia, G. (2015). Enhancing Student Engagement Using the Flipped Classroom. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, 47(1), 109-114. King, A. (1993). From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side. College Teaching,41(1), 30-35. Students' Perceptions and Emotions Toward LEarning in a Flipped General Science Classroom10/30/2016 This article summarizes the research and findings of Jin Su Jeong, David Gonzalez-Gomez, and Florentina Canada-Canada. In their study, the researchers look at students' perceptions and emotions toward learning in a flipped general science course at the Training Teaching School of the University of Extremadura in Spain in the second semester of the 2015/2016 school year. The results of this study showed that 80% of students in a flipped general science course considered the course a valuable learning experience in addition to many other encouraging findings that I will begin to elaborate on.
The authors introduce the article by explaining the importance of emotions in decision-making, citing research by Valerie Otereo and Antonio Damasio. Then, they explain the methodology of the study. The data for the study was taken from a questionnaire given to students near the end of the course (to ensure maximum participation). The course had 88 students, 66 of which were participating in the study. Of these 66 students, 65% were male and 35% were female, and the average age of the participants was 21 years old. The course was designed so that students could access online video lectures up to a week before the material was addressed in class, and for the rest of the course afterwards. After watching the videos, students took a quiz over the material in the lectures, so that the professor could gauge their understanding. This provided the opportunity for "just-in-time" lecturing, where short, last-minute lectures were given to clarify misunderstandings. Class time was split into three 50-minute sessions to work theoretical contents and one 50-minute sessions of laboratory and collaborative works, where classes were in groups of 22, 22, and 23. The role of the professor in these classes was to "observe, address concerns and deliver clarifications when they needed" (Jeong). When they course was nearly finished, students took a questionnaire that assessed their emotions and perceptions towards the course. The questionnaire consisted of 10 questions about the video lectures and other provided materials, 5 questions about the methodology as a whole, a list of 5 keywords students would use to describe the course, and a measure of frequency of positive and negative emotions that students experienced in the course. Some Statistics:
The authors conclude that the study is in support of students' feeling positively towards the flipped classroom model, and that their study supports earlier studies that have had similar results. The authors do concede that more research is necessary to validate these findings, and that research is needed for the instructor's emotions and perceptions towards teaching a flipped classroom. References Jeong, J. S., Gonzalez-Gomez, D., & Canada-Canada, F. (2016, October). Students' Perceptions and Emotions Toward Learning in a Flipped General Science Classroom. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 25(5), 747-758. This article by Kathleen Fulton begins by telling a story from Byron High School in the Byron School District in Minnesota. In fall 2009, the math department at the school desperately needed to replace their curriculum because their current textbooks were in extremely bad condition. However, the district had no money to fund new books or a new curriculum. The article quotes then-Superintendent Wendy Shannon as saying, “We literally had no money for textbooks” (Fulton, 2012, pg. 20) The math teachers at the school took matters into their own hands by deciding to make their own curriculum using online resources. However, they realized that students had nothing to help them do their homework when they were on their own. To address this issue they began recording their lectures and uploading them to Youtube for students to refer to.
At this point, the teachers had never heard of a flipped classroom or knew what it was, but their next decision flipped their classroom. The teachers saw that they could have students just watch the lectures at home and spend class time problem solving and having discussions about the content. Two years later, in 2011, Byron High School was awarded the School of Distinction Award for Mathematics from Intel, and today all math classes at Byron High School use the flipped classroom model. Following the story of Byron High School, the article lists the top ten reasons for adopting a flipped classroom as written by the Byron High School math teachers. They are the following: #1. Students move at their own pace. The argument here is that some students learn to quickly in a traditional classroom model while others do not learn fast enough. The flipped classroom allows students to watch a lecture and learn at their appropriate speed because they have the ability to pause, rewind, etc. #2. Doing homework in class gives teachers better insight into student difficulties and learning styles. In traditional classrooms teachers do not know what a student is struggling on until after an assignment is turned in, but with a flipped classroom the teacher is in the room while the student is doing their “homework” and able to see mistakes/misunderstanding and address them then and there. #3. Teachers can customize and update the curriculum, and provide it to students 24/7. There are two arguments here. The first is that although there are many resources available to learn math concepts on Youtube, in this model, teachers create their own videos which are customizable to the content, rigor, and background of its students. Secondly, the flipped classroom addresses absenteeism. Students have access to a teacher’s lectures at all times, including when they are absent. #4. Students have access to multiple teachers’ expertise. Because multiple teachers often teach the same course, students can go watch other teacher’s lectures when they are still confused after their own teacher’s explanations. #5. Teachers flip professional development by watching each other’s videos and learning from each other. Teachers can better themselves by learning from their peers’ video lectures. #6. Classroom time can be used more effectively and creatively. Teachers have freedom to spend class time in way that fits the needs of the students. Class time can be spent doing hands-on, problem-based, and/or project-based activities. #7. Parents have a window into the classroom. Because many parents struggle to help their children with their math homework, the videos are beneficial for them too. #8. Student Achievement is increasing so is interest and engagement in higher-level math. The data collected by Byron High School’s teachers is showing that students are having higher achievement in the flipped classrooms versus the traditional classrooms they used to use. #9. Learning theory Supports the new approaches. The flipped classroom aligns with instructional techniques supported by research on learning theory. “Limits on video uploading capacity means content is chunked into manageable, understandable units. As they determine how often they need to review a lesson, students must constantly assess their understanding of material building thinking skills. With students using classroom time to complete problems demonstrating their understanding, they get immediate feedback on their work, as well as just-in-time support from teachers and peers. They often view videos together, work in teams in class, and learn through teaching one another via peer tutoring – approaches validated by social learning theory” (Fulton, 2012, pg. 22). #10. The use of technology is flexible and appropriate for 21-st century skills. Students and teachers need to know how to use technology and the internet to teach and learn. The article concludes by giving on additional reason (reason 11) to flip the classroom, students like the flipped classroom, and provides some positive testimonials from students from a survey at the end of their courses. My Thoughts I liked that the article provided a narrative of a specific school’s experience with the flipped classroom. It is very interesting that the teachers at Byron High School did not know what a flipped classroom was, but stumbled upon that model naturally as they attempted to make their own curriculum. I thought some of their 10 arguments were stronger than others. I really like that the flipped classroom allows students to work at their own pace, addresses absenteeism, and transforms class time. All of these are great challenges teachers face in their jobs regularly. These alone could convince some to flip their classrooms. It was also important the teachers address what the data and research on flipped classroom showed, and for their school it seemed to be working. My issue is that their data was only for their school and what sets their school apart from many others is that their survey found that “97% of our students have access to high-speed internet at home” (Fulton, 2012, pg. 24). This is not the case in many places. What is going to be done for students without internet access? That seems like a big difficult especially in rural district where that percentage is probably at or below 50%. I would be really interested to see how this has worked in a college environment, where the students are assumed to care about their education and the professors generally teach in lecture format anyway, going way too fast for many students. References Fulton, K. P. (2012). 10 reasons to flip. Phi Delta Kappan, 94(2), 20–24. To flip or not to flip? Analysis of a flipped classroom pedagogy in a general biology course9/25/2016 In this study conducted by William H. Heyborne and Jamis J. Perrett of Utah State University, the flipped classroom model is compared to the traditional lecture format in an introductory biology course for science majors. The study was inconclusive but did suggest that there may be something to the flipped classroom improving student performance. Analysis of the study showed that student perception of the course was improved in the flipped classroom, and student achievement was relatively equal.
The article begins by introducing the concept of the flipped classroom, which has already been established on this blog. However, two things stood out to me in introducing the concept. First, the flipped classroom model was referred to as an inverted classroom, which was the first time I had heard that. Additionally, the text suggests that "successful implementation request hat students truly engage with the lecture material outside of class. To some degree the development of textbooks represented a flip, as the teacher was no longer the sole source of information. However, anyone who has taught knows the challenge associated with convincing students to spend worthwhile time with a textbook" (Heyborne, 2016). I found this to be an interesting point against the flipped classroom. The study looked at two sections of the general biology course taught concurrently. The first, a class of 71 students, was taught using a lecture format, three days a week, at 8 a.m.. The second, a class of 68 students, was taught using the flipped classroom model at 2 p.m. on the same days. The lecture format was taught using PowerPoint slides in class that were made available to students outside of class. The flipped classroom also had access to these PowerPoints in addition to narrated and animated slides that were not available to the lecture format sections of the course, and both course utilized electronic clickers, homework sets, chapter quizzes, and exams. Student achievement was analyzes based on a pretest and several exam scores. Five of the six exams taken after the pretest showed that the mean scores for the flipped classroom were greater than the mean scores of the lecture format, however only one of those exams was considered significantly greater for the flipped classroom. Thus, it cannot be said that the flipped classroom was better than the lecture format. Interestingly, the course evaluations suggested a more positive attitude towards the flipped classroom than the lecture format with 19 wholly positive responses, 13 wholly negative responses, and 10 mixed responses on course evaluations. Students seemed to like the lectures available outside of class but often thought that class time was wasted due to lack of participation among students in the classroom. Of the eight responses that were specifically about the lectures for the lecture-based course, 3 were wholly positive and 5 were wholly negative. Two of the students who responded wholly negative wanted access to the lectures available to the students in the flipped classroom. The results of the course evaluations suggest that students have a better attitude towards the flipped classroom than the lecture-based classroom. In the conclusion, the authors of the study suggest that more research is necessary on a larger scale, and that there is no conclusive literature on the topic to this point despite a lot of interest in the topic. The reasons that larger scale research has not been done, suggest the authors, is because there are to many restraints on schools and teachers to do so. However, such research would be welcomed. My Thoughts I find it interesting that class time in the flipped classroom was viewed as a waste of time by many students. I am curious whether those students feel that that issue was attributed to the instructor, the activities chosen for class time, or unwillingness to work together by peers. This is the first study I have looked at in the college setting, and I know that college is a different animal than the middle or high school classroom. I wonder if the attitudes of college students, especially those who were science majors, hindered the ability for classes students to work together. I don't see the harm in having lectures available online, like in a flipped classroom, when classes are taught in a lecture format anyway. The only negatives, to me, seem to be that questions cannot be asked immediately and students may not access the lectures regularly, as the authors suggest. If class time had been more effective, I think the studies may have suggested an impact due to the flipped classroom. References Heyborne, W. H., & Perrett, J. J. (2016). To Flip or Not to Flip? Analysis of a Flipped Classroom Pedagogy in a General Biology Course. Journal Of College Science Teaching, 45(4), 31-37. |
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