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
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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. |
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March 2017
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