Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: definition,rationale and a call for research

Flipped classroom approaches remove the traditional transmissive lecture and replace it with active in-class tasks and pre-/post-class work. Despite the popularity of these approaches in the media, Google search, and casual hallway chats, there is very little evidence of effectiveness or consistency in understanding what a flipped classroom actually is. Although the flipped terminology is new, some of the approaches being labelled ‘flipped’ are actually much older. In this paper, we provide a catch-all definition for the flipped classroom, and attempt to retrofit it with a pedagogical rationale, which we articulate through six testable propositions. These propositions provide a potential agenda for research about flipped approaches and form the structure of our investigation. We construct a theoretical argument that flipped approaches might improve student motivation and help manage cognitive load. We conclude with a call for more specific types of research into the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach.     

高职英语教学中翻转课堂教学模式分析

高职英语传统教学不重视英语能力的培养,教学方法较为落后,学生英语基础薄弱。翻转课堂教学模式可以弥补传统教学方法的不足。它的实现策略为:设计合适的教学内容,充分发挥现代网络通讯工具的作用,完善教学评价体系。翻转课堂教学模式在一定程度上地提高了学生学习的积极性和主动性。     

Effect of gender differences on 3-on-3 basketball games taught in a mobile flipped classroom

ABSTRACT

Physical education emphasizes learning sports skills, which is why it is usually conducted in a face-to-face manner. Instructors focus on explaining rules and demonstrating moves, which the learners are required to repeat and imitate. Flipped classrooms have become a trend; thus, the present study investigated their influence on physical education. A mobile application for novice and advanced basketball players was developed and tested in a course teaching 3-on-3 basketball and various teaching methods were implemented to test for the effects of gender differences on learning outcome. The participants were students enrolled in the aforementioned course in a university in central Taiwan. 326 participants were included in the study, of whom 238 were male and 88 were female. The duration of the experiment was 5 weeks between May and June 2017, during which the correctness of moves, maneuverability, teamwork, sense of balance, and adaptability of the participants were evaluated and graded as their learning outcome. The research team observed the participants each week to gather empirical data for analysis. The results indicate that a mobile flipped classroom is the optimal teaching strategy, followed by projecting teaching; therefore, a mobile flipped classroom is the recommended approach to be integrated into physical education.     

Behavioural sequential analysis of using an instant response application to enhance peer interactions in a flipped classroom

To stimulate classroom interactions, this study employed two different smartphone application modes, providing an additional instant interaction channel in a flipped classroom teaching fundamental computer science concepts. One instant interaction mode provided the students (N?=?36) with anonymous feedback in chronological time sequence, while the other showed their feedback by “like” ranking (N?=?26). The behavioural patterns of undergraduates using these two different modes were compared. The results showed that the like-ranked feedback deepened the interaction between asking and answering questions, reduced the number of irrelevant messages, and increased attention to questionable messages. The students using the like-ranking mode also received more encouragement during the flipped classroom discussion activities.     

翻转课堂教学模式在省级精品资源共享课《室内环境检测》中的应用

本文首先介绍了翻转课堂教学模式及其实施的要素和关键点,然后,从课前和课后在线学习、线下课堂活动的组织等方面,阐述了翻转课堂教学模式在省级精品资源共享课《室内环境检测》中的应用,并分析了运用翻转课堂教学模式教学需要改进的环节。     

Perceptions of student engagement in the flipped classroom: a case study

ABSTRACT

One of the blended learning strategies that researchers and educators commonly use in higher education is Flipped Classroom. The purpose of this case study was to explore how both professors and students perceive student engagement in flipped classrooms. Three college professors who implemented flipped classrooms and their 14 students participated in the study. Three individual faculty interviews and three student focus group interviewers were conducted. Five components of the utilization-focused evaluation model were used in the data coding. The findings revealed both positive and negative opinions depending on how they implemented the flipped classroom including the engagement of students and the environment. Faculty participants who fully implemented the flipped model had positive opinions about the implementation and student engagement, finding the model helped increase student performance and grades. In addition, the majority of student participants liked the challenges offered by the flipped classroom, which increased their engagement.     

Research trends of flipped classroom studies for medical courses: a review of journal publications from 2008 to 2017 based on the technology-enhanced learning model

ABSTRACT

Medical education is a domain with fast-changing knowledge and attention to knowledge application and higher order thinking; therefore, how to implement effective teaching is a crucial issue. Based on the technology-based learning model, this study provides a multi-dimensional analysis of published papers on the flipped classroom in medical education from the SCOPUS database, including the form of the learning materials, learning system or player, learning strategies, educational technology, application domains, research issues, participants, and research methods. Based on the results, the application of flipped classrooms in medical education has grown rapidly over the past decade, with the number growing dramatically from 7 papers in 2014, to 16 papers in 2015, and 22 papers in 2016. It was found that a great number of studies adopted instructional videos uploaded on online learning systems or used existing online videos to conduct before-class teaching in the before-class stage of the flipped classroom; moreover, most studies involved no online discussion in the before-class stage. As for learning strategies in the in-class stage, the most frequently adopted strategies were issue discussion, practicing or doing exercises, and problem-based learning. This implies that most studies mainly emphasized basic knowledge understanding and skills training, while little attention was paid to developing learners’ higher order thinking skills. In addition, the majority of studies explored students’ learning interest/satisfaction, learning experience, and performance on the cognitive aspect, while little research was found to investigate their preparation degree or cognitive loading. Based on the review results, this study provides the research trends and potential research issues of flipped medical education to serve as a reference for researchers, instructors, and decision makers.     

通达翻转学习：慕课时代翻转课堂新模式

通达翻转学习以认知灵活性理论和通达学习理论为指导,着眼于学生的学习过程,充分发挥教师和学生的主体性,利用现代教育技术,以教学诊断与自我诊断为手段,以促进师生共同发展为目的,是慕课时代翻转课堂和通达翻转课堂中国化的产物,体现出鲜明的自主性、情境性、诊断性、发展性和体验性等特征。通达翻转学习本质上是慕课时代翻转课堂依据自身发展规律而必然出现的新生事物,采行主体协同与自主选择、情境预设与目标导向、诊断学习与问题解决、体验成功与自我激励等实施策略,构建动态平衡发展的通达翻转学习运行质态,对于促进学生健康成长、提升教师专业学力、推动学校特色发展具有较强的现实意义。     

A view from the inside: Collaborating with students to flip the classroom in real time

This article details decisions made to flip a small, public administration graduate-level course in real time. Interweaving student feedback with instructor notes and reflections gives a unique, personal look into a scenario-based course that changed weekly. We detail this dynamism, highlighting successes and failures in flipping the classroom. Students were positively able to apply administrative theories in real time but struggled to maintain relevance and connection to the readings. The narrative details how we all collaborated on an innovative pedagogical practice to apply public sector theories in real time.     

Interactive Processes Between University Students: Structures of Interactions and Related Cognitive Development

Interactions between peers as well as between students and teachers play an important role in social learning. Although much research investigates the structure of (peer) discourse and its relation to learning outcomes, only a few studies try to describe in detail how individuals create meaning for content developed within the dialogues. Thus, it often remains unclear which contents and structures of the discourse contributed to the development of individual knowledge and which did not. This paper describes a study that investigated in great detail peer discourse and its relation to the cognitive development of every participating learner. In total, 27 university students were followed with video while working in pairs during physics laboratory exercises on electrodynamics. Students' cognitive processes developed during their interactions were reconstructed from the video by a small step analysis and students' meaning-making of other participants' contributions was investigated. Results show that students only interact about topics they already know whereas they develop new meaning outside of interactive processes.     

基于图式理论优化大学英语课堂导入

钱学森教授说高等学校的学习,是打基础的时期,应该强调学好基础课程。而大学英语教学作为中国高校的基础课程,一直以来都是各位学者教师关注的焦点。本文中,笔者将图式理论与大学英语课堂导入相联系,进行了两者关系之间的阐述,并举实例说明了本文的研究主题,图式理论如何优化大学英语课堂导入。     

Flipping the classroom: an effective approach to deal with diversity at higher education

Even though the flipped classroom is an increasingly popular method in education, a literature search shows a gap in research on this method in higher education. This article describes an experiment with two central questions: (1) How do students and lecturers assess the effectiveness of the FC method? And (2) What are crucial design elements? To be able to answer these questions we designed an experiment within a large-size, interdisciplinary, course. For three years we carefully monitored and evaluated the course. A mixed-method approach was used to collect data. Our findings show a positive contribution of the FC approach to the learning experience of students. We also found that a strong link between theory and practice is essential in the course design; combined with active learning we were able to involve students and stimulate them to reach a deeper level of understanding. Moreover, we believe that the FC approach offers opportunities to have a large interdisciplinary group, with different learning needs, work together on higher attainment levels.     

A qualitative investigation of student engagement in a flipped classroom

The flipped classroom is gaining acceptance in higher education as an alternative to more traditional methods of teaching. In the current study, twelve students in a Norwegian higher education institution were in-depth interviewed about their learning experiences in a two-semester long mathematics course. The first semester was taught using flipped classroom and the second semester using lectures, where both teaching modes contained a substantial amount of active learning. Overall, students report a more positive learning experience and higher engagement in the flipped classroom. The analysis revealed seven categories that the students highlight as especially conducive to their learning; commitment to peers, being recognized, feeling safe, instructor relationship, physical learning environment, learning with peers and using videos to learn new content. The results indicate that the affective dimension of student engagement is particularly prominent when students reflect upon learning in the flipped classroom.     

An interactive problem-posing guiding approach to bridging and facilitating pre- and in-class learning for flipped classrooms

ABSTRACT

Educators have indicated that a good flipped learning design has the potential to enable teachers to use the class time effectively for conducting higher-order thinking activities and enhancing the interactions among peers and teachers. Several previous studies have also pointed out the importance of employing proper learning strategies, such that students’ learning performance would meet the expectations of both the pre- and in-class activities of flipped learning. In this study, an interactive problem-posing guiding strategy was proposed to guide students to understand the concepts of problem-posing by the use of multiple choice options before class, and to engage them in effective problem-posing activities during class. To examine the effectiveness of the proposed learning mode, a flipped learning system was developed and an experiment was conducted in a natural science learning activity in an elementary school. The participants were two classes of fifth graders of an elementary school, a total of 56 students, with one class as the experimental group and the other as the control group. The students in the experimental group adopted the interactive problem-posing guiding strategy in the flipped learning mode, while the control group used the conventional flipped learning mode. The experimental results confirmed that the flipped learning activity with the interactive problem-posing guiding strategy was more effective in terms of learning achievement, self-efficacy, and deep approaches to learning science in the natural science course than the conventional flipped learning method. It also confirmed the importance of integrating the stepwise learning strategy (e.g. guided problem-posing and collaborative problem-posing) into flipped learning to support students’ pre- and in-class learning.     

Reflective teaching: theory within classroom practices

The core of the Senate Bill 2042 (1998) was designed to provide the guidelines needed to prepare teachers who can meet the needs of a diverse K-12 student population in California. Following the guidelines marked by this bill, faculty working in Teacher Credential Programs across California are designing activities to prepare candidates with a deep understanding of effective pedagogies applicable to a full range of students. A key component in this preparation is to provide teacher candidates with opportunities to critically read and reflect on theory and research. Understanding the importance of this component, I designed an assignment, Quadruple Entry Journals (QEJ), which asks teacher candidates to first, critically read texts on theory; secondly, to reflect and analyze those texts; thirdly, to reflect on the reflections of their classmates; and, finally, to connect these theoretical reflections with practice. In this article, I explain the pedagogy followed when implementing QEJ with teacher candidates. Their feedback showed that when theory and research are cooperatively analyzed by teacher candidates, they better understand the connection between theory and practice, thus creating a deep understanding of what to teach and how to teach.     

Embodied multi-modal communication from the perspective of activity theory

I begin by appreciating the contributions in the volume that indirectly and directly address the questions: Why do gestures and embodiment matter to mathematics education, what has understanding of these achieved and what might they achieve? I argue, however, that understanding gestures can in general only play an important role in ‘grasping’ the meaning of mathematics if the whole object-orientated ‘activity’ is taken into account in our perspective, and give examples from my own work and from this Special Issue. Finally, I put forward the notion of a ‘threshold’ moment, where seeing and grasping at the nexus of two or more activities often seem to be critical to breakthroughs in learning.     

Exploring the role of university students’ online self-regulated learning in the flipped classroom: a structural equation model

ABSTRACT

The flipped classroom has gained a great deal of attention in educational research and practice in recent years. The purposes of this study are to understand the relationship between students’ online self-regulated learning (SRL) and their perceptions of learning in a flipped classrooms (FC), to identify possible mediators in this relationship, and to explain how this relationship predicts students’ intentions to participate in an FC. Two questionnaires were used to gather data from 576 undergraduate or graduate students in Taiwan. The structural equation model showed that students’ in-class interactions and online SRL are predictors of their perceived quality of usefulness of online learning activities and positive experience of FC, and these, in turn, associate with their intentional behaviours of participating in FC. While students’ perceived value of interactions in physical classrooms directly related to their intentions to participate in FC, their online SRL predicts their intentions to participate in flipped learning only when mediated by the perceived quality of the usefulness of the online learning activities and positive experience of FC.     

When is the best time to use rubrics in flipped learning? A study on students’ learning achievement,metacognitive awareness,and cognitive load

ABSTRACT

Rubrics can guide teachers to provide effective feedback and students’ peer- and self-assessment. This paper examines the effect of rubric use in flipped learning activities on students’ learning achievement, metacognitive awareness, and cognitive load through a quasi-experiment. A total of 83 university students were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group. The students in the experimental group were given rubrics in performing pre-class learning activities on the cloud platform, while those in the control group used rubrics in post-class assessment and modification of their finished works. The results show that rubric use can assist flipped learning by improving students’ learning achievement and metacognitive awareness, while reducing their cognitive load. Using rubrics before in-class work can yield stronger benefits in raising metacognitive awareness and lessening cognitive load. Moreover, the study reveals that students tend to hold a generally favorable attitude toward rubric use. These findings imply that appropriate use of rubrics in flipped learning has the potential to create a more efficient and learner-friendly condition to enhance self-regulated learning.     

Analysis of a multifaceted interactive pedagogy program in an upper limb anatomy course: A time series study

Many new methods have contributed to the learning of anatomy, including several interactive methods, increasing the effectiveness of educational programs. The effectiveness of an educational program involving several interactive learning methods such as problem-based learning and reciprocal peer teaching was researched in this study. A quasi-experimental before–after study on three consecutive groups of second-year students at the Grenoble School of Medicine was conducted. The lectures were replaced by an educational program based on the problem-based learning method and reciprocal peer teaching. The first session was dedicated to reading clinical cases illustrating the medical concept, so that the learning objectives for the second session could be set. Then, after viewing digital courses, the second session was dedicated to a synthetic presentation by the students themselves, followed by an interactive summary with the teacher. The analysis of 630 students showed a significant increase in the theory test results for those who took part in the intervention: 9.71 versus 9.19 (β = 0.57, P = 0.036). Moreover, satisfaction was high after the intervention (mean = 4.5/5), and when comparing the two pedagogical approaches the students showed a clear preference for the program implemented with the concepts highlighted such as interactivity, in-depth work, group work, and autonomy. A multifaceted interactive pedagogy program could have a significant impact on the results of the theoretical concepts presented and on satisfaction as well as increased investment by students in learning anatomy.