Implementing the flipped classroom: an exploration of study behaviour and student performance

The flipped classroom is becoming more popular as a means to support student learning in higher education by requiring students to prepare before lectures and actively engaging students during lectures. While some research has been conducted into student performance in the flipped classroom, students’ study behaviour throughout a flipped course has not been investigated. This study explored students’ study behaviour throughout a flipped and a regular course by means of bi-weekly diaries. Furthermore, student references to their learning regulation were explored in course evaluations. Results from the diaries showed that students’ study behaviour in the flipped course did not appear to be very different from that of students in a regular course. Furthermore, study behaviour did not appear strongly related to student performance in both the flipped and the regular course. Exploration of student references to their learning regulation in the course evaluations showed that some students experienced the flipped course design as intended to support their learning process. Other students, however, demonstrated resistance to changing their study behaviour even though changing study behaviour is expected in order to benefit from the flipped classroom. Further research on the relationship between students’ learning regulation and actual study behaviour and course results is necessary to understand when and why implementing the flipped classroom is successful. Recommendations that may help more effective flipped classroom implementation include considering the prior history between students and instructor(s), the broader curriculum context, and frequent expectation communication especially with large numbers of students and non-mandatory lecture attendance.

[1]  J. Biggs,et al.  The revised two-factor Study Process Questionnaire: R-SPQ-2F. , 2001, The British journal of educational psychology.

[2]  M. Credé,et al.  Class Attendance in College , 2010 .

[3]  M. Credé,et al.  A meta-analytic review of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire , 2011 .

[4]  J. Vermunt,et al.  Congruence and friction between learning and teaching , 1999 .

[5]  Jennifer L. Tomes,et al.  Studying for success: diaries of students' study behaviours , 2011 .

[6]  W. Briggs,et al.  A Measure of College Student Course Engagement , 2005 .

[7]  Randall S. Davies,et al.  Flipping the classroom and instructional technology integration in a college-level information systems spreadsheet course , 2013 .

[8]  R. Pierce,et al.  Vodcasts and Active-Learning Exercises in a “Flipped Classroom” Model of a Renal Pharmacotherapy Module , 2012, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.

[9]  E. Deci,et al.  Motivation and Education: The Self-Determination Perspective , 2008 .

[10]  Paul Ashwin,et al.  The Meanings of Student Engagement: Implications for Policies and Practices , 2015 .

[11]  B. Zimmerman.  Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Achievement: An Overview , 1990 .

[12]  Michael J. Prince,et al.  Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research , 2004 .

[13]  J. Vermunt,et al.  Patterns in Student Learning: Relationships Between Learning Strategies, Conceptions of Learning, and Learning Orientations , 2004 .

[14]  Michelle K. Smith,et al.  Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics , 2014, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[15]  P. Lugtig,et al.  Reducing Underreports of Behaviors in Retrospective Surveys: The Effects of Three Different Strategies , 2016 .

[16]  N. Draper,et al.  Applied Regression Analysis. , 1967 .

[17]  Kathleen E. Cook,et al.  Comparing the Effectiveness of an Inverted Classroom to a Traditional Classroom in an Upper-Division Engineering Course , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Education.

[18]  N. Purdie,et al.  Effects of Learning Skills Interventions on Student Learning: A Meta-Analysis , 1996 .

[19]  Sarath A. Nonis,et al.  Academic Performance of College Students: Influence of Time Spent Studying and Working , 2006 .

[20]  K. Royal,et al.  The Flipped Classroom Improved Medical Student Performance and Satisfaction in a Pre-clinical Physiology Course , 2015 .

[21]  Helvi Kyngäs,et al.  The qualitative content analysis process. , 2008, Journal of advanced nursing.

[22]  P. Pintrich,et al.  Reliability and Predictive Validity of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Mslq) , 1993 .

[23]  Anthony Dove.  Students’ Perceptions of Learning in a Flipped Statistics Class , 2013 .

[24]  I C McManus,et al.  The shortened Study Process Questionnaire: an investigation of its structure and longitudinal stability using confirmatory factor analysis. , 2001, The British journal of educational psychology.

[25]  Robert M. Gonyea,et al.  Unmasking the Effects of Student Engagement on First-Year College Grades and Persistence , 2008 .

[26]  L. Abeysekera,et al.  Motivation and cognitive load in the flipped classroom: definition, rationale and a call for research , 2015 .

[27]  P. Lugtig.  Panel Attrition , 2014 .

[28]  S. Dollinger,et al.  Which factors best account for academic success: Those which college students can control or those they cannot? , 2008 .

[29]  Jamie L. Jensen,et al.  Improvements from a Flipped Classroom May Simply Be the Fruits of Active Learning , 2015, CBE life sciences education.

[30]  B. Chadwick,et al.  Analysing and presenting qualitative data , 2008, BDJ.

[31]  Jacqueline E McLaughlin,et al.  Pharmacy Student Engagement, Performance, and Perception in a Flipped Satellite Classroom , 2013, American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education.

[32]  Christopher P. Niemiec,et al.  Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom , 2009 .

[33]  E. Kahu.  Framing student engagement in higher education , 2013 .

[34]  Howard Schuman,et al.  Effort and Reward: The Assumption that College Grades Are Affected by Quantity of Study , 1985 .

[35]  Jeremy F. Strayer.  How learning in an inverted classroom influences cooperation, innovation and task orientation , 2012 .

[36]  Michael Sturek,et al.  Flipped classroom model improves graduate student performance in cardiovascular, respiratory, and renal physiology. , 2013, Advances in physiology education.