A Comparison of Flipped Programming Classroom Models – Results by Gender and Major

Abstract

This Innovative Practice Work in Progress Paper presents our findings when analyzing the results from flipping introductory programming courses over the course of several years, and comparing the performance of students of different genders and majors. As part of this study, we investigate the impact of making modifications to these courses over time, including changing the nature of lab assessments and in-class contact time with the students. Our main motivations of this study were to determine (a) which modes of instruction resulted in better student performance overall, (b) which changes in the courses may have impacted males and females differently, and (c) if changes in the courses impacted students of different majors differently. In our study, we did not find any significant differences in student performance between pre-flipped and flipped modes. Furthermore, we found that performance trends were mostly consistent between females and males for any given major. However, we did find that males generally did better overall in the programming fundamentals course, though there is a moderate positive correlation between the percentage of females in that course with their performance. Neither gender did consistently better than the other in the follow-on data structures course, however.