A quasi-qualitative analysis of flipped classroom implementation in an engineering course: from theory to practice

Shahid Hussain,Muhammad T Munir,Aigerim Zuyeva,Prashant K Jamwal

doi:10.1186/s41239-020-00222-1

Abstract

Students have different learning approaches and acquire knowledge in different ways owing to their varied perceptions and grasping abilities. Treating students equally, following the traditional teacher-cantered approach, may not be effective and calls for innovations in knowledge dissemination. This article takes a student-centric approach to implement a ‘flipped classroom’ model in an engineering course for constructivism (i.e. experience-based learning), and students’ personalized learning. The performance of the flipped classroom approach is compared with the traditional lecturing approach using four lenses: students’ grades, students’ reflection using three surveys at different stages during the semester, teacher’s observation, and peer observation. In most of the existing approaches, analysis of the qualitative survey data is performed manually without computer assistance, and therefore these are criticized for being primeval and instinctive. In this research, a novel approach, based on fuzzy logic, is devised to evaluate the qualitative survey responses from the students. It is shown in this research, that the linguistic survey responses can be summarized in an index more meaningfully using a fuzzy logic-based approach. The results further showed that the flipped classroom model helped students to improve their grades and enhance engagements with their teacher and their peers. Increased interaction, during interactive class activities, was instrumental in evolving students’ problem-solving and critical analysis skills towards better learning experiences. Furthermore, students’ survey results, analyzed using the novel fuzzy indexing and a non-parametric statistical test showed that the intervention in the form of flipped classes was effective and found to be statistically significant. The findings of this study may help other academics, endeavoring for experience-based, and students’ personalized learning.

Highlights

A flipped classroom based pedagogical model, for constructivism and students’ personalised learning, is discussed in this study to address the pedagogical problems associated with teacher-centred approaches
It is worth mentioning that the number of students enrolled in the conventional lecture style was 21, which is slightly more than the number of students enrolled (18 students) in the flipped classroom model
The present study showed that the proposed flipped classroom model, coupled with constructivism or experience-based learning, was more effective than the traditional teacher-centred approach

Summary

Introduction

A flipped classroom based pedagogical model, for constructivism (experience-based learning) and students’ personalised learning, is discussed in this study to address the pedagogical problems associated with teacher-centred approaches. (Munir, Baroutian, Young, & Carter, 2018). Following this approach, students take notes during lectures, memorise content, and gain surface learning mainly to pass exams, and rarely use higher levels of cognitivism. ‘assessment for learning’ about their learning progress, is often delayed in the teacher-centred approach until summative assessment is carried out. It is shown that the student-centric approaches, such as the flipped classroom and experience-based learning can deal with the pedagogical problems associated with teacher-centred approaches (Elen, Clarebout, Leonard, & Lowyck, 2007; Hao & Lee, 2016)

Objectives

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Conclusion