Flipping a college mathematics classroom: An action research project

Abstract

In this action research study, a flipped and non-flipped college-level mathematics classroom were compared. Participants in the flipped classroom watched video lessons outside of class and engaged in classwork problems during class. The non-flipped classroom consisted of a lecture then assigned classwork problems during class. Descriptive statistics revealed that learners preferred a flipped classroom to a non-flipped classroom and that the video lectures helped them learn the course material. A one-way ANCOVA on posttest showed no difference between learners in the flipped classroom and non-flipped classroom with pre-test scores as a covariate. Although independent samples t-test did not reveal statistically significant differences on several in-class examinations between the two groups, small positive effects showed in the flipped classroom students’ performance. Course evaluation of the two groups showed a small to large-size effect on five items, pertaining to this study. Learners in the flipped classroom perceived that the video lectures helped them to learn more mathematics compared to learners in the non-flipped classroom who did not use video lectures (p = .039).