Students’ attitude and academic achievement in a flipped classroom

Abstract

A quasi non-equivalent, non-randomized factorial design, examined Chemistry students' attitudes towards chemistry and academic achievement in second year Bachelor of Education students taught with the flipped classroom strategy. In the study of 100 students, a pre-attitude test of 30-items questionnaire was apportioned to ascertained students' attitude towards chemistry. Pre-test was also apportioned to the control and experimental group. This was followed by teaching using the flipped classroom strategy for experimental group and the control group was taught using the traditional approach. Thereafter, students in the experimental group wrote a post attitude test. A post-test was administered to both experimental and control group. The result of the post-attitude showed a significantly higher mean when compared to the pre attitude score. The result of the analysis using sample t-test showed students having a positive attitude towards chemistry, when taught using flipped classroom. The study also sought to find out the academic achievement of students taught with and without the flipped classroom strategy. Findings from the investigation of academic achievement revealed that students’ academic achievement was significantly higher than those in the conventional group. The implications of these findings are that the flipped classroom strategy could improve attitude of students towards chemistry, thereby enhancing their academic achievement. This is so as students can play the lesson videos again and again at the comfort of their homes for mastery of concept in their lesson. The result of this study is especially relevant to the learning and teaching of chemistry in secondary and tertiary institutions in developing nations, Nigeria inclusive. This is so as the teacher per student ratio is high such that the teacher cannot carry every student along in the class within the short period provided.