Students’ perspectives on the functionality of the flipped classroom approach in master’s thesis seminar

Abstract

Research studies are an important part of educational sciences curricula in Finland. However, these studies are challenging to conduct, given the teacher-led activities, lack of social presence, engagement, collaborative working with and time management of students, and large-entity writing process management comprising this environment. Here, our aim was to develop a program of master’s thesis seminar higher education pedagogy that employed a flipped classroom (FC) approach. While the FC approach has been investigated in several contexts of higher education, it has only been minimally explored in the master’s thesis seminar. Participating students’ views and mixed-methods were used. Based on the quantitative results, students considered guidance and satisfaction high, and difficulty low. Moreover, the FC approach was seen as well-suited to, and preferred by, the students, while not being significantly straining. Based on the qualitative and mixed-methods results, FC was seen as functional, goal-oriented, and flexible, and team spirit and supervisor’s presence were considered to be positive. However, negative experiences were also identified, such as the amount of peer feedback possibilities and time usage. The results, discussion, limitations, and implications are presented in terms of research-based development work on FC approach-grounded master’s thesis seminars in higher education.