The Effect of Implementing Flipped Classrooms on Iranian Junior High School Students' Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of implementing flipped classrooms on Iranian junior high school students' reading comprehension. To this end, 50 Iranian pre-intermediate students were choosen and randomly assigned into two equal groups; one experimental group (flipped classroom) and one control group (traditional classroom). After that, both groups were pretested through a reading comprehension test. Then, the researchers put the respondents of the experimental group in a flipped classroom. The flipped classroom was equipped with Internet, computer and projector. The students were required to read each text before coming the class and discuss it with their classmates. On the other hand, the control group was taught in the traditional classroom. Before teaching each text, the researchers provided background knowledge for the control group and after teaching each text, the students were required to answer some questions related to the text. The whole treatment lasted 8 sessions of 50 minutes. In the last session, the post-test of reading comprehension was administered. The results of paired and independent samples t-tests indicated that there was a significant difference between the post-tests of the experimental and the control groups. The findings revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group (p < .05) on the post-test.