The Flipped Classroom Approach: A Review of Cognitive Styles and Academic Performances.

Abstract

There has beena surge in the efforts to efficiently improve students' academic performance recently such that their depth of learning as well as their academic attainment is elevated. The identification of the needs and requirements of students is imperative for this to materialize.The classroom setting differs around the globe, with several factors affecting how teaching and learning are conducted. Versatile cognitive preferences amongstudents also play a unique role in the way they acquire education. Active learning is a strategy that challenges the traditional teacher-centered paradigm. One such technique in active learning involves the "flipped classroom," also called "inverted classroom." The flipped classroom has been introducedas a novel educational technique in numerous areas of learning and has proven to have a more favorable influence. The concept of the flipped classroom is relatively novel in this regard. The idea and application of flipped classrooms and their effect on the academic performance of students with different cognitive styles have been studied by many researchers. Didactic lectures usually take a back seat (as supportive videos) to facilitate student learning in this format. This review aims to examine the mechanisms through which the flipped classroom approach affects the two cognitive styles: field-dependent and field-independent. The online component of the flipped classroom favors the field-independent students and helps them perform better through an in-class session as compared to the field-dependent students. The review further discusses the benefits of the flipped classroom for both field-dependent and field-independent students.