Understanding what determines university students’ behavioral engagement in a group-based flipped learning context

Abstract

Flipped learning emphasizes substantial peer interaction, and most teachers use groups for discussions or to assign tasks. The purpose of this study was to develop and test a student behavioral engagement model in a group-based flipped learning context by drawing on expectancy-value theory (EVT) and an interactional psychology perspective. Since interactional psychology considers human behavior a function of interaction between an individual and an encountered situation, we developed and tested a research model to explore interactions between the subjective (interest and utility) value of courses, expectancy beliefs (perceived task difficulty), and a group factor (group peer interaction) and their association with students’ behavioral engagement in a group-based flipped learning context. Based on data from a survey of 276 students in 78 groups in 8 classes of 2 management courses at a Taiwanese university, we used moderated multiple regression (MMR) to examine the study hypotheses. The results showed that (1) interest value and utility value were positively associated with students’ behavioral engagement, (2) the positive association between interest value and students’ behavioral engagement was weak under conditions of high perceived task difficulty, (3) a negative linear relationship existed between perceived task difficulty and students’ behavioral engagement, and (4) group peer interaction was positively associated with students’ behavioral engagement. Additionally, group peer interaction moderated the nonlinear relationship between perceived task difficulty and students’ behavioral engagement, in that, when group peer interaction was high and perceived task difficulty was moderate, students’ behavioral engagement was high, and (5) the positive association between utility value and students’ behavioral engagement was strong under conditions of high group peer interaction. Based on the findings, we provide suggestions for teachers intending to use group-based flipped learning.