Using “First Principles of Instruction” to Design Secondary School Mathematics Flipped Classroom: The Findings of Two Exploratory Studies

Abstract

Introduction Flipped Classroom is a technology-supported pedagogical innovation which has become popular in recent years. According to Bishop and Verleger (2013), flipped classroom consists of two components: (1) Direct computer-based individual instruction outside the classroom, and (2) Interactive group learning activities inside the classroom. In the out-of-class learning component, students watch instructional videos prepared by teachers. Students thus acquire some basic information before the face-to-face lesson. The in-class time is then freed up for more interactive learning activities such as collaborative problem solving and receiving teacher's individual assistance. Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight, and Arfstrom (2013) argue that flipped classroom is a feasible strategy which caters to the needs of diverse learners. For example, if students do not understand the materials presented in the video lectures, they can pause or replay the instruction videos for revision. At the same time, high ability students can skip certain parts of the video lectures to save their learning time. As for the face-to-face lessons, since the in-class time is no longer occupied by direct teaching, more time can be spent on the teacher's one-toone assistance and small-group tutoring for the less capable students (Bergmann & Sams, 2009), or problembased learning and small-group learning activities which are suitable for high ability students (Matthews & Dai, 2014). However, Hamdan et al. (2013) lament that there is a lack of empirical study that investigates the use of flipped classroom for diverse learners. In fact, most of the existing studies of flipped classroom focused on flipping a particular course (see Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Giannakos, Krogstie, & Chrisochoides, 2014; O'Flaherty & Phillips, 2015 for a review) rather than explicitly examining whether flipped classroom can benefit underperforming or high ability students. Besides the lack of studies that examines how flipped classroom may help diverse students, there are two other limitations of previous flipped classroom research. First, a majority of studies had been conducted in Western higher education sector (see Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Giannakos et al., 2014; O'Flaherty & Phillips, 2015 for a review). Very few published studies have hitherto focused on the Asian secondary school settings. Contrary to the popularity in the West, Subramaniam (2008) suggested that contemporary education approaches such as online education may not necessarily capture Asian learners' interest and engagement. Some Chinese learners' preference for teacher-centered learning, and classroom learning may adversely affect the efficacy of flipped classroom. In a traditional class, students typically learn about the subject matter through a teacher-led lecture, followed by a teacher-led activity during class time. However, students in a flipped class are required to take more responsibility for their own learning such as watching the video lectures before class, and participating in group problem-solving activities during in-class lessons. Some Asian secondary school students, being typically passive during in-class sessions, barely interacted with other students; they merely sat quietly and waited for the teacher to approach them (Nawi et al., 2015). This therefore raises several intriguing questions: How would students in a Hong Kong secondary school perceive the use of flipped classroom? Would they find the flipped classroom approach more engaging than the traditional classroom instruction method? Our present study aims to address these very questions. Second, many studies discussed what benefits can be expected from flipping the class (e.g., Fulton, 2012; Gannod, Burge, & Helmick, 2008), but fell short of defining and examining the design principles of flipped classroom (Kim, Kim, Khera, & Getman, 2014) or utilizing a conceptual framework that could guide the design of flipped classroom (O'Flaherty & Phillips, 2015). …