Exploring student perceptions, learning outcome and gender differences in a flipped mathematics course

The flipped classroom approach has recently gained prominence in education. However, a review of previous studies shows that the relationship associated with gender difference, student perceptions and learning outcomes has still remained unexplored, and there has been little discussion regarding flipped classroom environment. To fill this gap, this study aimed to provide a further study by developing an empirical study, extending perspectives of research for flipped classroom in education. This study was conducted to respond and investigate two main student perceptions in a flipped precalculus course, namely, situational interest and course satisfaction. By the self-developed perception measures, situational interest contained feeling, value and topic interest (three factors), while course satisfaction contained course design, system quality, course arrangement and online assessment (four factors). To respectively determine factors on final grades, we assessed the predicting power among those factors. Students’ feedback and gender differences were also evaluated to provide a holistic profile of this flipped course. Results showed that feelings predict the final grades in males, while course design predicts the final grades in females. Moreover, the result also showed that even if females and males showed different topic interest in this course, they performed equally well. Some suggestions to effectively implement a flipped course were also provided from students’ feedback. The implications of the results were provided for instructors’ guidance in implementing flipped classroom. Finally, the study concluded that students’ perceptions may be considered as motivational strategies in teaching and learning process to involve students in academic activities for improving their grades in flipped course. Introduction A flipped classroom is a classroom inverting the traditional teaching methods which were done by teachers offering lectures in the classroom. For example, Lage, Platt and Treglia (2000) have tried a teaching model which allows events that have traditionally taken place inside the classroom, now taken place outside the classroom and vice versa in an introductory economics course. This British Journal of Educational Technology (2015) doi:10.1111/bjet.12278 © 2015 British Educational Research Association kind of teaching was called “inverted classroom.” Lage and Platt (2000) claimed that Internet allows the instructors to invert the classroom without sacrificing content coverage, and then, a larger program of teaching might match more learning styles for diverse students’ need. Moreover, just as Forsey, Low and Glance (2013) claimed, “It is a model committed to shifting the face-to-face engagement between students and teachers away from lectures to various forms of symposia actively engaging students in processes of discovery and consolidation of knowledge.” An inverted (or flipped) classroom is a teaching model (from teachers’ points of view) or a learning model (from students’ points of view) which can have free classroom time for learneroriented activities such as active and problem-based learning, while content delivery includes video lectures watching outside of the classroom (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Kim, Kim, Khera & Getman, 2014; Mason, Shuman & Cook, 2013). In many respects the flipped classroom is not a new creation. In some traditional classroom-based teaching approaches, teachers expect students to come to class prepared so that they can carry out group discussion in the classroom. With the rapid development of digital technology as well as learning resource (eg, Khan Academy), digital multimedia and instructional technology facilitate the implementation of flipped classroom instruction. As a result, much more teachers are currently trying such models of flipped teaching, including teachers in Taiwan (Chen, Wang & Chen, 2014; Chua & Lateef, 2014; Yarbro, Arfstrom, McKnight & McKnight, 2014). The research on flipped classroom is given increasing attention in field of education (Goodwin & Miller, 2013; Hamdan, McKnight, McKnight & Arfstrom, 2013). Appreciation of the flipped classroom approach has emerged in the last decade (Bishop & Verleger, 2013; Chua & Lateef, 2014; Love, Hodge, Grandgenett & Swift, 2014; Missildine, Fountain, Summers & Gosselin, 2013; Yarbro et al, 2014). Although students have positive perception of flipped classroom and produce better learning outcomes than traditional instruction (Baepler et al, 2014; Berrett, 2012; Butt, 2014; Kong, 2014; Pierce & Fox, 2012), the relationship between students’ perception of flipped classroom and learning outcome still remains open for discussion. In addition, gender may be one of many factors that reflected learners’ perceptions on the usefulness of multimedia instruction (Wehrwein, Lujan & DiCarlo, 2007). It has also shown that gender plays a vital role affecting the perception of students in different learning environments (Huang, Hood & Yoo, 2013; Yau & Cheng, 2012). Therefore, exploration of gender difference may also provide more insights in Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic • Flipped classroom might match various learning styles. • Comparing flipped classroom to traditional classroom. • Learners’ perceptions in a blended learning. What this paper adds • Situational interest in a flipped course. • Course satisfaction in a flipped course. • Gender difference in a flipped course. Implications for practice and policy • Online assessment should meet students’ needs. • Classroom time should be carefully designed. • Gender difference exists in the relationship between learning outcome and course perceptions. 2 British Journal of Educational Technology © 2015 British Educational Research Association response to flipped classroom approach. To further examine the effect of gender difference in relation to flipped classroom environment, this study also employed gender difference as a variable to expand the scope of research, attempting to offer useful suggestions for educators eventually benefit students. Here, we will first present the general concepts showing in students’ feedback for this course, and then we will emphasize the relationship between final grades and situational interest as well as course satisfaction. Gender differences will also be explored for comparative analysis. This study provides a better understanding of implementing a flipped course and we anticipate that it will have some suggestions for those who plan to implement similar flipped courses.