How the number of lessons flipped influence the overall learning effectiveness and the perceptions of flipped learning experiences?

ABSTRACT

The flipped classroom approach is increasingly popular. The effectiveness of the flipped classroom is promising, yet there is little consensus on whether and how varying the number of flipped lessons influences the overall course effectiveness and the affective perceptions of flipped learning. This is important because of the potential impacts on students, teaching staff, and institutional-supporting staff when increasing the number of flipped lessons in a course. The present project collected 465 valid responses from university students who attended courses with varying numbers of flipped lessons in five different government-funded universities. Across different academic disciplines, results converged to identify that students learning in a course that flipped 40–50% of lessons showed the highest learning outcomes in terms of interpersonal and communication skills, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as feeling the most positive towards their flipped learning experiences. Our findings not only increase the understanding of the flipped classroom instructional strategy but also provide practical suggestions in course design and support, so as to maximize the benefits of the flipped classroom instructional strategy.

KEYWORDS:

• Flipped classroom
• learning outcomes
• learning experiences
• generic skills
• affective outcomes
• number of lessons in flipped learning

Acknowledgements

This project is supported in part by the University Grants Committee Funding Scheme for Teaching and Learning Related Proposals (2016–2019 Triennium). The authors would like to thank Mr Bernado Wong Yuk Wang, Ms Carmen Lau, and Ms Man Tsang Yuen Man from the Chinese University of Hong Kong; Dr Crusher Wong and Ms Angel Lu from City University of Hong Kong; Dr Cheung Ka Luen and Ms Rebecca Lin Xiaoying from the Education University of Hong Kong; Dr Theresa Kwong and Dr Isaac Chan Chi Fai from Hong Kong Baptist University; and Dr Kevin Chan, Mr George Cheung and Mr Cypher Au Yeung from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for their efforts in recruiting the teachers and collecting data. The authors also wish to thank the teachers and students for their contribution to this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors).

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported in part by the University Grants Committee Funding Scheme for Teaching and Learning Related Proposals (2016–2019 Triennium) awarded to the second author by the University Grants Committee.

Notes on contributors

Hilary Ka Yan Ng

Dr Hilary Ka Yan Ng is a researcher at the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her current research interest centers on enriching student learning experiences through flipping the classroom, as well as the associated impacts on students learning outcomes and feelings towards flipped learning experiences. With her background in Psychology and knowledge in pedagogical philosophies, she intends to continue to contribute to the redesigning of teaching and learning process across different technology-enriched learning environments in different cultures, including learning analytics and robotics learning.

Paul Lam

Dr Paul Lai Chuen Lam is an associate professor at the Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has extensive interest and experience in teaching and learning principles, case-based teaching and learning, web-assisted teaching and learning, and evaluation of eLearning and mLearning. He also has experience in designing educational tools. uReply (http://web.ureply.mobi) is a classroom student response system developed under his supervision.