Flipped classrooms to enhance postgraduate students’ research skills in preparing a research proposal

ABSTRACT

The study examines the impact of flipped classrooms (FC) in enhancing postgraduate students’ research skills in preparing a research proposal (RP). Postgraduate students in the College of Education at King Saud University were enrolled in a special course called ‘Independent Study’ that specialises in helping students prepare an RP. A class of eight students were taught this course using the FC strategy. The students took a test in research skills both before and after the course, and were administered a questionnaire to understand their attitude towards the FC strategy. It was found that students’ relevant research skills improved between the pre-test and post-test, indicating that the FC was an appropriate teaching strategy. Theoretically, the study supports the FC strategy by highlighting its role in enhancing students’ learning and in helping students overcome obstacles faced during their work preparing an RP, such as getting enough practice, teacher supervision, and feedback.

KEYWORDS:

• Research proposal
• research skills
• flipped classroom
• flipped learning
• postgraduate students

Acknowledgments

The researcher would like to thank the Research Centre for the Humanities at the Deanship of Scientific Research at KSU for supporting and funding this research project as part of “The Initiative of Enhancing Publication in the Database of Web of Science – ISI - in Humanities Departments” No. (IEPDWSHD-1-18-04).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Centre for the Humanities at the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Saud University [No. IEPDWSHD_1_18_04].

Notes on contributors

Nada J. Alsaleh

Nada J. Alsaleh is an assistant professor at the Instructional Technology Department at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and currently the Vice Dean of the female department. She holds a PhD in E-learning and Learning Technology by the University of Leicester in United Kingdom. Her areas of interest and research are the instructional design, educational technology and teaching methods. She has taught a number of courses on the field of Computer Since and Educational Technology in the public schools and King Saud University.