Flipped Learning, a brief grounding of the research literature
Flipped Learning, a brief grounding of the research literature
I was recently challenged to show the effectiveness of
flipped learning through research by a member of leadership at my school. What
follows is a brief summary of the research that I had to hand that situates a
reader generally within the literature and opens some avenues for further
exploration. It also gives a good overview of the general direction of flipped
learning research with many recommendations of where further research needs to
be aimed to produce greater understanding of the methodology. Keep in mind this
is simply an excerpt of my current understanding, as a full-time teacher, not
currently participating in any part-time study. I am pursuing research into
flipped learning, purely as a hobby rather than any structured academic study. For
a broader overview of flipped learning in regards to adding to the research
bas, I would recommend this blog by Robert Talbert: http://rtalbert.org/what-does-the-research-say/
With that in mind, I hope that teachers interested in the
concept of flipped learning, educational technology or using instructional
video in their classroom would find this an interesting starting place and
jumping-off point for further investigation of these ideas in their own
practice. Or in a pinch, use this to justify the interest and emerging nature
of flipped learning and some of its positive findings in regard to learning
outcomes for students.
Firstly, as meta-analyses are all the rage at the moment, let
us begin with these two-literature review / meta-analysis style articles that
gives us a good aerial view of the research and a good grounding in some of the
already completed research.
The Flipped Classroom:
A Survey of the Research
This document provides a good summary of the research circa
2013, it sets out some of the pedagogical practices and ideas that underpin the
practice and allow it to be used. It is an approachable and easy to read piece
that defines key words and ideas well and establishes some of the intellectual
lineage of flipped learning. It is especially valuable for people with a
limited understanding of flipped learning in the way that it outlines key ideas
that most teachers and educational practitioners will find familiar and easy to
engage with. It focuses mostly on qualitative information (numbers) and is
therefore easy for a person wired in this way to engage with quickly and
without requiring much of an analysis of complex results.
A critical review of
flipped classroom challenges in K-12 education: possible solutions and
recommendations for future research
A very recent paper (2017) that comments on the paucity of
K-12 flipped learning research and discusses some of the issues that are
presented by this pedagogy for teacher workload and other key factors. Appendix
1 provides a summary of a number of studies and their results, whilst appendix
2 provides a brief summary of the ways that class time was being used in each
of these studies. This is useful in the way that it can be used to understand
the myriad ways that flipped learning can be used to transform the classroom
environment and the activities that take place there. It must be noted however,
that a number of the studies cited do not very closely align with flipped
learning as it is generally defined or best practice. As a result some of the
studies show less than favourable results due to a number of reasons, which I
will refer back to in a future piece of writing. It also gives a good overview
of the way that different uses of this methodology can be applied and as a
shortcut around where it would be best to begin a practice of flipped learning
for an individual or school aimed in a positive direction. In summary, the
paper shows that without looking to closely at what is or isn’t flipped
learning, all studies that purported to be flipped learning showed positive
results or no significant loss or gain (stayed comparable). Looking more
closely, those studies that made use of video in the individual space and used
group discussion or some other form of active learning in the class space
showed improvements in student’s learning outcomes. These two simple factors
being present could be used as a rough proxy for best practice and something to
be expanded upon in further research. The two aforementioned appendices also
show that deviating beyond accepted knowledge of best practice in regards to
flipped learning does not show a positive result for student outcomes.
The Impact of the Flipped Classroom
on Mathematics Concept Learning in High School
This paper is a more recent (2016) study that took a small
scale (82 participant) approach and used the traditional lecture vs flipped
learning approach. Notably, this paper used genuine high school students, aged
14-15 years, a group that many practitioners tend to presume will not complete
the pre-class work of watching videos. This study showed that this was not true
but rather showed that the FL participant group outperformed the control group
and were highly satisfied and positive towards the methodology. Notably the
study showed that the ‘low achievers’, as recognised via pre-test results, had
greater success than the control group who received conventional teaching. It
is suggested that this is due to these students with higher learning needs
receiving more attention from teachers and greater time for the deeper
discussion and engagement with mathematical problems.
The flipped classroom and cooperative
learning: Evidence from a randomised experiment
A recent study (2016) that comparing the flipped learning
classroom with lecture-based lessons. It found a 12% increase in test scores
when comparing these two methodologies, in favour of the flipped learning
classroom. The study drew its participants from undergraduate students and used
a simplistic multiple-choice style test form of testing. The sample size (235
students) is significant and indicates support for flipped learning, but also
more specifically the types of active, collaborative pedagogies that it allows
to take precedence over traditional lecture style teaching.
Optimizing Learning From Examples Using
Animated Pedagogical Agents
A laboratory-based, experimental based study (2003) that
looks specifically at the levels of knowledge retention by undergraduate
students based on the learning/teaching resource involved in the delivery of
the content. Content was presented through three forms: text only, text and
audio, or text and ‘animated agent’ (a small cartoon character who gestures and
refers to key elements of the text). I interpret this study firstly in the sense
that a teacher, known to the student will always be more effective than the
noted ‘animated agent’, as well as more knowledgeable. More simply however,
this study posits that learning through video is simply more effective than
more traditional and conventional means. Extending this concept further, this
seems to indicate that even without flipped learning being applied, but simply
replacing learning resources from text or worksheet towards instructional video
would show an improvement in knowledge retention just as was shown in this
study.
Learning from Examples:
Instructional Principles from the Worked Examples Research
This study (2000) is a very exhaustive summary of cognitive
load theory which I believe holds many connections and associations with
flipped learning. I believe it also suggests a number of practices and
understandings that should become mainstream within the practice of producing
instructional video and flipped learning. Rather than go over some of the
complex interaction between the pedagogy of flipped learning and Cognitive Load
Theory (CLT), I would suggest you look over this short summary of how these
ideas and those raised by the previous research study are applicable in this
video I made on the topic here: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=VyeUdZUaYSg
Overall, I hope this limited overview of some of the recent
research on flipped learning has shown you some of the ways that different ideas
are being applied under the umbrella of flipped learning. As well as giving you
some things to provide to interested individuals to begin their own learning
journeys into flipped learning and its applications in a variety of contexts.
If you are interested in any of these ideas please let me know, or if there is
anything that you believe here is improperly covered I would love to hear about
it.
Running Word Count: 5,389
Originally Published: https://www.iwb.net.au/research-literature-by-a-teacher/
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