Integrating 21st Century Skills in

Flipped EFL ClassroomsKerry Pusey, Evelyn Doman, and Marie Webb

University of MacauEnglish Language Centre

What is a “flipped classroom?” Motivation for study Description of the study Video examples Discussion Conclusions, implications, and

recommendations

Overview of Presentation

An inverse classroom All homework is done in class; all classwork

is done at home

What is a “Flipped Classroom?”

Role of technology at our institution Popular discourse on flipping Literature in flipped research is lacking and

even less in the ESL/EFL context Few studies are actual experimental or

quasi-experimental studies (Bishop & Verleger, 2013)

Motivation for the Study

A flipped class allows ◦ more time for student engagement with materials◦ teacher to answer more questions◦ online materials and videos to be accessed 24/7◦ more individualized instruction

Benefits of Flipping

A university in Macao, China High-intermediate integrated skills course Required General Education English course Experimental group (flipped): 4 classes Control group (non-flipped): 2 classes 4 different teachers

The Present Study

How we Used Technology to Flip

For this study, the following research questions were addressed:

RQ1: Do students prefer flipped over traditional (i.e., non-flipped) classes?

RQ2: Which teaching methods do students believe are more effective for learning?

Research Questions

RQ3: What are students attitudes towards using online materials?

RQ4: How does flipping the EFL classroom change the dynamics of teacher-student and student-student interaction?

Research Questions (con’t)

All first or second year students Experimental group: N=69 Control group: N=47 94% from Macao or Mainland China

Methods: Participants

Participants: Demographics at a Glance

Class Number of

Students

Average Age

GenderM/F

Macau Mainland China

Hong Kong

Taiwan Portugal Canada

Flipped 

20 18 11/9 2 17 0 0 0 1

Front-Flipped

15 19 5/10 8 7 0 0 0 0

Back-Flipped

34 18 11/23 19 14 0 1 0 0

Non-Flipped

47 19 10/37 15 25 4 0 3 0

                   

Total 116 18.5 37/79 40% 54% 2.5% .05% 2.5% .05%

The data for this study consisted of:

Survey 1 at midterm Survey 2 at end of course

◦ Surveys developed by teachers/researchers◦ Administered online (through Survey Monkey)

Classroom observations Teachers’ reflections

Data Collection

Initially planned to flip entire classes, but later decided to only flip certain modules (for practical reasons)

Modules selected based on predicted amount of teacher-fronted instruction required

Other Considerations for Study

Over time, flipped students were satisfied with the flipped approach (RQ1).

Results

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

I prefer watching video lessons at home (such as the annotation video) rather than live teacher instruction in class.

Non-flipped survey 2Non-flipped survey 1Flipped Survey 2Flipped Survey 1

Students believed teacher-centered instruction was most effective for learning. (RQ2).

Results (con’t)

Your teachers instruction in class

The online videos provided

nuetral (no preference)

other

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Which do you prefer? Your teachers instruction in class or the online

videos provided?

Unflipped Flipped

Students in the flipped classes wanted more online instruction than non-flipped (RQ3).

Results (con’t)

A lot more online instruction before class

More online instruction before class

The amount is ok

Less online instruction before class

A lot less online instrution before class

No online instruction before class

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Would you like to have more online in-struction before each class (for example

short lectures, videos, PPTs)?

Non-flippedFlipped

More student responsibility, less teacher instruction in-class. More student-student interaction (RQ4).

Results (con’t)

Strongly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strongly Disagree

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

My English classroom provides me more opportunity than my other classes to communicate with other

students.

UnflippedFlipped

Over time students in the flipped classes became more comfortable with online instruction.

Discussion

Most students enjoyed using Moodle to submit online assignments and to take quizzes/tests

Discussion (con’t)

Strogly Agree

Agree

Neutral

Disagree

Strogly Disagree

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

I like submitting assignments, taking quizzes, and receiv-ing teacher feedback online through Moodle.

Non-flippedFlipped

Here is 1 video sample of what our flipped classrooms looked like.

Video Examples

More preparation time for the teacher Students must be trained to use new

technology Students may initially feel that they have

more work outside of class Technical problems are common Availability of resources

Drawbacks of Flipping

“Instructional support materials that will be used by students remotely (or online) should be well thought out, designed and prepared well in advance of the start of a semester.” ◦ Teacher from a flipped classroom

“I could tell that the students weren’t interested in the flipped model initially. However, after the 7th week I began to see a change in my students’ attitudes.”◦ Teacher from a flipped classroom

“During the end of the semester especially, I really wished a lot of the assignments (descriptions, rubrics and grading criteria, examples of model work, etc.) were explained online (i.e., “flipped”) in order to save class time.”◦ Teacher from a non-flipped classroom

Teacher Reflections

Recommendations Use technology purposefully Don’t feel obligated to flip entire class Take it one step at a time when flipping

◦ Consider how students respond, and adjust lessons accordingly

Collaborate and recycle/reuse content whenever possible

1. Baranovic, K. 2013. Flipping the First-Year Composition Classroom: Slouching Toward the Pedagogically Hip. 2. Berrett, D. 2012. How “Flipping” the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review 78(1), 36-41.3. Bishop & Verleger, 2013.The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the Research. 120th American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, June 23-26. 3. Butt, A. 2014. Student Views on the Use of a Flipped Classroom Approach : evidence from Australia. Business Education & Accreditation, 6 (1), 33-43. 5. Hughes, H. 2012. Introduction to Flipping the College Classroom. In T. Amiel & B. Wilson (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2012 (pp. 2434-2438).  

References