The Flipped Classroom Experience

Karen PelitireSoutheastern Louisiana University

The Hyposthesis

It is hypothesized that 6th grade mathematics students participating in a flipped classroom learning model will show statistically significant increase in student achievement as evidenced by test scores.

Sample Group

91 sixth grade students ages 11 and 12.

1/3 of the sixth grade population of Prairieville Middle School- a 1 to 1 school.

Procedure

A flipped classroom was implemented to the sample group by weekly posting, on blackboard: short videos, teacher made power points, and screen casts for students to watch at home. These resources covered material not yet taught in class. The idea being that the teacher could skip the lecture part of class and move straight to activities to reinforce the learning.

Resources

Videos from Khan Academy and YouTube.

Teacher made PowerPoints. Teacher made Screen Cast through

Educreations website.

Analyzing the Data

Since the sixth grade math teachers at Prairieville Middle School all administer common assessments, it was easy to make a comparison between the test scores of the control group (traditional classroom model) and the test group (flipped classroom model).

Unit 1 Test: 5 flipped lessons

51.65% of the test group mastered the skills tested while only 40.21% of the control group mastered the skills tested.

Quarter 1 Benchmark Test: 5 flipped lessons

48.35% of the test group mastered skills tested while only 39.38% of the control group mastered the skills tested.

*Only 23.74% of the district mastered the skills tested.

Unit 2 Test: 3 flipped lessons

38.89% of the test group mastered the skills taught while only 26.91% of the control group mastered the skills taught.

Unit 3 Quiz: 4 flipped lessons

52.87% of the test group mastered the skills taught while only 32.51 % of the control group mastered the skills taught.

One more piece of data to analyze

Wow! A flipped classroom model is the way to go, or is it…

Revealing Piece of Data

Revealing Piece of Data

As you can see from the last slide when test averages were compared to 5th grade iLeap scores the results were surprising.

The percentage of students scoring in the high category increased but so did the percentage of students scoring in the low medium and low categories, significantly.

So what’s going on here?

Teacher observations were made and journaled throughout the study and here are the findings:

Low performing students did NOT CONSISTENTLY complete their video homework.

On the other hand, all of the high performing students did CONSISTENLY complete their video homework.

Is a flipped classroom model effective for a sixth grader?

14 resources, 11 math skills, and 13 weeks later the answer to the above question is yes and no.For the self motivated student with a high work ethic, a flipped classroom model appears to work and work well. This brings up the question, is a sixth grader mature enough to handle independent, student centered learning? It appears from this study that maybe not all sixth graders are ready for the flipped classroom model. It must be noted here that while observing students who watched the videos in class, a “disconnect” was observed by the teacher in some of the students. These students appeared to learn only from a live teacher.

Will this classroom teacher continue to flip her classroom? Survey says…

YES!

Survey Results

63% of the students say that they feel the video homework helped them to understand the concepts it taught.

57% say that they prefer learning from a video before coming to class.

40% say they referenced the videos to help with homework or study for a test.

46% say they feel like they performed better on tests because they watched the videos.

Survey Results Continued

57% of the students said they would like to see their teacher use more video homework in the future.

In conclusion, it appears that a modified version of a flipped classroom model will be beneficial to a sixth grade math class where videos are made available for students, but as supplement to classroom lectures.

Study Blunders

This study got off to a rough start because of all things, technological issues.

Many of the iPads could not connect to wifi at student’s homes- still an issue now but better.

And then for some who could actually connect their home wifi, Blackboard blocked Khan Academy and YouTube videos on their iPads so… that’s when Educreations came in to use since the iPads had the Educreations app installed on them.

Students who did not watch videos at home had to watch in class and got a late start on the practice sessions.

Pros vs Cons of Flipped Classroom

PROS CONS

STUDENT CENTERED LEARNING INSTEAD OF TEACHER CENTERED

TECHNOLOGICAL ISSUES

MORE TIME FOR ENGAGING PRACTICE WITH SKILLS INSTEAD OF LECTURES

TIME CONSUMING FOR TEACHER

TEACHER EASILY ACCESSIBLE TO STUDENT DURING PRACTICE

IT’S SUCCESS DEPENDS ON A STUDENT’S WORK ETHIC

STUDENT ALWAYS ABLE TO ACCESS VIDEO FOR REFERENCE

DOUBLE WORK FOR TEACHER WHEN STUDENTS DON’T OR ARE NOT ABLE TO VIEW VIDEOS.

ABSENT STUDENTS ALWAYS HAVE LECTURE AVAILABLE TO THEM

MORE WORK FOR TEACHER AT HOME

STUDENTS CAN RECEIVE A LECTURE WHEN TEACHER NEEDS TO BE OUT

SOME STUDENTS MAY HAVE A “DISCONNECT” WHEN LISTENING TO A VIDEO VS A LIVE TEACHER.