Pedagogical change for training teachers: Adapted flipped classroom approach

Abstract

This pilot quasi-experimental project examines the effectiveness of an adapted flipped classroom approach for the teaching of 2 teacher education courses over a semester of 13 weeks. Both the experimental and control groups would be matched at programme level. The control group would be two comparable classes not using the flipped classroom approach but using the didactic or traditional approach of teaching. The flipped classroom approach is also known as the Thayer Method or the inverted classroom or reverse teaching. It involves interactive student-centred engagement pedagogy with individualised online learning before the course. In the adapted flipped classroom, additional guiding questions and power-point slides would be deployed. Students learn content online through e-worksheets and guided discovery before face-to-face classroom time. Students worked through activities, watched videos, navigate websites, read up on articles and answered questions posed to them in the lesson worksheets. In class, students would share their prior learning with each other and they would be encouraged to ask questions of each other and with the tutor. Concepts, theories, controversies and ambiguities will be discussed with the aid of power-point slides. The students in the control group would receive lectures through power-point slides during class time, and learning activities would be conducted. Students in the control group would have no pre-lesson learning activities. The effectiveness of the flipped classroom lessons will be assessed through newly developed surveys, focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews of participants in the experimental and control groups. Results will be analysed using paired sample t tests, ANCOVA and thematic analyses. Findings will enable the lecturers to review and re-design the flipped classroom lessons and thus make evidence based pedagogical changes for the following semester.