FLIPPED TEACHING IN A COLLEGE
ALGEBRA CLASSROOM –
AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
Sean Moroney
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Dept. of Educational Technology
ETEC 690 Master’s Project
FLIPPED TEACHING
• Before class, the student accesses online instructional
material
• The instructor then can move away from a traditional
lecture style into a more free-form and interactive
teaching style
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
• When: January-February 2013
• Where: Two College Algebra classrooms in two different
Colleges on Oahu, Hawai’i.
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
• The College Algebra Classes:
• Core curriculum courses
• 10 weekly meetings
• 4 hours each
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
• The Students:
• Mostly members of the military and their dependents
• Most employed full-time
• Many with family obligations
• Many carrying more than one course
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
• The Instructor:
• An Adjunct Faculty Member of both Colleges
• Many years of experience teaching these and other
subjects in this type of environment
• A candidate for the Master’s Degree in Educational
technology
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
• Why?
• Instructor Observations:
• Prevalent Math Anxiety
• Math courses are postponed to end of program
• Fatigue and Boredom
• Disinterest in the subject
STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
• Will changing the structure of the class change the
learning?
• Somehow, jazz up
• the dynamics!
LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
• The issue of grade improvement with altered teaching
methods was not addressed
• The study focused on:
• How students responded to a changed teaching
style
• How the instructor perceived the change
• How to design effective action research
THEORY UNDERLYING THE STUDY
• Educational theories indicate:
• Learning is facilitated by:
• bringing past knowledge together with new
experience.
• collaborative efforts, discussions, and
interactions between learners.
THEORY UNDERLYING THE STUDY
• Past studies of flipped teaching have shown:
• Its use effectively increases the amount of class
time available
• With the prior exposure to the new material, the
instructor needs less time for didactic instruction
APPLICATION OF THEORY TO THE STUDY
• To provide prior knowledge on which to build, existing
relevant instructional materials on the internet were
identified
• Other related materials were generated de novo
APPLICATION OF THEORY TO THE STUDY
• The students were told to review the internet materials
before class
• Teamwork on problems provided in class provided the
necessary social interactions
METHODS
• In the Winter Quarter of 2013, two College Algebra
classes offered by two different Colleges with the same
Instructor were selected as the sites for this study
METHODS
• Both courses covered similar topics
• The topic of radicals was selected for flipped
teaching
• The topics before and after radicals were covered using
the traditional lecturing style.
RADICALS
METHODS
• In each course, the subject of radicals was taught in
two class sessions of 4 hours each.
• The two classes are referred to as C1 and C2
METHODS
• The C1 students attended a College that was 75%
military and 25% civilian.
• The C2 students attended a College that was 100%
military.
METHODS
C1 and C2 - Gender
12
11
Female
10
9
Male
8
6
10
Female
7
Male
4
2
0
C1
C2
METHODS
C1 and C2 - Age
12
11
C1
10
8
6
7
7
C2
C2
4
2
0
0
2
2
2
2
C2
C1
C1
C2
Under 20
21-30
31-40
41-50
METHODS
C1 and C2 - Military Status
14
13
Not
Active
Military
12
10
12
Active
Military
8
6
4
7
Not
Active
Military
5
Active
Military
2
0
C1
C2
METHODS
C1 and C2 - Previous Math Course
14
12
12
C1
10
8
6
4
7
C2
7
C2
4
C2
2
2
C1
0
0
< 1 year ago
1 – 4 years ago
2
C1
1
C1
1
C2
1
C1
5 – 8 years ago 9 – 15 years ago 15 - 20 years ago
METHODS
(C1+C2) Math Skills
Weak
Moderate
18
16
16
Strong
17
15
14
12
10
12
11
10
11
10
9
8
6
4
2
0
General Math
Arithmetic
Algebra
METHODS
• Instructional material was provided on Internet one
week prior to class
• Students accessed the material during that week
• Class began with quiz to see whether material was
accessed
• Instructor did brief review of topic
• Teams formed and did problems.
METHODS
• New York (CNN). At John F. Kennedy International
Airport today, a Caucasian male (later discovered to be
a high school mathematics teacher) was arrested trying
to board a flight while in possession of a compass, a
protractor and a graphical calculator.
• According to law enforcement officials, he is believed to
have ties to the Al-Gebra network. He will be charged
with carrying weapons of math instruction.
METHODS
• The Instructional Materials:
• Links to Khan Academy videos on the weekly
subject matter were provided via email
• Links to Instructor-produced Powerpoint Movies on
YouTube were also provided via email
KHAN ACADEMY SCREENSHOT
METHODS – YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT
METHODS
• In each of the two classes:
• The students formed teams consisting of 3-4
members each.
• In each class hour, a problem set was provided to
the teams.
• As these were completed, team members show their
solutions on the whiteboard.
• A more challenging problem for all wrapped up the
hour.
METHODS
• This hourly cycle was done 3 times in each class.
• The second of the two classes was handled in the
same manner as the first.
METHODS
• In all of the classes, the instructor circulated and
worked individually with the teams.
• In the class following the second class, an anonymous
survey was provided to the students.
• Several students were interviewed to get personalized
feedback.
RESULTS
• Did they follow instructions during the week before?
• The first Quiz indicated that about 1/3 did the prior
work.
• The second Quiz indicated about 2/3 did the prior work.
RESULTS
(C1+C2) SELF-REPORT ON DOING PRIOR WORK
30
26
25
25
>50% Done
>50% Done
20
15
10
10
10
<50% Done
<50% Done
5
0
Traditional Class
Flipped Class
RESULTS
16
14
12
(C1+C2) PREFERENCE FOR TEACHING STYLE
15
14
Trad
12
Trad
15
Flip
Flip
10
10
8
8
Flip
Trad
6
4
2
0
Like
Neutral
Dislike
RESULTS
(C1+C2) EXPECTED MATH RETENTION > 1 YEAR
Traditional Teaching
18
16
16
15
Flipped Teaching
17
14
12
11
10
9
8
6
6
4
2
0
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
RESULTS
(C1+C2) VALUATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL COMPONENTS
Good
20
Neutral
Poor
19
19
18
17
16
14
12
14
12
12
10
8
6
8
6
4
3
2
0
PowerPoint Movies
Khan Academy
Class Teamwork
SURVEY COMMENTS
• “I feel traditional and flip teaching go hand in hand.”
• “Teaching both ways at the same time will help the
students . . ., because everyone is familiar with
assignment and subjects.”
• “The flip teaching would be great for online students,
but I prefer the traditional style.”
INTERVIEW COMMENTS
• “A good combination of the two. It gives a little change
of pace and it doesn’t get very redundant. . . . this will
get a little classroom interaction and helps you out.”
• “Sometimes you have to go back the other way just to
get that structure (traditional) and get the point out and
then you could practice the other way.”
SUMMARY OF COMMENTS
• The Flipped Teaching didn’t earn rave reviews in this
class.
• Most of the comments leaned toward an integration of
the Flipped Method with the Traditional Method.
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• The teams, with few exceptions, appeared to be
strongly engaged in the problem-solving activities
• There were a few unsolicited comments during the
classes that the Flipped Method was enjoyable
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• Third-party materials, such as Khan Academy, have
advantages in that they are already prepared and are
accessible.
• Stylistically, though, they may be at some variance with
the content of the course and the instructor’s sequence
of presentation.
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• Materials prepared by the instructor will have a greater
congruence with the course content.
• The instructor’s voice and delivery style can help the
student relate to the material.
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• The PowerPoint videos used here were first-generation
• It’s possible that refinements, based on use and
feedback, could give rise to better and more effective
products
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• In retrospect, a weakness of this project is that it was
too short
• The Flipped Teaching method used here should
probably have begun from Day One of the course
INSTRUCTOR OBSERVATIONS
• Compliance with the requirements of previewing the
course materials was a more major problem than was
anticipated during the planning stages of the Project
• Without the student previews, the class would have to
default to a more traditional style of teaching to get the
subject matter covered
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• Especially in the first Flipped class, the Instructor felt
that the subject review was more of a first-time
exposure
INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
• While Flipped Teaching wasn’t apparently thought of as
way better than the traditional style, the students
seemed to enjoy and appreciate the variety
• Some variation of the procedure here is in order for
future studies of this type
QUESTIONS?
???