Innovative Pedagogy and Design-Based Research on Flipped Learning in Higher Education

Assessing the effectiveness of flipped classroom teaching-learning method among undergraduate medical students at gondar university, college of medicine and health sciences: an interventional study

INTRODUCTION

The flipped classroom teaching-learning method has been increasingly adopted in higher education to enhance student-centered learning. Despite its growing popularity, limited evidence exists regarding its effectiveness in medical education in Ethiopia. This study aimed to assess the impact of the flipped classroom method on academic performance, student engagement, and satisfaction among undergraduate medical students at Gondar University, College of Medicine and Health Science.

METHODS

A quasi-experimental study was conducted involving 100 s-year undergraduate medical students, divided into two groups: the flipped classroom group (n = 50) and the traditional lecture-based group (n = 50). The flipped classroom group received online instructional materials before class, while classroom sessions focused on interactive activities. The traditional lecture-based group attended conventional lectures followed by homework assignments. Data were collected using pre- and post-intervention tests to measure academic performance, the Student Engagement Scale to gauge engagement, and a validated questionnaire to assess student satisfaction. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25, with descriptive statistics, paired t-tests, independent t-tests, and Chi-square tests employed to interpret the findings.

RESULTS

The flipped classroom group demonstrated a significant improvement in academic performance, with mean pre-test and post-test scores of 65.2 ± 8.1 and 78.6 ± 6.9, respectively. In contrast, the traditional lecture-based group had pre-test and post-test mean scores of 62.8 ± 7.5 and 74.2 ± 8.3, respectively. Additionally, the flipped classroom group showed higher levels of student engagement mean scores of 4.5 ± 0.8 and satisfaction mean scores of 4.2 ± 0.7 compared to the traditional lecture-based group, which had engagement mean scores of 3.8 ± 0.6 and satisfaction mean scores of 3.9 ± 0.5. Chi-square tests showed a statistically significant association between the teaching method and both pass/fail rates and participation in activities, but not a significant association with gender distribution.

CONCLUSION

The flipped classroom approach proves to be a superior teaching method, promoting better academic outcomes and greater student engagement and satisfaction. This study adds to the growing body of evidence advocating for the implementation of flipped classrooms in medical education.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Not applicable.

Integration of Shangshan culture into the STEAM curriculum and teaching: results of an interview-based study

Introduction

Interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) courses are a popular trend in international education than can help inculcate creativity in students. Although STEAM courses have been widely promoted in China, they are generally unsustainable because they are merely imitations of European and American courses and lack Chinese humanistic factors; a close integration between disciplinary ideas and thinking levels is also lacking. C-STEAM, which is designed to pass down China's culture, is a form of STEAM education with local Chinese characteristics that are focused on integrating interdisciplinary knowledge with the thought process oriented toward cultural heritage.

Methods

In this study, an innovative higher vocational college course with C-STEAM interdisciplinary principles was constructed, with art and design as the framework, and with the integration of Chinese local culture. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to sample 12 learners from a total of 90 students in the experimental class of the C-STEAM course. The study aimed to provide a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of taking a Packaging Design course combined with C-STEAM from multiple perspectives. After the interviews, based on the BAO model, coding statistics and thematic analysis were conducted to understand the learners' beliefs, actions, and outcomes after taking the course, and their plans for acquiring C-STEAM interdisciplinary knowledge and learning Chinese local culture.

Results

The integration of the Shangshan culture () into the Packaging Design course proved the importance and significance of adding C-STEAM to the art design course, which helped us understand the specific feelings of students after completing the course and gain a deeper understanding of the changes in their knowledge and skills and their learning effects.

Discussion

Integrating C-STEAM education into courses related to art and design is highly warranted to encourage students to apply their interdisciplinary knowledge to artistic exploration and creation. Moreover, to effectively develop a curriculum system with local characteristics, teachers should provide more opportunities for students to explore and learn C-STEAM in the future, and integrate multiple elements into their teaching. In general, a cultural perspective-based interdisciplinary education helps facilitate the creative transformation of traditional Chinese culture.

Constructing a critical thinking evaluation framework for college students majoring in the humanities

Introduction

Education for sustainable development (ESD) has focused on the promotion of sustainable thinking skills, capacities, or abilities for learners of different educational stages. Critical thinking (CT) plays an important role in the lifelong development of college students, which is also one of the key competencies in ESD. The development of a valuable framework for assessing college students' CT is important for understanding their level of CT. Therefore, this study aimed to construct a reliable self-evaluation CT framework for college students majoring in the humanities.

Methods

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Item analysis were conducted to explore the reliability and validity of the CT evaluation framework. Six hundred and forty-two college students majoring in the humanities were collected. The sample was randomly divided into two subsamples (n1 = 321, n2 = 321).

Results

The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole scale was 0.909, and the values of the Cronbach's alpha coefficients for individual factors of the scale ranged from 0.724 to 0.878. Then CFA was conducted within the scope of the validity study of the scale. In this way, the structure of the 7-factor scale was confirmed. Results indicated that the constructed evaluation framework performed consistently with the collected data. CFA also confirmed a good model fitting of the relevant 22 factors of the college students' CT framework (χ²/df = 3.110, RMSEA = 0.056, GFI = 0.927, AGFI = 0.902, NFI = 0.923, and CFI = 0.946).

Discussion

These findings revealed that the CT abilities self-evaluation scale was a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the CT abilities of college students in the humanities. Therefore, the college students' CT self-evaluation framework included three dimensions: discipline cognition (DC), CT disposition, and CT skills. Among them, CT disposition consisted of motivation (MO), attention (AT), and open-mindedness (OM), while CT skills included clarification skills (CS), organization skills (OS), and reflection (RE). Therefore, this framework can be an effective instrument to support college students' CT measurement. Consequently, some suggestions are also put forward regarding how to apply the instrument in future studies.

The effects of art design courses in higher vocational colleges based on C-STEAM

C-STEAM education is aimed at preserving local culture, while also improving students' interests and skills in science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics-related fields. Other goals are to cultivate students to solve complex and practical problems through interdisciplinary thinking or integrate learning subjects with local senses in the context. In the present curriculum implemented in China, STEAM education mainly focuses on K-12 education and kindergarten education, and it is not widely implemented in colleges and universities, and most of the existing courses are carried out in general technical courses such as robotics and 3D printing, and less in design courses, since the concept of STEAM education has just begun to be advocated recently. Nevertheless, STEAM courses are still limited to special educational systems and disciplines, even though these courses have been vigorously promoted in China. Thus, this study designed an innovative higher vocational college curriculum based on the interdisciplinary principle of C-STEAM, using art design as a meta-theme framework and integrating Chinese local culture. A single-subject quasi-experimental design method was used. A total of 45 students majoring in art design in a higher vocational college were invited to participate in this study. The teaching experiment lasted for 9 weeks. Through teachers' teaching and, demonstration and students' independent learning of C-STEAM knowledge in the field of art and design, the concept of C-STEAM was introduced to the creation of packaging design. At the same time, a model composed of six hypotheses was constructed, using the creative self-efficacy scale, learning engagement scale, and creative performance assessment as measurement methods, to discuss students' participation in the art and design courses of higher vocational colleges based on the concept of C-STEAM integration of creative self-efficacy, learning engagement, and creative performance over time. The results showed that students with higher creative self-efficacy had higher learning engagement (cognitive, affective, and behavioral), and students with higher learning engagement performed better in terms of creative performance. The results of this study can help researchers and educators to focus on C-STEAM courses and provide suggestions for the cultivation of art and design professionals in higher vocational colleges.

Promoting Pre-service Teacher Students' Learning Engagement: Design-Based Research in a Flipped Classroom

Students' learning engagement is recognized as one of the main components of effective instruction and a necessary prerequisite for learning, but students' learning engagement in flipped classroom poses some pedagogical challenges. This study aimed to promote students' learning engagement via the flipped classroom approach. Design-based research (DBR) was adopted in this study to conduct an experiment involving three iterations in a Modern Educational Technology (MET) course in a Chinese university. The participants included 36 third-year pre-service teacher undergraduates. Classroom observations and a learning engagement questionnaire were used to measure the effectiveness of the flipped instruction in terms of students' learning engagement. Data analysis applied descriptive statistics, ANOVA, and paired samples t tests. The results showed that after three rounds of iterative experiments, students' learning engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional) significantly improved. Several principles are provided as guidelines for instructors to implement flipped classroom approach to promote students' learning engagement.

Constructing a Teaching Presence Measurement Framework Based on the Community of Inquiry Theory

Given that there is no consensus on a framework for measuring presence in online teaching, this paper focuses on the construction of a reliable measurement framework of teaching presence based on the Community of Inquiry theory. In this study, 408 questionnaires were collected from college students who had online learning experience. Item analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis were used to analyze the results, which showed that the five-factor framework is in good agreement with the data. The confirmatory factor analysis also demonstrated a good model fit of the correlated five-factor teaching presence framework. Therefore, the teaching presence measurement framework consisting of design and organization, discourse facilitation, direct instruction, assessment, and technological support, can serve as an effective tool to support teaching presence measurement and to provide guidance for instructors’ online teaching.

Gender Differences in Self-Regulated Online Learning During the COVID-19 Lockdown

Due to the spread of the epidemic around the world, online learning has received greater attention. Self-regulated learning (SRL) is an important factor for students to achieve academic success. This study investigated the gender differences in SRL and three sub-constructs of SRL in the context of online learning, that is the preparatory, performance, and appraisal phases. A total of 400 high school students (males = 125, females = 275) from China participated in this study. In order to identify whether there were gender differences in their self-regulated online learning (SROL), independent sample t-test was performed. The results showed that there were significant gender differences in the SROL (t = -3.334, p = 0.001 < 0.01, d = -0.410) and the three sub-constructs of SROL (preparatory: t = -0.702, p = 0.008 < 0.01, d = 0.018; performance: t = -3.801, p = 0.000 < 0.01, d = 0.456; appraisal: t = -3.120, p = 0.002 < 0.01, d = 0.361). The findings indicated that females performed better than males in all three dimensions of learners' online self-regulated learning.

High School Students' Online Learning Ineffectiveness in Experimental Courses During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has been adopted in all stages of education. This sudden change from traditional learning to 100% online learning may affect students' learning effectiveness, especially in experimental courses. However, there has been little discussion of experimental courses conducted entirely through online learning. To address this gap, the present study investigated factors affecting high school students' online learning ineffectiveness (OLI) in online experimental courses, particularly online science experimental courses. The role of gender was also explored to understand whether it affects participants' OLI. An ANOVA was conducted to analyze the data from a survey of 347 online learners in high schools. The results indicated that the number of online experimental courses and the duration of online hands-on learning were negatively related to the high school students' OLI. Meanwhile, the study found that the high school participants' OLI differed by gender, with female students more likely than males to have OLI in the context of online learning. The results of this study can provide a reference for teachers who conduct online experimental courses and wish to improve their online teaching, not only during the COVID-19 lockdown, but also in other pandemic periods.