Assessment of the Potential of Flipped Classroom Instruction in the context of High School Information Technology Subject

Abstract

Currently traditional teaching methods focuses on knowledge transfer, ICT application merely confined in the presentation and demonstation and, no monitoring and evalution mechanisms on delivery of in structions. The Dictionary of Educational Technology defined Flipped Classroom as a form of blended learning, which is the practice of students watching lecture material (usually in video form) at home, and then practicing their learning in an interactive environment in the classroom. The study aims to in vestigate the potential of flipped classroom instruction in the context of high school Information Tech nology subject in these days of fair abundance of Smartphone’s in the hands of the students. The re search was conducted in two Hawassa rural vicinity schools using Grade 10 students as experimental cases. The overall methods used in the research was design science research using teacher-created vid eo-based lecture notes as an intervention for experimental groups while delivering the same content in a classroom-based delivery mechanism for control groups. Prior to this quasi-experimentation, a school survey was conducted in two Hawassa City vicinity rural schools to assess their level of readiness for flipped classroom. Student participants for the experimental study were selected in a two stage process. Volunteer students who have access to Smartphone’s are invited to register for research-based tutorial classes. Among those registered in two schools (Hawalla Wondo and Gemeto Secondary Schools), the first 20 registered students in each schools were given a pre-study tests based on the first Unit of Grade 10 Information Comminication Technology (ICT) textbook. The two schools are found in two Kebeles in the rural part of Hawassa City built primarily to serve the respective Kebele communities. The Better performing 20 volunteer students (N=10 at each school) are then allowed to participate in a non-graded tutorial ses sions by two teachers (the researchers and another ICT teacher). Students from the school where the re searcher teach was taken as experimental group and are exposed to flipped classroom based teaching whereas another 10 from the other school are considered as control-group and participated in a lecture based instruction. The two teachers were meeting on weekly basis to discuss the instructional and as sessment activities of the week which are prepared by the teacher-researcher as a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation. The topics covered were taken from Grade 10 Word-processing Unit. The weekly teachers’ meetings were also used to evaluate the previous week’s activities and planning improvement for the forthcoming one. The tutorial-based quasi-experimentation was conducted for 4 weeks during December 2021. The intervention for the experimental groups involved in-advance sharing of materials in PPT and teacher-created video-lectures through Telegram channel and Xender usually on Thursday of Week3for interactive classes in Week4. The Control Group tutorial classes were given in the same week and stu dents were exposed to the PPT material at the same time (during Week4). An identical post-test quiz and laboratory tests were given for the two groups and their results was analyzed with independent samples t-test (using SPPS v26) to evaluate the difference between the two groups. The readiness assessment was undertaken using a questionnaire survey by considering teacher and stu dents factors in two rural schools in Hawalla-Tula Sub-City of Hawassa City. A checklist-based obser vation was also made to determine school (technology availability). Stratified sampling technique was used to select student and population level teacher participants. Response for open-ended questionnaire items as well as the checklist-based data was analyzed using content analysis method. The main objectives of this study are to assess the readiness levels of flipped classrooms and compare flipped and traditional classrooms. Teachers and students' readiness levels are very high. In this exper iment, flipped classroom teaching methods outperformed traditional teaching methods in student aca demic performance between groups but did not make a difference within a group