Students' understanding of physics concepts, attitude, engagement, and perceptions in a flipped classroom environment

• Main Author: Bawang, Ederson G
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Science > Study and teaching > Philippines; Physics > Study and teaching > Philippines; Flipped classrooms > Philippines; Physics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/508
• Institution: De La Salle University

Science education has always been dealt with challenges. Poor performance, low engagement, negative attitudes, and seemingly, the technological divide between teachers and students are allegedly identified as the culprits. Nevertheless, teachers have always adapted with the significant changes in the environment, especially in these days of social media. It is in this light that the study was conducted. The research endeavor investigated the learners performance, attitude, engagement and understanding towards learning physics under a flipped classroom. Specifically, the research endeavor sought to determine the 1) level of performance in physics of the students under a flipped classroom model in terms of their quizzes and problem-solving 2) students reflections regarding how physics concepts are applied in real-life situations 3) effect of the flipped learning environment on students engagement and attitude and 4) students and teacher experts views and perceptions regarding the video lectures.The study used the Mixed Methods approach that involved two parts: the quantitative and qualitative. The qualitative part was used to deepen the quantitative result. A total of 37 students were considered in the study. The intervention lasted for 8 weeks. Permission was sought to conduct the study from persons of authority and officers in charge of the school where the study was conducted. During the conduct of the vii intervention, the gathering of information regarding students reflections and scores were simultaneously done. Handwritten reflections were re-encoded electronically, rated, and recorded. Questionnaires on attitude towards learning physics and student engagement were distributed to and answered by the participants before and after the intervention. For the face-to-face learning, the students and their teacher were meeting at the designated classroom authorized by the school. Finally, a series of interview with 9 randomly selected students were held in a form of focus group discussion regarding the intervention the students have just undergone.Results of the study reveal that overall, the participants performance in quizzes and problem-solving have been Very Good. Reflections of participants indicate that physics concepts are mostly seen in their lives as students i.e. going to school, playing sports, and riding vehicles. The difference between mean scores of student engagement proved to be significant before and after the flipped classroom intervention. There also exists a significant difference between the mean scores of student attitude towards learning physics before and after intervention. There were mostly positive views that were elicited from the students regarding the video lectures. Teacher-experts perceive that the video lectures have appropriate instructional and technical design.These are the recommendations from the study: Physics (but not only limited to this field) teachers are suggested to hone in on the benefits of this approach so that students can grasp and possibly alleviate their performance, especially in learning physics. Teachers are encouraged to be aware that one way of embracing the role of being a good facilitator of learning is to apply blended learning approaches in their instruction. Students who are dealing with attitude problems towards their subject matter viii or those who are seemingly disengaged can look at this approach as one way of probably improving their deficits in learning.Lastly, research along this line is never enough given that flipped classroom is relatively gaining ground in terms of its acceptance as a model in the educational system. And even more so in this case because this research endeavor is generally exploratory in nature. Similar studies should be conducted to affirm or validate the results of the study.