Teaching strategies and approaches help us teachers not only to efficiently impart knowledge and skills but also to develop effective learning styles among our learners. With more than a decade of teaching mathematics, I noticed that learners tend to come to school without doing their homework. Learners give varied reasons; some are acceptable while others are not. Recently, as a classroom teacher, I tried this Flipped Classroom Approach in teaching which I taught could address the said problems on my learners. Thus, I decided to conduct my very first action research to find out if this approach could have a positive effect on the learning styles of my grade 7 learners in mathematics.
What is all about Flipped Classroom Approach? The basic idea of Flipped Classroom is that students will watch video tutorials outside of class so that class time can be allotted to learning activities that are active and with peer collaboration. This has a three-stage model: the pre-class when modeling and pre-assessment happens, the in-class when there is clarifying of concepts and problem solving occurs and post-class when assessment, application and transfer of concepts are done.
Aside from determining the effectiveness of this approach to my learners, I aimed at leading the learners develop a learning culture where they learn to use their technological gadgets more productively, to develop a study habit of utilizing instructional videos in discovering new concepts and be able to collaborate with peers during class time, to carefully select and consolidate suitable instructional videos fitted to their needs, and to minimize the incidence when learners come to school with their assignments unaccomplished.
So, I conducted my action research involving eighty (80) grade 7 learners from regular classes. One group is used as the experimental group who have taught with Flipped Classroom Approach while the other group is used as controlled group who have taught with the traditional method. After the first quarter period, I found out that the experimental group surpassed the controlled in their Mean Percentage Score (MPS) of 8.55. And based on the computation, the t-critical of 5.71 as compared to the t-value of 1.99 at 0.05 level of significance implied that the Flipped classroom approach is an effective strategy in obtaining greater understanding and higher scores in mathematics than using traditional (lecture) method of teaching.
Observations and interviews with the learners revealed that they appreciate video clips on mathematics for they were able replay any part of the video that was unclear to them when they first watched it. It was also perceived that watching math video clip is such beneficial for they have an easy reference for the lesson to be discussed, in which they can get a sort of idea to share during class discussion.
Based on the result of my study, I may suggest that the use of Flipped classroom approach should be consistently applied to our learners for the whole school year round. However, the video clips in mathematics should always be carefully selected and should be fitted to the level of understanding and language of the learners. Teachers are also encouraged to make their own math video clips to sustain learner – teacher relationship. Lastly, a deeper research on the effectiveness of the Flipped classroom approach to other subjects and other grade levels should also be studied by future researchers.
Now that I worked as an OIC-head teacher in Maligaya National High School, I still believe that it is indeed important to innovate learning tasks for the learners. We create improvements not merely to impress the learners but to give them avenues for better understanding of the lesson. In fact, this study is useful in the present learning condition due to pandemic Covid – 19. Flipped classroom can compliment the used of asynchronous online learning or even blended learning. The learning styles that learners have developed with the use of Flipped Classroom Approach can now be utilized as they are involved with these distance learning modalities that they are attending to. Thus, Flipped Classroom approach is considered helpful even during the times of having the face-to-face learning and up to now.