Students’ Active Participation during In-Class Activities
In assessing students’ participation in class activities, the interview results showed a high participation in all the flipped classes with a majority (more than 70%) saying they gave at least 80% of their attention to the activities. Nearly half of the respondents attributed their high level of participation to gaining new knowledge from the online lecture and in-class activities and finding it interesting.
In engaging diverse types of learners in the in-class activities, it is important to pay attention to students who are introverted or are more of reflective learners. In this study, these learners found it hard to participate as they would rather think through the work than voice their opinions during the in-class activities. 11% of the respondents felt they could have spoken up more during the group activities. Interview 9 (Year 1) said: “I could have done better at participation as I have feedback in my head”. The researcher had observed this and recognised these learners and
decided, in future lesson plans, to provide discussion questions ahead of time and to include short reflective breaks during class for these learners to think through the lesson.
In a flipped classroom setup, there is increased interaction between the teacher and the student, and with the student and another student, despite the large class size. One evidence of this interaction is the increased time for feedback. This is seen from the Year 2 interview respondents where 50% of them had a consistent comment on feedback - they either felt they had provided feedback or received useful feedback from their peers and the teacher on the work they did in the in-class activities. Interview 6 (Year 2) said: “Through the activity, my group members gave good feedback on how to improve the conflict in my script”. In the researcher’s observation notes, it was noted that as the students performed the learning activities, the teacher could assess the students’ level of understanding and provide prompt guidance directly. These increased opportunities for feedback could improve student learning. According to Bloom (1984), “an average student who receives one-on-one attention is enabled by constant feedback and a corrective process, and can jump into the 98th percentile of the student population in the academic achievement realm” (Houston and Lin, 2012).
The in-class activities were all conducted in small groups varying from two to five members, depending on the type of activity. The researcher’s notes showed that working in small groups helped students to feel less intimidated to ask questions and express their opinions. In addition to this, an interview respondent from the Year 1 cohort commented that questions were askedthroughout the activities in the class, compared to a traditional classroom, where questions are
only asked at the end of the class. This helped draw the students in to the learning process.
Students in this study recognised the benefits of active participation in class. They participated as they found the activities interesting, were interested to gain new knowledge in the classroom, and to share knowledge with one another. The class itself was transformed into a bustling learning hub.