Flipped classroom for student engagement in higher education

Abstract

Active learning is regarded by many researchers as a way to improve students' engagement in learning through active, collaborative, cooperative, and problem-based learning activities. Yet, while didactic teaching still has its role in the classroom, the concerns of various costs and manpower in higher education institutions impose limitations on the face-to-face contact time for both didactic lectures and active learning activities in a curriculum. One practical solution is the flipped classroom pedagogy, which flips face-to-face didactic approach in school with homework and other self-learning activities at home. In one of its common forms, students acquire background knowledge on a topic by watching video lectures online before coming to the lessons, while they can engage in student-centered and active learning activities to further develop their higher-order learning around the topics in school. In this sense, the flipped classroom is not only a rearrangement of learning activities, but also an expansion of the traditional curriculum to engage students in learning through active participation. Although the theoretical benefits of flipped classroom do not necessarily rely on technology, the latter is found to facilitate and strengthen the pedagogy in various ways from course preparation to online pre-class learning activities to in-class active learning activities. This is true not only in higher education but also in primary and secondary education. Nevertheless, research recognizes that since active learning is conceptually very different from the traditional teacher-centered pedagogy, it takes time for both teachers and students to adapt to this new approach. Different schools and cultures have different mileage. This chapter introduces the flipped classroom approach from both theoretical and practical perspectives, emphasizing its role in student engagement. It also discusses the opportunities and challenges of this new pedagogy. The chapter ends with a set of theoretically-based and practically-informed recommendations on how the flipped classroom is suggested be adopted in practice in higher education.