Abstract:

The origin of flipped learning is attributed to teachers Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams (Tucker, 2012), who changed the way of the classroom instruction, transforming certain processes that were usually linked exclusively to the classroom, transferring them to the out-of-school context. Specifically, those activities related to the explanation of contents are offered outside the classroom. Thus, the school time is focused to practical exercises, solving doubts and problems, debates, group work, etc. (Barrera, 2013). This teaching methodology is known as flipped classroom and has been applied in different fields of education, such as foreign languages, various pharmacology subjects, Health Professions School, etc. (Barrera, 2016; López-Rodríguez et al., 2016; McLaughlin et al., 2014).

The flipped learning presents a number of advantages compared to traditional teaching. A first advantage is that the students go from being passive figures to adopting a proactive attitude in their own learning, assuming responsibilities and a commitment to create and autonomously develop their own knowledge base. A second advantage is the efficiency of the technique, which allows maximizing the classroom time, which will focus on solving the difficulties of understanding or learning of the theoretical contents. Finally, this technique does not only allow the acquisition of theoretical knowledge, but also the development of teamwork, communication, problem-solving and conflict skills, among other aspects. Therefore, the levels of motivation observed in the students in this type of teaching are greater to the traditional methods (Tucker, 2012). Nevertheless, despite the advantages offered by this technique, a lack of empirical studies focused on the impact of the flipped learning on the students’ academic performance is observed in the literature.

Taking into account these benefits and the scarcity of empirical research on this topic, this study aims to analyse the influence of the students’ perception about flipped learning on their academic performance. Specifically, we applied this technique in the subject of Strategic Management I.

This teaching experience has been developed in several stages. Firstly, prior to the classroom sessions, the students performed an individual reading and/or viewing of advertisements related to the theoretical contents. Secondly, once in the classroom, the work teams applied the theoretical arguments to either real or a fictitious company. At this stage the role of the teacher consisted of solving the doubts of the students. Finally, the work teams presented orally the practical application developed in class. The teacher intervened moderating the debate generated in the classroom and asking questions in order to guide learning. Subsequently, in order to evaluate the students’ perception about this technique, we elaborated a questionnaire. This included questions about intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, cognitive load and self-pacing. We send this questionnaire to 112 students.

Keywords:

Flipped learning, academic performance, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, cognitive load, self-pacing.