Abstract:

Flipped classroom approach, which reallocates the teaching of content knowledge into online video-lectures and thus creates more class time for student-centered learning activities, has been widely adopted in different educational disciplines with multiple proclaimed benefits since the last decade. However, the impacts of flipped classroom in secondary science education are yet contradictable with no specific strategy to meet the needs of science education. Therefore, this research employs a mixed-methods and quasi-experimental design to investigate the effectiveness of a modified flipped classroom that integrated with a technology-enhanced strategy using low-cost dataloggers to improve students’ self-regulated learning (SRL) abilities and learning performance in a secondary school in Hong Kong. In this study, an experimental group of two modified flipped classrooms (MFC) (n = 63) and a control group of two traditional flipped classrooms (TFC) (n = 61) were employed among four Grade 8 science classes for seven months between 2018 and 2019. In addition, data from a historical control group of two non-flipped traditional classrooms (TC) (n = 63) from the previous academic year was also collected. Quantitative data of students’ self-regulated learning abilities were measured using the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) while students’ learning performance was assessed using a self-developed performance test. Students (n = 16) were also selected purposefully for sequential semi-structured interviews for triangulating the quantitative findings. The results from ANOVAs and pairwise comparisons indicated that the MFC approach was more effective to improve students’ average SRL ability, and the abilities of goal setting and time management when comparing with the TC approach. The results also showed that the MFC approach was also more effective to improve students’ average SRL ability and the ability of goal setting when comparing with the TFC approach. Furthermore, the results revealed that the students in the TFC approach cannot significantly outperform the students in the TC in terms of their average SRL ability as well as all the subscales, suggesting that the benefits of real-time livestreaming and data-collecting features of the remote laboratory using the low-cost dataloggers in the MFC approach was vital in students’ self-regulated learning. Lastly, the results suggested that both flipped approaches were effective to enhance students’ learning performance when comparing with the TC approach. Educational implications and recommendations for future research using the MFC approach were also discussed as the closing remarks in this study.

Keywords:

Flipped classroom, remote laboratory, technology-enhanced learning, self-regulated learning.