Abstract:

This research aimed to look at the experiences and perceptions of the parents of 77 primary school students, involved in a flipped classroom (FC) approach in 5 different primary schools in Cyprus. The FC approach, as an innovative methodology which promotes blended learning, is one of the most contemporary initiatives in teaching (e.g. Bergmann, Overmyer, & Wilie, 2012; Davies, Dean, & Ball, 2013; Fulton, 2012). It involves giving the traditional lecture material to students in the form of flips/tutorials (e.g. screencasts) which they have to study during the pre-class session in order to get prepared for the in-class and after-class session (Hughes, 2012). An entrance ticket is usually completed after studying the flip which gives the teacher feedback on the level of students’ understanding prior to the lesson at school (Herried & Schiller, 2013).

The rationale for this research is a result of two factors. Firstly, research of the FC approach in primary education has been kept to the minimum so far. Most of FC research has focused in higher and secondary education settings (Hulten & Larsson, 2016; Kim & Chinn, 2011), given the challenges in FC implementation in primary education, such as: the young age of the children, the guidance needed and the low level of self-regulatory skills the children have, especially at the lower primary level (Kim & Chinn, 2011). Secondly, parents at this level of education play a vital role in guiding their children at home and getting them ready for the next day’s class by completing their homework. Through the implementation of such a model, which gives emphasis at the pre- and post-class sessions, parents’ role is even more important since they are the only ones actually present at the time the children are watching the flips and completing the entrance tickets. Hence, their experiences and perceptions are vital in collecting further the children’s own experiences and perceptions regarding learning at home.

A qualitative research methodology had been adopted by forming 11 different focus groups of parents. Following the transcription, NVivo11 has been used for the thematic analysis. Research results had been categorized into three main themes:
(i) Support;
(ii) Benefits and
(iii) Challenges and limitations.

Overall, parents’ responses regarding their own experiences at home whilst their children have been watching the tutorials and completing the entrance tickets have been very positive as most parents found it ‘very interesting’. The support needed from the parents was gradually kept to the minimum, even for the lower primary students, given the benefit of reviewing the flips as many times as needed and the step-by-step development of the necessary skills (e.g. higher order skills in Blooms’ taxonomy) on behalf of the students. Parents felt happy that they had the chance to spend more time with their children and be part of their learning, whereas challenges mostly involved parents’ concerns regarding the ‘right’ use of the internet, the task to carry their device every day to school and possible eye problems arising.

Given the positive experiences and perceptions of the parents, this study could be continued and developed to fill-in the literature on the FC approach in primary education, such as in how parents could further support the in-class session, possibly through testing further other online learning platforms, besides the Moodle platform adopted in this research.

Keywords:

Flipped classroom, primary education, parents' involvement, flips.