Abstract:

The student dropout rate of the "Thermal engineering" of Bachelor of Science (BSc) in Environmental Engineering has been increasing in the last few years. The emergence of new teaching methodologies at all education system levels invites the study of improving student implications with this subject. The main objective of this studying is to check whether the introduction of active teaching methods improves understanding and learning in Thermal Engineering and to assess the students' satisfaction with these new teaching approaches.

This study randomly divided 62 Thermal Engineering students into groups A and B. Two of the course units: Unit 1, "Internal Combustion Engines," and Unit 2, "Energy analysis of Control Volumes," were taught and tested using Flipped Learning (FL) and Traditional Learning (TL) approaches. In Group A: Unit 1 contents were prepared using TL and Unit 2 using FL. In Group B, the distribution was the opposite. In Group B, the distribution was Unit 1 using FL and Unit 2 using TL.
In the FL method, teachers provide several videos and documents to students to review these materials at home while resolving exercises by themselves during class time. In the TL method, students attend the teacher's lectures and problems on the blackboard. In FL, students are more active and lead the class rhythm. While in TL, students act like spectators during the class, listening to the lecturer.

All students performed the same exam. Exams results of FL students reached better scores in A and B groups. After the tests, students expressed their opinion about the new and traditional methods through a satisfaction survey. Students showed more satisfaction with FL approaches.

Keywords:

Flipped Learning, Traditional Learning, Thermal Engineering, Bachelor, Sciences, dropout rate.