Integrating 21 st Century Skills in Flipped EFL Classrooms

1. Integrating 21st Century Skills in Flipped EFL Classrooms Kerry Pusey, Evelyn Doman, and Marie Webb University of Macau English Language Centre

2. Overview of Presentation • What is a “flipped classroom?” • Motivation for study • Description of the study • Video examples • Discussion • Conclusions, implications, and recommendations

3. What is a “Flipped Classroom?” • An inverse classroom • All homework is done in class; all classwork is done at home

4. Motivation for the Study • Role of technology at our institution • Popular discourse on flipping • Literature in flipped research is lacking and even less in the ESL/EFL context • Few studies are actual experimental or quasi-experimental studies (Bishop & Verleger, 2013)

5. Benefits of Flipping • A flipped class allows • more time for student engagement with materials • teacher to answer more questions • online materials and videos to be accessed 24/7 • more individualized instruction

6. The Present Study • A university in Macao, China • High-intermediate integrated skills course • Required General Education English course • Experimental group (flipped): 4 classes • Control group (non-flipped): 2 classes • 4 different teachers

7. How we Used Technology to Flip

8. Research Questions For this study, the following research questions were addressed: RQ1: Do students prefer flipped over traditional (i.e., non-flipped) classes? RQ2: Which teaching methods do students believe are more effective for learning?

9. Research Questions (con’t) RQ3: What are students attitudes towards using online materials? RQ4: How does flipping the EFL classroom change the dynamics of teacher-student and student-student interaction?

10. Methods: Participants • All first or second year students • Experimental group: N=69 • Control group: N=47 • 94% from Macao or Mainland China

11. Participants: Demographics at a Glance

12. Data Collection The data for this study consisted of: • Survey 1 at midterm • Survey 2 at end of course • Surveys developed by teachers/researchers • Administered online (through Survey Monkey) • Classroom observations • Teachers’ reflections

13. Other Considerations for Study • Initially planned to flip entire classes, but later decided to only flip certain modules (for practical reasons) • Modules selected based on predicted amount of teacher-fronted instruction required

14. Results • Over time, flipped students were satisfied with the flipped approach (RQ1).

15. Results (con’t) • Students believed teacher-centered instruction was most effective for learning. (RQ2).

16. Results (con’t) • Students in the flipped classes wanted more online instruction than non-flipped (RQ3).

17. Results (con’t) • More student responsibility, less teacher instruction in-class. More student-student interaction (RQ4).

18. Discussion • Over time students in the flipped classes became more comfortable with online instruction.

19. Discussion (con’t) • Most students enjoyed using Moodle to submit online assignments and to take quizzes/tests

20. Video Examples Here is 1 video sample of what our flipped classrooms looked like.

21. Drawbacks of Flipping • More preparation time for the teacher • Students must be trained to use new technology • Students may initially feel that they have more work outside of class • Technical problems are common • Availability of resources

22. Teacher Reflections • “Instructional support materials that will be used by students remotely (or online) should be well thought out, designed and prepared well in advance of the start of a semester.” • Teacher from a flipped classroom • “I could tell that the students weren’t interested in the flipped model initially. However, after the 7th week I began to see a change in my students’ attitudes.” • Teacher from a flipped classroom • “During the end of the semester especially, I really wished a lot of the assignments (descriptions, rubrics and grading criteria, examples of model work, etc.) were explained online (i.e., “flipped”) in order to save class time.” • Teacher from a non-flipped classroom

23. Recommendations • Use technology purposefully • Don’t feel obligated to flip entire class • Take it one step at a time when flipping • Consider how students respond, and adjust lessons accordingly • Collaborate and recycle/reuse content whenever possible

25. References 1. Baranovic, K. 2013. Flipping the First-Year Composition Classroom: Slouching Toward the Pedagogically Hip. 2. Berrett, D. 2012. How “Flipping” the Classroom Can Improve the Traditional Lecture. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review 78(1), 36-41. 3. Bishop & Verleger, 2013.The Flipped Classroom: A Survey of the Research. 120th American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, June 23-26. 3. Butt, A. 2014. Student Views on the Use of a Flipped Classroom Approach : evidence from Australia. Business Education & Accreditation, 6 (1), 33-43. 5. Hughes, H. 2012. Introduction to Flipping the College Classroom. In T. Amiel & B. Wilson (Eds.), Proceedings of World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications 2012 (pp. 2434-2438).