Top 10 Must Read Research Papers in July

-by Jon Bergmann-

Let’s begin our look at this month’s Flipped Learning research with an apropos tweet from Robert Talbert, who is arguably the top researcher on Flipped Learning in the world.

Obligatory tweet to point out that people who say Flipped Learning has no research behind it are probably just complaining and definitely don’t know the facts.

— Robert Talbert (@RobertTalbert) July 9, 2018

My monthly research review generated some great questions: Can Mind Mapping, PBL and Mastery really be more effective when paired with Flipped Learning? Will using virtual and augmented reality engage students in a flipped class? Is Flipped Learning research based on sample sizes large enough to be truly relevant?

In the 45 published research articles I reviewed, the top 10 show three exciting trends:

Researchers are beginning to let go of asking if Flipped Learning works and moving on to study how Flipped Learning enhances other learning strategies.

There is a growing number of people looking into virtual reality and augmented reality as innovative ways to engage students in a flipped class.

The sheer number of students involved in many of these studies is growing. Instead of a study with 20 or 30 students, we are seeing studies of 227 teachers (which represent a lot of students), as well as those of 500 to 1,000 students!

There is no doubt that Flipped Learning works. But there are always new questions to ask and answer. So keep on pushing the envelope, asking the hard questions, and trying new things to make your flipped classroom more engaging and effective.

Top 10

Other Notable Research

Vasfi Tugun from University of Kyrenia (Cyprus) studied the efficacy of Flipped Learning for 9th-grade students learning coding. He found students learned more and were more positive about their learning.

Han Jung studied the satisfaction of medical students with Flipped Learning at a medical school in South Korea. They found students were more satisfied with Flipped Learning compared to traditional education.

Arash Hashemifardnia and others in Iran examined whether Flipped Learning enhances reading comprehension. They concluded that Flipped Learning is more effective.

Dr. Laura E Sullivan-Green, San Jose State University asked if flipped classrooms are more effective for underrepresented students. Her study is in the first year of a three year study, but the results look very positive.

Dr. Nancy K Lape and others from Harvey Mudd looked at ways to reduce the gender gap in Engineering Education and found that Flipped Learning showed increased learning, especially with their female students.

Helen Sarah Winter and others asked if Flipped Learning could aide in the teaching of multidisciplinary cancer care. It was met with very favorable ratings by the students, and they are moving forward with the next round of implementation.

Cliff Lee and Soo-Woo Kim in the Journal of Dental Education examined the “Effectiveness of a Flipped Classroom in Learning Periodontal Diagnosis and Treatment Planning.” They found that the flipped classroom “was effective in educating students on periodontal DTP and was well received by the students.”

Wenliang He and others in the Computers and Education Journal studied the “immediate and subsequent course performance in a large undergraduate chemistry course.” They concluded: Flipped instruction had a positive impact on a student’s overall grade from a subsequent course, but students with lower GPAs benefitted more. Others were not performing worse, and there was greater improvement in students with lower prior motivation, and results indicate an opportunity for decreasing equity gaps in STEM classrooms.

In the Learning Tech Library Journal, Prathyusha Sanagavarapu journaled her experiences as she transformed… “from Pedagogue to Technogogue: A Journey into Flipped Classrooms in Higher Education.”

Stephanie A. McHugh wrote her doctoral dissertation comparing traditional classrooms to flipped classrooms students studying radiology.  She found no significant differences in retention, but the students in the flipped classrooms enjoyed the courses more.

Burcu Avcı Akbel writes in the Journal of Education and Training about Flipped Learning in Turkish Cello Education. After the study, she recommended that Flipped Learning be used to teach music education in Turkey.

1. El Miedany and others studied the effect of flipped videos on students studying rheumatology. They found that Flipped Learning proved to be more effective than traditional methods of instruction.

In their undergraduate thesis, Mattias Hansen and Bobby Murphie compared Flipped Learning to Game-Based Learning and found that students did better in a Game-Based classroom.

As I ponder this last study, I wonder if it is missing the point of Flipped Learning. Within the Flipped Learning 3.0 framework, Flipped Learning is a meta-strategy that supports and enables the use of other learning strategies such as Game-based learning. Perhaps they should have studied the combination of the two…?