Prospects and Challenges of Using the Flipped Classroom in Computer Science Instruction During the Coronavirus Lockdown

2. Literature Review

Flipped classroom affords students the opportunity to complete homework, discuss, explain, and extend the concepts they learned from the pre-recorded material during class time (JoRanna, 2014). Onyema et al, (2021) conducted an experimental study on the effect of Flipped classroom on the academic achievement of students in computer science. The study sampled 100 first year students using an achievement test. The results indicated that the experimental group who took the flipped treatment outperformed their counterparts in the control group who did not take the treatment. Shereen and Diala (2018) carried out a study on the effect of using flipped classroom technique on the learning outcome of fourth grade students in Jordan. They discovered that students who participated in the flipping exercise did better than others who did not. A study by Lesage et al (2019) examined the possibility of improving the performance of at-risk university Mathematics students using flipped classroom approach. The researchers tested two mathematics classes of university students (n=62) in the Faculty of Business and Information Technology. Their results showed that after employing the flipped classroom, 92% of the students (n=57) passed the course with an average grade of 76%. While an end-of-course survey also indicated that over 90% of students rated their overall experience with the course as very good or excellent, with a mean score of 4.5 on a five-point Likert scale. Similarly, another study by Tarik and Sevinc (2019) flipped classroom was compared with blended learning and face-to-face learning environments to identify the effect of these learning environments on students’ achievements, academic engagement and satisfaction levels. Their results revealed that the students were generally satisfied with the flipped classroom and their scores were higher than those who were taught using conventional face-face learning approach. In contrast, a study by JoRanna (2014) examined the effect of the flipped classroom on academic achievement in high school mathematics. They found that flipped curriculum was not a significant factor in increasing student academic achievement or in increasing student critical thinking skills. Many studies (Davies et al, 2013; Herreid and Schiller, 2013), have also affirmed that flipped classroom approach can help students construct meaning in given topics and also participate more actively in the learning process.

Figure 1.

Flipped Classroom Design (Tarik and Sevinc, 2019)