The flipped classroom method of instruction involves a shift in how learning and teaching take place. Students in a flipped classroom access video tutorials at home as their primary means of instruction, while they work on rich problems requiring procedural and conceptual knowledge in class. The flipped classroom approach has been gaining popularity in higher education (Abeysekera & Dawson, 2015) and in mathematics (Muir & Geiger, 2015). Although studies have addressed differences between flipped and traditional methods of instruction, few have closely examined how to design activities in a flipped classroom that develop students’ higher-order thinking skills (O’Flaherty & Phillips, 2015; Song & Kapur, 2017). Kapur’s (2008) theory of productive failure states when students have an opportunity to generate and explore solutions to a challenging task prior to being instructed on it, they are better positioned to consolidate their knowledge during and after instruction. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine whether repurposing the flipped classroom to include productive failure results in students’ improved understanding of targeted mathematical content. Through work samples and a survey, it was determined that there was no statistical significance between groups in terms of students’ performance on course assessments and video-watching behaviors. Correlations among various course assessments revealed a significant correlation between students’ work on one productive failure invention task and its corresponding conceptual knowledge posttest item. Through video footage of in-class problem solving and a focus-group interview, qualitative information about students’ knowledge development helped explain differences between the two learning environments. Students who had the productive failure experience described their peers as critical to their learning, whereas students who did not described their instructor as critical to their learning. A detailed look at individual groups in the productive failure condition revealed that students who generated more solutions and had routines for working in a small group on the invention tasks each week realized greater success, as evidenced by work samples and posttest items. The results of this study will be used to guide the design of undergraduate mathematics flipped classrooms so that online and in-person class activities promote deep conceptual understanding.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Design of Learning Contexts
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_8923
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (xiii, 174 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ed.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Instructional systems
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by John Kerrigan
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School of Education Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10001500001
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PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.