This project was inspired by my PhD dissertation, Flipped Classrooms versus Traditional Classrooms: A systematic review and meta-analysis of student achievement in higher education (Sparkes, 2019), and my desire to better understand why some of the flipped classroom conditions performed worse than the lecture classroom instruction conditions. Recognizing that the cognitive processes explain how people learn (Yan et al, 2024) I chose to look at a few studies that resulted in the highest and lowest effect sizes* in my dissertation and investigate in more detail. The highest effect sizes showed the studies with greatest positive effect of the flipped classroom on achievement in higher education. The lowest (negative) effects showed the studies with the most negative effect of the flipped classroom compared to the lecture condition.
The study with the highest effect size g = +1.50 indicated that pharmacy students in the flipped classroom group found there was an overwhelming amount of preparation work required, such as video lectures of 90 minutes to 2 hours (Wong et al, 2014, p4), while the study with the lowest effect size of g = -0.66 indicated that all pre-class work in the flipped classroom condition could be completed by the majority of the doctoral veterinary students in less than 20 minutes (including the video, reading, and quiz) (Moffett et al, 2014). This example may indicate that the amount of pre-class work could have a real impact on achievement and learning in higher education. Finding the right balance of preparation homework required may be a factor in the success or failure of the flipped classroom approach. In these studies, too much homework resulted in greater achievement than too little. As it relates to the cognitive processes, the abundance of homework may have given more opportunities for the noted cognitive processes: attention to essential structures and features; spaced repetition; and successful, effortful retrieval from long-term memory.
In case you are wondering, these two effect sizes were not outliers because the one-study-removed approach confirmed that removing each one did not impact the average effect size of the meta-analysis.
I will continue to explore the studies of the highest and lowest effect sizes to gain further insights into how the cognitive processes impact the implementation of the flipped classroom.
*Note: The effect size, Cohen’s d, was calculated by subtracting the mean of the control (C) from the mean of the treatment/experimental group (E), and dividing the difference by the pooled standard deviation (SD) of the two groups. To overcome the problem of small-group bias (i.e., those groups with fewer than 20 individuals), the Hedges’ g multiplier was applied to all studies.
References
Moffett, J., & Mill, A. C. (2014). Evaluation of the flipped classroom approach in a veterinary professional skills course. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 5, 415-425. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/amep.s70160
Sparkes, C. N. (2019). Flipped classrooms versus traditional classrooms: A systematic review and meta-analysis of student achievement in higher education (Doctoral dissertation, Concordia University). https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/985276/
Wong, T. H., Ip, E. J., Lopes, I., & Rajagopalan, V. (2014). Pharmacy students’ performance and perceptions in a flipped teaching pilot on cardiac arrhythmias. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 78(10), 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.5688/ajpe7810185
Yan, V. X., Sana, F., & Carvalho, P. F. (2024). No simple solutions to complex problems: Cognitive science principles can guide but not prescribe educational decisions. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 11(1), 59-66. https://doi.org/10.1177/23727322231218906
Join in and share
There are a number of studies to be reviewed qualitatively and summarized as to why the effect size is in the positive or negative direction. Stay tuned and I’ll provide more references of studies and their effect sizes, so you can share your observations. Below are the two studies noted so far.
- Moffett, J., & Mill, A. C. (2014). Evaluation of the flipped classroom approach in a veterinary professional skills course. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 5, 415-425. http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/amep.s70160
(Lowest effect size, g = -0.66) - Wong, T. H., Ip, E. J., Lopes, I., & Rajagopalan, V. (2014). Pharmacy students’ performance and perceptions in a flipped teaching pilot on cardiac arrhythmias. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 78(10), 1-6. http://dx.doi.org/10.5688/ajpe7810185
(Highest effect size, g = +1.50)