1. University of Hawaii at Manoa Dept. of Educational Technology
FLIPPED TEACHING IN A COLLEGE ALGEBRA CLASSROOM – AN ACTION RESEARCH PROJECT
Sean Moroney
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Dept. of Educational Technology
ETEC 690 Master’s Project

2. FLIPPED TEACHING
Before class, the student accesses online instructional material
The instructor then can move away from a traditional lecture style into a more free-form and interactive teaching style

3. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY When: January-February 2013
Where: Two College Algebra classrooms in two different Colleges on Oahu, Hawai’i.

4. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY The College Algebra Classes:
Core curriculum courses
10 weekly meetings
4 hours each

5. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY The Students:
Mostly members of the military and their dependents
Most employed full-time
Many with family obligations
Many carrying more than one course

6. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY The Instructor:
An Adjunct Faculty Member of both Colleges
Many years of experience teaching these and other subjects in this type of environment
A candidate for the Master’s Degree in Educational technology

7. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY Why? Instructor Observations:
Prevalent Math Anxiety
Math courses are postponed to end of program
Fatigue and Boredom
Disinterest in the subject

8. STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY
Will changing the structure of the class change the learning?
Somehow, jazz up
the dynamics!

9. LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
The issue of grade improvement with altered teaching methods was not addressed
The study focused on:
How students responded to a changed teaching style
How the instructor perceived the change
How to design effective action research

10. THEORY UNDERLYING THE STUDY
Educational theories indicate:
Learning is facilitated by:
bringing past knowledge together with new experience.
collaborative efforts, discussions, and interactions between learners.

11. THEORY UNDERLYING THE STUDY
Past studies of flipped teaching have shown:
Its use effectively increases the amount of class time available
With the prior exposure to the new material, the instructor needs less time for didactic instruction

12. APPLICATION OF THEORY TO THE STUDY
To provide prior knowledge on which to build, existing relevant instructional materials on the internet were identified
Other related materials were generated de novo

13. APPLICATION OF THEORY TO THE STUDY
The students were told to review the internet materials before class
Teamwork on problems provided in class provided the necessary social interactions

14. METHODS
In the Winter Quarter of 2013, two College Algebra classes offered by two different Colleges with the same Instructor were selected as the sites for this study

15. METHODS Both courses covered similar topics
The topic of radicals was selected for flipped teaching
The topics before and after radicals were covered using the traditional lecturing style.

16. RADICALS

17. METHODS
In each course, the subject of radicals was taught in two class sessions of 4 hours each.
The two classes are referred to as C1 and C2

18. METHODS
The C1 students attended a College that was 75% military and 25% civilian.
The C2 students attended a College that was 100% military.

19. METHODS

20. METHODS

21. METHODS

22. METHODS

23. METHODS

24. METHODS
Instructional material was provided on Internet one week prior to class
Students accessed the material during that week
Class began with quiz to see whether material was accessed
Instructor did brief review of topic
Teams formed and did problems.

25. METHODS
New York (CNN). At John F. Kennedy International Airport today, a Caucasian male (later discovered to be a high school mathematics teacher) was arrested trying to board a flight while in possession of a compass, a protractor and a graphical calculator.
According to law enforcement officials, he is believed to have ties to the Al-Gebra network. He will be charged with carrying weapons of math instruction.

26. METHODS The Instructional Materials:
Links to Khan Academy videos on the weekly subject matter were provided via
Links to Instructor-produced Powerpoint Movies on YouTube were also provided via

27. KHAN ACADEMY SCREENSHOT

28. METHODS – YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT

29. METHODS In each of the two classes:
The students formed teams consisting of 3-4 members each.
In each class hour, a problem set was provided to the teams.
As these were completed, team members show their solutions on the whiteboard.
A more challenging problem for all wrapped up the hour.

30. METHODS This hourly cycle was done 3 times in each class.
The second of the two classes was handled in the same manner as the first.

31. METHODS
In all of the classes, the instructor circulated and worked individually with the teams.
In the class following the second class, an anonymous survey was provided to the students.
Several students were interviewed to get personalized feedback.

32. RESULTS Did they follow instructions during the week before?
The first Quiz indicated that about 1/3 did the prior work.
The second Quiz indicated about 2/3 did the prior work.

33. RESULTS

34. RESULTS

35. RESULTS

36. RESULTS

37. SURVEY COMMENTS
“I feel traditional and flip teaching go hand in hand.”
“Teaching both ways at the same time will help the students . . ., because everyone is familiar with assignment and subjects.”
“The flip teaching would be great for online students, but I prefer the traditional style.”

38. INTERVIEW COMMENTS
“A good combination of the two. It gives a little change of pace and it doesn’t get very redundant this will get a little classroom interaction and helps you out.”
“Sometimes you have to go back the other way just to get that structure (traditional) and get the point out and then you could practice the other way.”

39. SUMMARY OF COMMENTS
The Flipped Teaching didn’t earn rave reviews in this class.
Most of the comments leaned toward an integration of the Flipped Method with the Traditional Method.

40. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The teams, with few exceptions, appeared to be strongly engaged in the problem-solving activities
There were a few unsolicited comments during the classes that the Flipped Method was enjoyable

41. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Third-party materials, such as Khan Academy, have advantages in that they are already prepared and are accessible.
Stylistically, though, they may be at some variance with the content of the course and the instructor’s sequence of presentation.

42. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Materials prepared by the instructor will have a greater congruence with the course content.
The instructor’s voice and delivery style can help the student relate to the material.

43. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The PowerPoint videos used here were first-generation
It’s possible that refinements, based on use and feedback, could give rise to better and more effective products

44. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
In retrospect, a weakness of this project is that it was too short
The Flipped Teaching method used here should probably have begun from Day One of the course

45. INSTRUCTOR OBSERVATIONS
Compliance with the requirements of previewing the course materials was a more major problem than was anticipated during the planning stages of the Project
Without the student previews, the class would have to default to a more traditional style of teaching to get the subject matter covered

46. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
Especially in the first Flipped class, the Instructor felt that the subject review was more of a first-time exposure

47. INSTRUCTOR INSIGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS
While Flipped Teaching wasn’t apparently thought of as way better than the traditional style, the students seemed to enjoy and appreciate the variety
Some variation of the procedure here is in order for future studies of this type

48. Questions?
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