Year: 2017
Author: Jonathan, Christin, Pei-Ling, Tan Jennifer, Koh, Elizabeth, Hua, Tay Siu, Suzuki, Nadia
Type of paper: Abstract refereed
Abstract:
The potential benefits of adopting video-based flipped classroom pedagogy in deepening and enriching students' learning have sparked a surge in its widespread implementation in schools across the globe, as well as in Singapore. However, empirical evidence as to its promised benefits are largely uneven and inconclusive, due to widely differing quality and effectiveness of the flipped classroom pedagogical implementations. This problem is further exacerbated by the lack of meaningful and timely learning process data that are necessary in monitoring and providing concrete measurement of student's engagement and understanding of the materials. To this end, the Collaborative Video Annotation and Analytics (CoVAA) Learning Environment project aimed to (i) enhance teachers' effective design and implementation of video-based flipped classroom pedagogy, with a view to (ii) deepen students' conceptual understanding and 21st century learning outcomes, especially social knowledge construction and self-regulated learning. Features, such as time-point based collaborative video annotations and learning analytics, were inbuilt to provide necessary real-time monitoring of students' understanding.
The first trial was run in two secondary schools, across four topics in multiple subject areas (i.e. Social Studies, Elective Geography, Core Geography, and Science). In all four subject topics, classes were randomly assigned to either treatment (CoVAA) condition or control (conventional classroom with no CoVAA) condition. A total of eight teachers participated in the trial with most involved in teaching both CoVAA classes (n=9) and control classes (n=8). Students were evenly distributed into CoVAA condition (n=227) and control condition (n=241). For both groups, students were initially given a pre-test of conceptual understanding in the relevant subject topics, as well as a self-reported survey measuring a suite of productive 21st century learning dispositions (Tan & Nie, 2014; e.g. cognitive playfulness-creativity, learning affect). Consequently, at the end of both conditions, students completed post-tests of their conceptual understanding in the topic areas, alongside post-survey measures of the learning dispositions.
T-tests were performed to test the significant difference between the pre-tests and post-tests for both conditions. Results showed a consistently higher level of conceptual understanding of subject matter in students within the CoVAA condition as compared to the control groups. An interesting pattern of results also emerged: significant improvements in cognitive playfulness-creativity in students within the CoVAA condition as compared to controls, but only in subjects more conducive to discussion learning (i.e. Social Studies and Elective Geography); whereas, in factually-heavier subjects (i.e. Core Geography and Science), students in the CoVAA condition had a significant decrease in their positive affect compared to controls, which points to potential fatigue effects experienced by students in the learning process (Watson & Clark, 1999). In conclusion, implications of the findings for video-based collaborative learning and flipped classroom pedagogy will be discussed.
The first trial was run in two secondary schools, across four topics in multiple subject areas (i.e. Social Studies, Elective Geography, Core Geography, and Science). In all four subject topics, classes were randomly assigned to either treatment (CoVAA) condition or control (conventional classroom with no CoVAA) condition. A total of eight teachers participated in the trial with most involved in teaching both CoVAA classes (n=9) and control classes (n=8). Students were evenly distributed into CoVAA condition (n=227) and control condition (n=241). For both groups, students were initially given a pre-test of conceptual understanding in the relevant subject topics, as well as a self-reported survey measuring a suite of productive 21st century learning dispositions (Tan & Nie, 2014; e.g. cognitive playfulness-creativity, learning affect). Consequently, at the end of both conditions, students completed post-tests of their conceptual understanding in the topic areas, alongside post-survey measures of the learning dispositions.
T-tests were performed to test the significant difference between the pre-tests and post-tests for both conditions. Results showed a consistently higher level of conceptual understanding of subject matter in students within the CoVAA condition as compared to the control groups. An interesting pattern of results also emerged: significant improvements in cognitive playfulness-creativity in students within the CoVAA condition as compared to controls, but only in subjects more conducive to discussion learning (i.e. Social Studies and Elective Geography); whereas, in factually-heavier subjects (i.e. Core Geography and Science), students in the CoVAA condition had a significant decrease in their positive affect compared to controls, which points to potential fatigue effects experienced by students in the learning process (Watson & Clark, 1999). In conclusion, implications of the findings for video-based collaborative learning and flipped classroom pedagogy will be discussed.