Using the mixed mode of flipped classroom and problem-based Learning to promote college students' learning: An experimental study

Due to the emergence of flipped classroom, there have been a shock to the classroom teaching mode. However, the practice and research of flipped classroom were more in primary and secondary schools, rather than in the university. Is the flipped classroom model suitable for college students' learning? What kind of knowledge content is more suitable for flipped classroom teaching? What kind of strategy is more suitable for flipped classroom teaching? This study attempted to answer the above questions. This study employed quasi experimental research method, chose a class of grade three in a university as the research object, and took a science course I taught as a case to carry out the experiment. The researchers selected four groups of modules to carry out four groups of experiments, and each group of experiment included two modules. The content and the difficulty of the two modules were equivalent. The module A was the experimental group which used flipped classroom teaching mode, and the module B was the control group which used traditional classroom teaching mode. In each group, the degree of knowledge of students was measured by the pre-test and post-test. In addition, the study also used the questionnaire survey method, interview method and observation method to collect the student's behavior data and feedback data. The results were as follows: first, the flipped classroom teaching was suitable for undergraduate courses which was higher degree of difficulty. The flipped classroom teaching promoted the students' mastery of knowledge and the application of the method, and also improved the learning initiative and participation. Second, compared with the basic concepts, theoretical principles and other types of knowledge, the flipped classroom teaching was more suitable for these knowledge of method application and complex problem solving. Third, college students had higher requirements for the video quality in the flipped classroom, and video quality might affect the learning interest of college students. Fourth, the design of the problem was very important. The difficulty level of the problem should be moderate to ensure that students could fully discuss.