Does a student's use of self-regulation change in the flipped classroom?

Abstract

Many college freshmen are required to enroll in remedial math every semester as a result of low college placement exams with many of these students failing to succeed in their remedial math courses. Students may fail their remedial math course due to low levels of control of learning, self-efficacy or self-regulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate if the flipped classroom is an effective teaching method for students in a remedial math course and if this method increases a student's control of learning, self-efficacy and self-regulation. This study implemented a quasi-experimental design to compare students in a flipped remedial math class to students in a lecture remedial math class using the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) designed by Pintrich (1991) to measure control of learning, self-efficacy and self-regulation. Data analyses included frequency data to report the descriptive statistics of students in remedial math; independent t-tests to report significant differences of MSLQ scores and posttest COMPASS math scores; and multiple regressions to report associations among dependent and independent variables in the study. The results found no significant difference for control of learning, self-efficacy, or self-regulation of students in the flipped classroom compared to students in the lecture classroom. A significant difference at rho < .10 was found for math outcomes for students in the flipped classroom compared to students in the lecture classroom. The findings also indicate a small net effect for control of learning, self-efficacy and self-regulation on math placement as well as math outcomes for students in a remedial math course. Also, a student's self-efficacy at the end of the course was predicted by a student's level of self-efficacy and prior academic knowledge at the start of the semester. In conclusion, the findings of this study suggest that the flipped classroom is an effective teaching method to use in a remedial math class. Limitations of this study include a small sample size as well as validity and reliability concerns with the use of the MSLQ survey suggesting further research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of the flipped classroom in a remedial math class.