The effectiveness of filliped learning method on attitude and academic performance in Mathematics in elementary schools

One of the problems of elementary school teachers is the lack of time, especially in mathematics. Lack of time to educate students has caused academic failure and weakened the basic math of elementary students. For this reason, it is necessary to use teaching methods so that teachers can overcome this lack of time in the weekly curriculum. One of these methods, which has been emphasized in research, especially in mathematics, is the flipped instruction. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of flipped (or reverse) learning on elementary school students' attitude and performance in mathematics in Najafabad in Iran.

This study is a quasi-experimental research with pre-test and posttest experimental and control groups, in order to investigate the changes before and after applying the intervetnion in the experimental group and compare it with the control group. The population of this study included all fourth grade male students in Najafabad in the academic year 2019-2018. The sampling method was multistaged clustering. It should be noted that in order to reduce the economic and cultural differences of students in these schools, a sample was selected from the central part of the city. Among the schools in this area, 2 boys' schools were randomly selected, and then two grade 4 classes were randomly assigned to the control group and experimental group respectively. The Aiken Attitude Questionnaire (1971) was used to measure students' attitudes toward mathematics. The validity of this questionnaire was assessed by content validity and its reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha. Math academic performance was also measured by a teacher-made math test. Its validity was checked and confirmed by teachers. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of covariance. The implementation was such that the teacher had to prepare educational materials for the students and ask the students to do the math book activities, work in the classroom and the book exercises at home after watching the clips and using the educational software, and then share and fix the problems in class sessions with the teacher. Educational software, along with educational clips and videos, were provided to students at regular intervals, and they were asked to watch the instructional video at home at an optional number of times, and then to practice the topics using the software, and then solve those activities, class work and exercises. In the classroom, the teacher reviewed the book activities, did classroom work, and exercises, gave students descriptive feedback individually, and wrote down their problems and issues to be explained in class. After the explanation, students were asked to ask questions if they had any or did not understand a part of the lesson correctly. The student questioning process continued until the students stated that they had learned everything, and the teacher was confident in students’ learning by observing their performance in solving exercises and problems. This process included a total of two 45-minute math sessions.

The results showed that the filliped learning method is effective and influences the academic performance of mathematics.

According to the obtained results, it can be suggested that the filliped instruction can be used to teach mathematics in primary schools.