Running head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF A SCHOLARLY ARITCLE 1

Critical Analysis of a Scholarly Article

Students’ Satisfaction with a Blended Instructional Design:

The Potential of “Flipped Classroom” in Higher Education

Larry Barraza, Nina Gill, Terry Mincey and Harold Ross

California State University Monterey Bay

IST 520 Learning Theories

Professor Fischer

February 1, 2018
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Critical Analysis of a Scholarly Article

Students’ Satisfaction with a Blended Instructional Design:

The Potential of “Flipped Classroom” in Higher Education

Introduction

The authors of the paper “Students’ Satisfaction with a Blended Instructional Design: The

Potential of “Flipped Classroom” in Higher Education” discuss how using a “Flipped classroom”

instructional design in a first-year bilingual, English-taught module in a non-English-speaking country

affected the satisfaction of the learners, and their involvement in their own learning. The title of the

course in the study is “World Economy”, which is taught at the University of Oviedo in Spain, a publicly-

funded institution. This face-to-face course is a part of the curriculum in the Faculty of Business and

Economics. Teaching “the dismal science” of economics comes with its own challenges to students. But

doing so while also learning a foreign language could, at first, seem daunting and counterintuitive.

According to the article, in order to teach economics in a foreign language with high-quality content,

Content and Language Integrated Learning or CLIL represents the most widely accepted approach. It

appears that the study was looking for differences between groups without an apparent reassignment of

participants to groups. Given that the study also focused on events that primarily occur in the present, it

is descriptive in nature. It describes characteristics of existing phenomena, provides and broad picture,

and serves as a basis for additional and other types of research.

Several questions are addressed in the study, including: To what extent students react positively

to general elements of “Flipped Classroom”, especially motivation to learning and communication

progress; To what extent this learning experience improves students’ willingness to get involved in using

technology for learning; To what extent students appreciate the possibilities of self-regulated learning the

design offers; To what extent students appreciate the usefulness of active learning in face to face (F2F)

interactions.
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The purpose of this study to measure student satisfaction using a flipped class approach is both

quantitative and qualitative. Some of its related data is narrative in form, with qualitative techniques used

for analysis. It is also quantitative, as evidenced by the data presented from its resulting charts. For

example, the satisfaction survey was administered and presented with numeric data and statistical

techniques used to draw conclusions. Although the study authors expressed some debate over the

generally agreed definition and accordant features of a flipped classroom approach, their selection and

execution of methods were consistent with their definition and free of bias. They were less interested in

proving the flipped classroom approach was a worthy instructional design than discovering whether it

was.

Research Procedures (Methods)

The research procedure used for this study was an adapted two-part questionnaire from

Johnson (2013) with 12 Likert-scale questions to measure student satisfaction with a revised

Flipped Classroom design. The participants answering the questions are first year bilingual

college students taking World Economy at a Spanish speaking University. English is the Medium

of Instruction (EMI) within a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach. The

primary focus of study is “Flipped Classroom” general elements, time aspects, self-paced

organization and technology disposition questions. However, additional questions were included

to evaluate in-class activity usefulness, as well as four open questions.

Both quantitative and qualitative elements are present in this research study and based on

the student responses to the questions. The quantitative portion includes a sample size of 63

students comprised of 41% male and 59% female from the World Economy curriculum. Specific

satisfaction questions were asked. The data is insufficient to determine if the appropriate

sampling plan was chosen. More information is necessary regarding the target population.
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Perhaps the number of students enrolled in the Business Department or the University would be

helpful.

For the qualitative portion, the researchers selected individual participants to answer the

questionnaires and this was appropriate for the study. Open questions were used to identify

overall themes from word groups entered by the students.

The measurements were both valid and reliable. For example, “The Flipped Classroom is

more engaging than traditional instruction” is one of the questions. The participants respond

directly with strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, or strongly disagree. Most questions are

presented in this format and the percentage of students is calculated for each type of response.

The research procedures were appropriate and clearly described as a questionnaire combining

direct multiple choice and open questions. This ensures simple data analysis and replication of

research study results. We believe further replication is necessary for additional courses or even

other universities to be more representative of the target population.

Research Results

Twelve Likert scale questions were used to assess student satisfaction and attitudes

towards their flipped classroom experience. The questions emphasized how their

experience went with the flipped classroom’s attributes such as virtual campus, use of

video and self-pacing. Approximately 65% of the students agreed that flipped classrooms

are more engaging than the traditional classroom setting, while 7% of the students

disagreed with this statement. (Hernandez-Nanclares, N. & Perez-Rodriguez, M. 2016).

These statements support the hypothesis that flipped classroom promote receptiveness to

learning new subjects.

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Discussion of Results

The twelve Likert scales were ideal to use because they provide a visual aid that

compliments the research results. The charts are used effectively because they show the

survey results in a user-friendly presentation, while the explanation and analysis of these

visuals is explained after the image. The qualitative data is measured through the attitudes

of the participants (strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree or strongly disagree) on the

level of satisfaction based on figures 1-11 of the article. On the other hand, the quantitative

data was not completely clear. Although the research measures the percentage of students

on a scale of 0-100%, it would be easier to measure if the number of students participating

within the flipped classroom was stated.

Summary

A convincing case was made for using a flipped classroom approach to promoting student

satisfaction and increasing their involvement in their own learning when in a first-year bilingual,

English taught module in a non-English speaking country. The data shows that the majority of

the students studied liked the flipped classroom concept. Also, although the work was more

tedious for the students, they learned more and were able to do more hands-on and face-to-face

activities in class, which helped with their learning. Furthermore, the technology used and

activities performed by students prior to coming to class were helpful for the students, resulting

in more time for engaging in face-to-face activities. Face-to-face time focuses less time on

content and more time on applying the material in new contexts. There were additional benefits

with the development of higher-level cognitive processing and collaboration, creating significant

learning experiences for students.

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References

Hernández-Nanclares, N. & Pérez-Rodríguez, M., (2016). Students’ Satisfaction with a Blended

Instructional Design: The Potential of “Flipped Classroom” in Higher Education. Journal

of Interactive Media in Education. 2016(1), p.4. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/jime.397

Johnson, G B (2013). Student perceptions of the Flipped Classroom. Master of Arts Thesis for

the College of Graduate Studies: Educational Technology, University of British

Columbia, January 2013.