The utility of a flipped classroom in secondary Mathematics education

Flipped classrooms serve as a new pedagogical approach for teaching and learning, which involves switching from the traditional teacher-centred academic agenda. Unlike the traditional classroom model, the flipped classroom enables students to understand the lesson better while learning at their own pace and enhancing their communication skills among peers. At the same time, lecturers are provided with an opportunity to extend the discussion time in class through a more interactive session between students. While research works regarding the success of implementing flipped classrooms have been widely undertaken in the literature, only a few of these works considered exposing such models to secondary students. Engaging secondary students in the flipped classroom and investigating its impact on students paves the way for preparing an academic environment for students’ advanced courses in the future. In this work, a case study was conducted at Barstow High School (Barstow, California) to evaluate the implementation of flipped classrooms in Mathematics education from an interplay of factors such as gender, ethnicity, and students’ attitude. The students showed positive usability of the model from the end-activity evaluation and further noted an improved communication channel inside the classroom, allowing them to pace their own learning.