The flipped classroom has become a prominent direction for teaching-related reforms in recent years; the main idea is to flip the activities “teachers teaching in classroom” and “students completing their assignments outside of classroom.” In other words, before the class, students watch instructional videos (at home) assigned or prerecorded by their teachers so that the students can discuss problems that they have encountered, or engage in higher-order critical thinking activities in class. The flipped classroom aims to facilitate active learning, student participation, and peer collaborative learning in class. The present study investigated the implementation of flipped learning in a university calculus course, in which flipped teaching was employed in a class that contained 72 freshman students. By studying the students’ performance following the implementation of flipped classroom, this study provided referential information to teachers who are interested in introducing flipped teaching in their calculus class. Furthermore, course content selected included area under the curve, fundamental theorem of calculus, and integration by substitution. Course materials were compiled according to cognitive load theory and cognitive theory of multimedia learning. Regarding teaching activities, student-oriented teaching activities were adopted to ensure that students watch videos, participate in class, and fulfill their responsibilities as students. Interclass formative assessments, grouping and cooperative assessments, and self-compiled questionnaires were employed to investigate students’ calculus learning outcome and attitude. The study results revealed that students showed positive responses in the areas of questionnaire score and qualitative description of open questions. In addition, the majority of the students’ formative assessment scores improved steadily later on in the course. Furthermore, as students learned more about the course implementation method, their participation gradually increased; during group activities, they also interacted more frequently with their peers, upheld their group honor, and viewed their responsibilities with a more serious attitude.
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Flipping the Classroom in a Calculus Course
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