report from a PhD research project in progress

1. FLIPPED LEARNINING IN SCIENCE TEACHING IN
GHANAIAN SCHOOLS
BENJAMIN AIDOO
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

2. INTRODUCTION
Motivation and Engagement helps students learn
 Stay focus and self confidence
 Take full responsibility of learning
Increase student interest
 High at primary level but decrease at later age
 Science related courses and career in science
 Best practices in 21st century for motivating students
 technological tools for increasing students’ achievement and collaboration
Flipped Learning
 increasing students’ achievement
 promoting collaboration
 critical thinking.

3. TEACHING SCIENCE IN GHANA
Modifications in Curriculum
Needs of the workforce in science and technology
Train teachers to be more effective
Low interest in science resulting in poor performance e.g. BECE, TIMSS
Diploma in Basic Education (DBE)
3 year program to train teachers for elementary schools
Generalist and Specialist teacher for all and specific subjects
Educational and Professional courses
Awarded diploma certificate and enroll for 2 year top-up equivalent to degree
 4 -year teacher training program (T-TEL) to meet 21st century needs
Practical skills and capabilities to meet NTS requirements
Student-centered teaching approach
o Promote critical thinking skills

4. METHODOLOGY
Theoretical Framework (Bloom cognitive taxonomy)
Assist in defining the thinking skills that are expected
 Promotes students higher-order thinking skills
 Opportunity for students to reflect, and debate among themselves.
 Phenomenological design
 lived or first-hand experiences of students in the flipped classroom learning
Twenty pre-service teachers from a College of Education in Central Ghana
Demographic survey and interviews from five participants
 transcribed and saved into NVivo

5. RESULTS
Sub-themes 1 (Collaboration) Example of quotes
 Interacting with other teachers “ Through the interaction I was able understand certain things which I didn’t
know before’’
 Class time for problem solving activities “As I communicate with other teachers in the flipped classroom, it
encouraged me to search for
information and this will help me to connect with other aspects of my life
 Confidence building “ I was motivated by the process of learning and the interactions with friends in
the class discussions’’
Theme 2 ( Critical thinking)
 Students discussions and interactions “ As I take part in the discussions, I was encouraged to master skills of
problem solving skills ”
 Knowledge construction “ Depth of understanding of the topic increased through synthesizing
information to create new
knowledge”
 Motivation “ provided opportunity to manage that difficult question”

6. RESULTS
Student collaboration
 master skills of problem solving
 better opportunities to gain constructive
feedback
 Enhance students’ interpersonal interactions
 collaboration helps to build convergent skills
from students
Achievement
 Flipped classroom had higher scores than in
lecture
Critical thinking skills
 helped to think deeper of scientific inquiries
 develop own understanding of tasks
 increased though synthesizing information to create
new knowledge
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Achievment Collaboration Critical thinking
Interactions Problem-solving Knwoledge
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Traditional
class
Flipped
class
Achievement
Model

7. DISCUSSION
Flipped class is effective in teaching than traditional lecture
 Effective collaboration between students and teachers
 Active learning strategies impacts student’s mastery skills and higher-level learning
 Teachers help students learn at own pace by providing guides
 Class time for problem solving
 Critical thinking skills enhanced
 Enhances learning outcomes