Examining Faculty Attitudes and Strategies that Support Successful Flipped Teaching

In this NSF-funded project, a team of experienced STEM educators & researchers designed, developed, and studied the implementation of flipped teaching by faculty in their STEM classrooms at two institutions: here at SIUE and at St. Louis Community College. Flipped teaching is an instructional practice where traditional teaching is reversed, with instruction occurring outside of class time, allowing classroom time to be focused on the application of content. By employing mixed methods, including in-depth interviewing of faculty participants, a rich dataset was gathered and analyzed, advancing the understanding of the aspects of successful flipped teaching implementation, as well as the barriers to engaging STEM faculty in the adoption of this teaching strategy. This project also produced a set of design principles for flipped teaching and a flipped teaching model applicable to these two common yet different types of higher education institutions. The project also supported the successful implementation of flipped teaching by 24 faculty members over the three years of the project. This program is headed by Dr. Chaya Gopalan of the Department of Applied Health in collaboration with the SIUE STEM Center and the Office of the Provost.

The project had three overarching research questions:

How do faculty perceive and implement flipped teaching?
How does faculty implementation of flipped teaching at a four-year master’s university compare with faculty implementation at a two-year community college?
What are the essential design principles for implementing a successful flipped classroom at each type of institution?

Publications, Presentations, and Other Dissemination Activities

1) Gopalan, C., Fentem, A., & Rever, A. (2020). The refinement of flipped teaching implementation to include retrieval practice. Advances in Physiology Education, 44: 131-137. doi:10.1152/advan.00143.2019

2) Gopalan, C., Butts-Wilmsmeyer, C., & Moran, V. (2021). Virtual flipped teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advances in Physiology Education 45(4): 670–678. doi:10.1152/advan.00061.2021

3) Beason-Abmayr, B. Caprette, D.R., & Gopalan, C. (2021). Flipped teaching eased the transition from face-to-face teaching to online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advances in Physiology Education 45(2): 384–389. doi.org/10.1152/advan.00248.2020

4) Gopalan, C. (2019). Effect of flipped teaching on student performance and perceptions in an introductory physiology course. Advances in Physiology Education 43(1): 28–33. doi:10.1152/advan.00051.2018

1) Gopalan, C., Serrano, C., Dickey, P., Bracey, G., Fickas, J.C., Bartels, L., & Locke, S. (2021). Flipped teaching eased the transition of faculty to remote teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The FASEB Journal 35(s1) 04624. https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fasebj.2021.35.S1.04624

2) Gopalan, C. Onal, S., Butts-Wilmsmeyer, C., Dickey, P., Serrano, C., Bracey, G., Bartels, L., Locke, S. & Fickas, J.C. (2021). Flipped teaching eased the transition of students to online learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The FASEB Journal 35(s1) 04659. https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fasebj.2021.35.S1.04659

3) Givens, A., Bracey, G., Fickas, J., Bartels, L., Locke, S., & Gopalan, C. (2020). Faculty perceptions of the implementation of flipped teaching in undergraduate STEM courses across two institutions. The FASEB Journal 34. s1.04602. https://doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.04602

4) Dickey, P.E., Fickas, J., Bartels, L., Bracey, G., Locke, S., & Gopalan, C. (2020). Comparison of student perceptions of flipped teaching in undergraduate STEM courses across two institutions. The FASEB Journal 34. s1.03627. https://doi.org/10.1096/fasebj.2020.34.s1.03627

AAAS: IUSE Builds Community Around Improving Undergraduate STEM Education April 1, 2021 by Andrea Korte https://www.aaas.org/news/iuse-builds-community-around-improving-undergraduate-stem-education

– Gopalan, C.

Gopalan, C. (2021). Flipped Teaching to Remote Flipped Teaching. PECOP, Life Science Teaching Resource Community (LifesciTRC.org) https://blog.lifescitrc.org/pecop/2021/02/17/flipped-teaching-to-remote-flipped-teaching/

Gopalan, C. (2020). Can the Flipped Classroom Method of Teaching Influence Students’ Self-Efficacy? PECOP, LifesciTRC.org https://blog.lifescitrc.org/pecop/2020/01/27/can-the-flipped-classroom-method-of-teaching-influence-students-self-efficacy/

Gopalan, C. (2019). Which level of students are best suited for flipped learning? PECOP, LifesciTRC.org https://blog.lifescitrc.org/pecop/2019/11/11/which-level-of-students-are-best-suited-for-flipped-learning/

Gopalan, C. (2019). How to motivate students to come prepared for class? PECOP, LifesciTRC.org https://blog.lifescitrc.org/pecop/2019/01/21/how-to-motivate-students-to-come-prepared-for-class/

Gopalan, C. (2018). Student preparation for flipped classroom. PECOP, LifesciTRC.org https://blog.lifescitrc.org/pecop/2018/01/08/student-preparation-for-flipped-classroom/

1) Flipped Teaching Eased the Transition from Face-to-face Teaching to Online Instruction during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Brazilian Physiological Society Congress, 2021

– Gopalan, C.

2) The Past, the Present, and the Future of the Flipped Classroom, Keynote Speech, 6th annual International Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference (virtual), 2021

– Gopalan, C.

3) Responses to COVID-19: Adapting Classroom Teaching Techniques and Hands-On Learning to an Online Environment, AAAS-IUSE presentation, 2021

– Gopalan, C.

4) Flip Your Class (or even ONE session) Without Flipping Out, American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges Conference, 2021

– Granger, K. & Ndao, R.

5) Flipped Classroom Methodology, Faculty Development Webinar, University of Almaarefa, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2020

– Gopalan, C.

6) Remote Teaching and Learning of Physiology During COVID-19 with Existing Technology, Webinar, African Association of Physiological Sciences, 2020

– Gopalan, C.

7) The Flexibility of Using the Flipped Classroom as a Virtual Classroom during the COVID-19 Pandemic, plenary session of the APS–ITL Conference, 2020

– Gopalan, C.

8) Flipped Teaching Training to Physiology Faculty in the Flipped Format, Faculty Development Talk, Second Wave Global Summit, Academy of Active Learning Arts & Sciences, 2020

– Gopalan, C.

9) Flipping STEM Classrooms: Faculty Attitudes Regarding Lecture Courses, Professional Development Day at STLCC, 2019

– Fickas, J., Mosher, A.M., Ndao, R., & Peters, T.

10) Examining Faculty and Student Perceptions in the Implementation of Flipped Teaching in Undergraduate STEM Courses, 4th Annual Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference, Greeley, CO, 2019

– Gopalan, C.

11) Using the Flipped Classroom Technique in Teaching Physiology, Pan-American Congress of Physiological Sciences, Havana, Cuba, 2019

– Gopalan, C.

12) Flipping STEM Classrooms: Faculty Attitudes Regarding Lecture Courses, Missouri Community College Association Conference, Kansas City, Missouri, 2019

– Fickas, J. & Bhavsar, N.

13) Flipping for Understanding, Missouri Community College Association Conference, Branson, Missouri, 2021

– Fickas, J.

14) Online teaching experiences and perceptions of students and professors, Brazilian Physiological Society Congress, Brazil, October 2021

– Gopalan, C.

1) A Flip during a Pandemic, STLCC, 2020

– Granger, K., Mosher, A., Davis, P. & Gopalan, C. (Moderator)

2) Faculty Panel on Flipped Teaching and its Transition during COVID-19 Pandemic, Focus on Teaching and Technology Conference, UMSL, 2020

-Bhavsar, N., Luesse, S., Peters, T., Voss, E., & Gopalan, C. (Moderator)

3) Through the Lens of Centers for Teaching and Learning panel, Second Wave Global Summit, Academy of Active Learning Arts & Sciences, 2020

– Gopalan, C., Rosen, L., Heard, C., Sontheimer, D., Kurban, C., & Stachowiak, B.

4) Medical and Healthcare Education panel, Second Wave Global Summit, Academy of Active Learning Arts & Sciences, 2020

– Gopalan, C. Schwartzstein, R., Snelling, C., Bansal, S., Vranabossart, M., Pence, P., Castro, J.F., & Kelikian, T.

5) Strategies for Teaching Synchronously, SIUE, 2020

– Gopalan, C., Nelson, W., Thomeczek, M., & Stewert-Ross, L.

1) Responses to COVID-19: Adapting Classroom Teaching Techniques and Hands-On Learning to an Online Environment, AAAS-IUSE Virtual Workshop, 2021

– Gopalan, C.

2) Flipped classroom methodology Training Workshop, Colleges for Science & Technology, University of Almaarefa, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 2020

– Gopalan, C.

3) Student Engagement in the Synchronous Online Teaching, SIUE, 2020

– Gopalan, C. & Ferguson, M.

4) Flipped Teaching, A Faculty Development Workshop, Southeastern Illinois College, Harrisburg, IL, 2020

– Gopalan, C.

1) Virtual Flipped Teaching Method is Perceived to Be Beneficial by Students at a Two-Year and a Four-Year Institution, 6^th annual International Higher Education Flipped Learning Conference, 2021

– Dickey, P., Fickas, J., Bartels, L., Bracey, G., Locke, S. & Gopalan, C.

2) The Modulation of Flipped Classroom Design and Student Performance, Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research (SABER) Conference, Minneapolis, MN, 2019

– Gopalan, C.

3) Faculty Strategies for Implementing and Assessing Flipped Teaching, Network of STEM Education Centers Conference, Omaha, NB, 2019

– Locke, S.

4) How Does Flipped Teaching Training Impact Forced Online STEM Training? Second Wave Global Summit, Academy of Active Learning Arts & Sciences, 2020. Received Editors Pick

– Bartels, L. & Dickey, P.

This research is supported by the National Science Foundation Improving Undergraduate STEM Education Award No. 1821664. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.