The impact of flipped classroom model on EFL learners' academic achievement, attitudes and self-efficacy beliefs: A mixed method study

The unprecedented pace of technology has inevitably manifested itself on practices and organization of the educational processes shaping not only the bridges of interaction that students build between themselves and their teachers but also the way they learn. As a response to the advent of new technology and the needs of these digital native students who grow up communicating through different means of technology, flipped classroom model has emerged as a form of blended learning that exploits the benefits of technology, constructivism, collaborative, distance learning and differentiated instruction by reversing the sequence of in and out of classroom procedures. Grounded in a mixed method embedded design, the study has taken a distinctive step to explore the quality and efficiency of flipped classroom model in enhancing university prep students' overall academic performance in EFL and that in its sub-skills, retention of that performance, attitudes toward and self-efficacy beliefs in EFL. Quantitative data was gathered through the administration of EFL Achievement Test, Attitudes toward EFL and Self-Efficacy Beliefs in EFL scales to 41 EFL students enrolled at Foreign Language School, Gebze Technical University in two different classrooms randomly assigned as experimental (N= 21) and control group (N=20). The intervention lasted during the whole 2016-2017 fall term. On the other hand, qualitative data was collected through follow-up semi-controlled interviews with 9 experiment group students from different achievement groups. All the quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 21 for Windows, LISREL 8.54 for Windows and ITEMAN4 while qualitative data was analyzed manually by employing content analysis procedures. Findings of the study revealed flipped classroom as a teaching model significantly more effective than traditional lecture based instruction in enhancing EFL performance, long-term retention of this performance and improving its two vigorous predictors, attitudes toward and self-efficacy beliefs in EFL in higher education in Turkey. This facilitating role of flipped classroom model was also verified by qualitative results. To conclude, delving into the important dynamics of EFL performance in Turkey, the present study has promised a bulk of valuable results that set flipping EFL classrooms as an efficient way of dealing with failure in EFL in Turkey. Key Words: Academic Achievement in EFL, Attitudes, Blended Learning, Flipped Classroom Model, Self-Efficacy Beliefs.