The effectiveness of the flipped classroom model designed for teaching principles and methods course curriculum

The purpose of this study is to examine the efftectiveness of the Flipped Classroom Model on teacher candidates taking the course of Teaching Principles and Methods, one of the university-level teaching courses, in terms of their academic success, their degrees of motivation for the course of Teaching Primciples and Methods, their attitudes toward teaching profession, the use of technology in education and the course of Teaching Principles and Methods, and their self-efficacy beliefs about this course. In addition, it is also aimed to identify the opinions of teacher candidates taking part in this study about this teaching model. In this study, the effects of the Flipped Classroom Model-based practices on the above variables were examined separately and the opinions of the teacher candidates were taken. The effects of the Flipped Classroom Model on these variables were revealed in the light of the obtained data. Out of the mixed methods that integrate qualitative and quantitative data collecton methods, the "sequential explanatory design" was used in the study. A semi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest control group was used in the quantitative dimension of the study. In the qualitative dimension, descriptive scanning design was used. The study was conducted with the participation of second grade students who were studying in the Departments of Elementary Mathematics Teaching and Science Teaching in the education faculty of a university in the West Black Sea Region in the autumn semester of 2016-2017 academic year. The study sample was composed of a total of 78 teacher candidates, 37 of whom were in the experimental group and 41of whom were in the control group. During the whole process, Teaching Principles and Methods Course in the experiment group was carried out using the Flipped Classroom Model. In this context, while in-class and non-class Flipped Classroom practices prepared by the researcher were implemented with the students who were in the experimental group, the control group completed the process with the existing curriculum and no practices were applied on those students. The implementation was carried on for both groups for 14 weeks and a total of 42 teaching hours. Before the implementation, an orientation training was given to the students of the experimental group and the instructor of the course. During the implementation process, the interactive training platform "officemix.com" that allowed students to "control" and "interact" was used for access to the Flipped Classroom course videos. Quantitative data of the study were collected by means of Academic Achievement Test, Motivation Scale, Attitude Scale Toward Teaching Profession, Attitude Scale for Technology Use in Education, Teaching Principles and Methods Course Self-Efficacy Scale, Attitude Scale Toward the Course of Teaching Principles and Methods. Quantitative data collection tools were "pretest" before the implementation, "posttest" at the end of the application and "monitoring test" 4 weeks after the application. Qualitative data were collected through the Semi-structured Interview Form developed by the researcher. The data obtained in the quantitative dimension of the study were analyzed through Independent Samples t-test, Mann Whitney-U test, ANCOVA test and One-way ANOVA and Friedman tests for recurring measurements and the data obtained via the interview form for the qualitative dimension were analyzed by content analysis method. When the measurements between the groups on the basis of the posttest were taken into consideration, quantitative findings obtained at the end of the study showed that the academic achievement, motivation, attitude and self-efficacy levels in relation to Teaching Principles and Methods Course among the students in the experimental group in which the Flipped Classroom Model was applied were observed to be significantly high in comparison to the ones in the control group.. There was no significant difference between the levels of attitudes toward teaching profession and the use of technology in education. When in-group measurements on the basis of the pretest-posttest-monitoring test were taken into consideration, for the students of the experimental group in which the Flipped Classroom Model was applied, it was observed that their academic achievement levels increased and their achievements were permanent, that their motivation levels decreased and continued at this level, that there was no meaningful change in their attitudes toward teaching profession and that their belief levels increased and continued at this level. Intergroup measurements made on the basis of monitoring test showed that the academic achievements, motivations, self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes towards Teaching Principles and Methods Course of the students in the experimental group in which the Flipped Classroom model was applied were more permanent than the control group. Qualitative findings obtained as a result of the research also supported quantitative findings. Teacher candidates in the experimental group expressed that the Flipped Classroom Model enabled them to put their knowledge into practice, increased their motivation, developed their teaching skills and encouraged them for active participation in the lesson, and they suggested that Teaching Principles and Methods Course should always be carried out through this model. On the other hand, the teacher candidates criticized the Flipped Clasroom Model mainly in technical sense and pointed out the problems related to the internet and devices. Additionally, a variety of recommendations for the use of Flipped Classroom Model that it may be applied in different courses in education faculties, that new studies on it may be conducted in other education stages or in different faculties, that different online training platforms may be tried for the Flipped Classroom videos, that its effects on different variables may be examined, and that the model can be investigated using various methods were also included at the end of the study.