Inquiry Project Question and Concepts

 1. Define your question: How does a flipped classroom style affect student retention of concepts taught in high school physics classes?

2. Analyse your topic into concepts.

Concept 1: Active learning

Concept 2: Problem-solving skills

Concept 3: Student retention of classroom material

I am interested in learning about the effectiveness of using a flipped classroom style because it is something that has been very helpful for my learning in university, so I would like to implement it into my teaching, but i only want to do so if I think it will be effective for my students. One advantage of a flipped classroom style is that students spend more time engaging with material than they would in a traditional classroom because they are expected to come to class having already acquired some knowledge of the topic that is being covered, so most of the class time is spent working on problems. I think that this increased engagement with material would lead to greater retention, i.e. students would retain their ability to solve problems relating to a given topic for a longer period of time, but I don't actually know whether this is true, so I want to use the inquiry project as an opportunity to investigate this idea. One disadvantage of using a flipped classroom style is that it is only effective if students complete their pre-class work, and this is never guaranteed. Going into the project, my initial thoughts are that a flipped classroom style is probably more effective if students regularly complete the necessary pre-readings/videos before class, but you should be ready to go back to a traditional classroom style if this isn't happening.

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