English-Medium Instruction Calculus: Is flipping helpful?

TL;DR

This study investigates the effectiveness of flipped classroom pedagogy in an undergraduate calculus course within a Confucian Heritage Culture environment, analyzing different instructional types and their impact on student performance and engagement.

Contribution

It introduces a comparative analysis of four flipped and traditional instructional methods in EMI settings, highlighting their effects on exam scores and student feedback.

Findings

Type A flipped instruction led to higher exam scores than Type C.

Students reported increased engagement and communication with instructors.

Language and cultural challenges persisted despite flipped pedagogy.

Abstract

This paper addresses some of the experiences encountered and some of the strategies utilized while using flipped classroom pedagogy in an undergraduate Single Variable Calculus (SVC) course in a Confucian Heritage Culture (CHC) environment. Due to issues related to instructor-student communication and students' learning styles, a theoretical framework is built upon three components for learning environments: inverted Bloom's taxonomy for educational learning objectives, English-medium instruction (EMI) and integrating technology in the classroom. In this study, four different types of instruction were designed; three classes were flipped while the fourth acts as a control. Type A means entirely flipped with instructor-created videos and integrating CAS {\sl Maxima}. Type B means entirely flipped with third-party videos. Type C is similar to Type A, but instead of the entire course being flipped, a single topic is flipped. Type D uses the traditional lecture style. By considering exam scores and students' feedback, both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the flipped pedagogy were investigated. Quantitative analysis indicates a statistically significant difference in the exam scores between instruction Type A and Type C as determined by one-way ANOVA ($F(3,306) = 2.67$, $p = 0.0477$) with small practical significance of the effect size ($\eta^2 = 0.0255$). Qualitative findings suggest that although students' engagement and communication with instructors have been enhanced, some challenges related to language and culture, along with minimizing competition and learning about a new technological tool remain to persist.