Flipped Classroom Approaches in Computer Programming Courses in Japan

With the rapid development of educational computer software, flipped classrooms have become widely applied in Japanese tertiary educational settings. Through reversing the tradition approach of providing new instructions directly, pre-class online tutorials are believed to bring several effective benefits. For example, expanding students' opportunities to engage in discussions, ask instructors questions, and complete projects in collaboration with their classmates, when they would have otherwise been taking notes during class. This approach is more communicative and learner-centred in that students can take control of their own learning without dependence upon the pacing set by the instructor. Research has been widely conducted into what has come to be known as 'flipped classrooms' across various subjects internationally, although few studies have focused on its efficacy specifically with respect to computer programming. This is particularly true in Japan, where traditional teacher-centred approaches are still widely employed. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of flipped classroom approaches in an undergraduate computer programming course in Japan, with specific attention paid to students' self-reported experiences. The findings reveal an unexpectedly low appreciation of the efficacy of the approach, with the majority of students continuing to prefer in-class paper-based instruction. Students' opinions of the efficacy of pre-learning also varied widely from student to student according to their own preferences, interests, and objectives. These results provide some insight into what should be considered when incorporating these pre-learning materials into one's own flipped-learning classrooms.