Application and Evaluation of a Grouped Flipped Classroom Method

We proposed a new flipped classroom method in which students are divided into three groups before each class on the basis of their e-learning self-study logs and level of understanding. The three groups are students who studied the lesson and fully understand the contents, students who studied the lesson but do not fully understand the contents, and students who did not study the lesson and so do not understand the contents. The face-to-face learning in class is done separately for each group. We called this a “grouped flipped classroom.” We applied the above grouped flipped classroom method to 16 weeks of actual lessons in the autumn semester of 2017 at our university. The results revealed that the grouped flipped classroom improved students' performance. In particular, for the group of students who had low understanding during self-study, there was a statistically significant difference between their average scores in the tests after the self-study and after the face-to-face lesson. In addition, the average score in the test after the face-to-face lesson was higher for students in the grouped flipped classroom than for students in conventional style classes (lecture style class and mixed ability class).