An action research study from implementing the flipped classroom model in primary school history teaching and learning

Abstract

The benefits of the flipped classroom (FC) model in students' learning are claimed in many recent studies. These benefits are typically accounted to the pedagogically efficient use of classroom time for engaging students in active learning. Although there are several relevant studies for the deployment of the FC model in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, and at Higher Education and/or High School, there are very few works studying FC in social studies and at primary school level. This paper presents an action research focused on the implementation of the FC model in teaching social studies in primary school. The main scope of this action research, conducted over an entire school year with two different History classes (one representing the experimental group that followed the FC model and the other representing the control group following the traditional lecture based approach) was to compare the use of classroom time for student-centered learning activities and the resulted learning outcomes related to both traditional learning goals of a history course (that is, memorization of historical content) and more ambitious ones such as the cultivation of historical thinking skills (HTS). The study revealed that indeed, the classroom based sessions of the experimental group were used for engaging student -centered activities and that this resulted into better learning outcomes in terms of demonstrating critical HTS. Thus, this initial action research provides encouraging evidences for the potential benefits of the FC model in primary school social studies courses.