Abstract
The flipped classroom concept, which provides instructional information online outside of class and allocates in-person time for active learning, has garnered considerable popularity in higher education. Quantitative studies frequently concentrate on its effects on academic performance, although there is less understanding of the lived experiences and subjective impressions of its principal stakeholders. This qualitative phenomenology study examined the opinions of five undergraduate students and two instructors who participated in a flipped classroom in an introductory psychology course at a mid-sized university. Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews and subsequently evaluated through thematic analysis. Three main themes came up: (a) The Double-Edged Sword of Autonomy, which showed how the model gave some people more freedom to set their own pace while showing that others lacked motivation; (b) The Recalibration of the Instructor Role, which showed how instructors went from being “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side,” which not everyone was comfortable with; and (c) The Value of Interactive Class Time, where participants liked working on problems and interacting with each other but didn’t like poorly structured in-class activities. The results indicate that the efficacy of the flipped classroom is more contingent upon the deliberate design of pre-class and in-class alignment, alongside student preparedness for self-directed learning, rather than the model itself.
Keywords: Flipped classroom, Student perception, Active learning, Higher education