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The Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom in Teaching a General English University Course, and Associated Individual Factors

Volume 14, Issue 2 (May & June 2023 2023)
Abstract
Flipped classroom is one of the relatively new teaching methods in which teaching takes place outside the classroom and class time is devoted to practice, and learning is established under the supervision of the teacher. Various studies in the world and in Iran have examined the effectiveness of flipped learning in teaching English, but these studies have been done either in the context of schools and institutes or with English language college students. This study examines students’ attitudes towards the flipped classroom, and the effectiveness of flipped learning in General English courses at Farhangian University. Findings show that students are satisfied with the flipped classroom and prefer it to traditional classes. Based on the results of paired and independent t-tests, flipped learning improves students' learning in General English courses. In addition, gender can affect the effectiveness of flipped learning, but students' field of study does not have such a role. Based on the findings of this study, flipped learning can used to increase the effectiveness of General English courses in face-to-face and virtual classes.

1. Introduction
Successful teaching and the improvement of learners’ achievement is undoubtedly the goal of all educational systems, and the advent and availability of technology to the public, has made this goal more attainable in recent years. Flipped classroom model is one of the innovations in teaching made possible through technology, which is an attempt to respond to challenges in traditional teaching by devoting more time to active learning in the classroom using a blended learning approach. In flipped classroom model, the direct teaching presented to the whole class changes into interactive personalized teaching which occurs outside the classroom, and hence the classroom becomes a dynamic and interactive learning environment to consolidate learning (Kaviani et al., 2018).
Although many studies have studied the effectiveness of flipped learning in schools and language institutes in Iran, and in college contexts overseas, no rigorous study has been devoted to this issue in university contexts in Iran till the date of conducting this study. Therefore, this study aimed to investiage the effectiveness of flipped learning in a general English course in Farhangian University, and also to review students reactions to this experience.

2. Methodology
In this study, which was conducted in the second semester of the academic year 2017-2018 at Farhangian University of Mashhad, eight general English Language classes of the undergraduate course in Shahid Beheshti Campus (males) and Shahid Hasheminejad Campus (females) were randomly selected to participate in the research. These classes included 300 students (103 females and 197 males) from different fields of study in humanities and science.
The teaching in the classes was done following flipped format until the mid-term exam, and then, classes were taught through traditional methods. In this way, each of the students had two scores, one of which was obtained after the reverse training and the other after the traditional training.
A mid-term and a final exam were used in the research, each of which consisted of 50 multiple-choice, short-answer, and essay-type items. The tests measured knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, and reading and comprehension of the learners. At the end of the semester, the attitude questionnaire about the flipped classroom, which was adapted and translated from the study of Hsieh, et al. (2017) was administered to the students.

3. Results
These results showed that the students were satisfied with their experience in the flipped classroom. According to Hsieh, et al. (2017), the items in the questionnaire measure four aspects of motivation, effectiveness, participation and overall satisfaction of learners. They did not provide items that measured each construct, but since all items had means above the midpoint of the scale, the findings suggest that students believed that the flipped classroom motivated them, and it has been more effective and attractive for them.
 Moreover, the results of the paired t test to compare the performance of the flipped and tranditiona classrooms (t = 8.08, df = 299, p<0.05), showd a significant difference between the students' grades obtained after reverse education and the grades obtained from traditional education.
To study the effectiveness of flipped classroom for the two genders , an independent samples t-test was run. According to the results (t=-2.14, p<.05), there was a significant difference between the scores of women and men as a result of flipped learning, and women had a higher mean. This indicates that flipped classroom has been more effective for women.

4. Discussion
The results of this study about students' satisfaction with the flipped classroom are in line with the findings of other survey studies about the flipped classroom using other questionnaires (Baker, 2000; Lage et al., 2000; Mehring, 2015).
The finding of he effectiveness of flipped learning is consistent with theoretical discussions about the effectiveness of the reverse method (Bergman & Sams, 2012; Kim et al., 2018). The better performance of students in flipped classroom is also in line with the results of other studies conducted in the field of English language teaching and flipped learning (Farsi et al., 2020;  Hsieh, 2017; Hung, 2014; Sahragard et al., 2020).

5. Conclusion
According to the findings of this research, one of the effective ways to improve English learning in general language classes in the university, regardless of the field of study, is to use flipped learning so that students who have different backgrounds can wathc the teaching video as many times as they need before coming to the class, and use the opportunity to practice in the classroom to consolidate learning and solve possible problems.

 
The Extended Finite Element Method Numerical and Experimental Analysis of Mechanical Behavior of Polysulfone/58s Bioactive Glass Synthesized through Solvent Casting Method

Volume 20, Issue 8 (August 2020)
Abstract
The composites derived from the bioactive glasses, such as BG/polysulfone, have better mechanical properties than pure materials and their characteristics are closer to human bone. In this study, the unknown fracture behavior of 58s BG/PSF composite has been investigated. The extended finite element method (XFEM) was used, in order to model the fracture behavior of 58s BG/PSF composite with greater accuracy. The XFEM doesn’t require remeshing at each step and achieves the precise approximation of singularities by incorporating discontinuity behavior into the elements using the enrichment functions. The aim of using the XFEM was to obtain stress intensity factors, displacements, stress and strain around the crack tip, fracture toughness as well as strain energy release rate. Moreover, the 58s BG/PSF composite with 30% bioactive glass particles was synthesized using solvent casting method and the bending failure test was performed according to the relevant standard. Also, to demonstrate the quality of the interface between the glass particles and polysulfone, SEM investigation was performed on the fracture surface. The obtained fracture toughness was in the range of 1.4 to 1.6 , and the strain energy release rate was in the range of 1600 to 1900 J.m-2, which was comparable to the same properties of natural human bone. Besides, the stress intensity factors and strain energy release rates were calculated by coding in MATLAB and modeling in ABAQUS, and the numerical results were validated with the analytical and experimental data and it was revealed that the numerical results were in great coordinance with the analytical and experimental results.

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