An Investigation of Teachers’ and Learners’ Perspectives towards the Implementation of the Flipped Classroom Approach.

Abstract

The present era of the technological growth in all disciplines accounts for the emergence of different teaching approaches that cater for students’ needs to learn a foreign language. They are, generally, known as blended learning which is an educational approach that combines both online learning and face-to-face learning. Flipped Classroom, as one form of blended learning, is a pedagogical approach in which the lectures and the homework elements of the course are reversed. The present study aims at exploring teachers’ and learners’ attitudes and perspectives towards the implementation of the Flipped Classroom Approach and eliciting the difficulties they may encounter when applying this approach. It has been hypothesized that if both teachers and learners are familiar with technology use, they will hold positive attitudes regarding the integration of the Flipped Classroom approach in EFL classes. For the sake of examining the hypothesis, two questionnaires were adopted and administered to 9 teachers and 45 Master One students, respectively, at the department of English at Mohammed Seddik Ben Yahia University. The findings have shown that teachers and students perceive this approach positively. However, teachers participants have reported some problems and difficulties encountered in its implementation, such as the lack of teaching materials needed in this approach, the big number of students in the classroom, and the passive nature of students who are not motivated or regulated. Finally, it is suggested for institutions to provide teachers with suitable tools and materials and reduce the students’ number in each class. As for teachers, they need to be skilful and well-prepared to adopt this approach. Students are required to be actively engaged and develop the skills to manage and regulate their learnin