Teachers' and learners' perceptions of flipped learning in a foreign language context

Abstract

Flipped learning has attracted attention in the English as a foreign language (EFL) learning and teaching context in the past two decades, whereas the number of studies conducted in Turkey is relatively low. In addition, the existing ones mostly focus on students’ skill-based achievement, neglecting the investigation of how useful or effective students find the method from both learners’ and teachers’ perspectives to see if they overlap. This study aims to investigate the perceived usefulness of flipped learning in the EFL context in higher education from teachers' and learners' perspectives. Being descriptive and quantitative, the study measured 171 students’ perceived usefulness using a 17-item questionnaire implemented to 51 instructors as well to see their expectations of students’ perceptions. The findings showed that although learners mostly confirmed that flipped learning offers autonomy, practicality, and convenience, they were unwilling to agree that it provides better understanding, concentration, or motivation. On the other hand, teachers were much more optimistic about flipped learning than students. Some correlations were also found between student perceptions of study pace and skills and teacher perceptions regarding students’ practical skills, motivation, and readiness.