Student Attitudes towards Flipped Classroom : A Focus Group Study on Attitude Change in Swedish Upper Secondary School, within Mathematics towards Flipped Classroom

Sammanfattning: In traditional schooling, one-way monologue from teacher to student is the established way of communica­tion in the classroom. Modern pedagogues are presently breaking free of this status quo.  This master thesis explores whether there is a change in the student’s attitudes towards their school­ing and whether there is an academic benefit for the student when applying a flipped class­room model. This study was performed in Swedish upper secondary school during the students’ last course in mathematics. The study was carried out using focus group interviews and direct participat­ing observation. During the six-week period of interviews and participating in the class­room written tasks were collected and analysed, and the classroom was filmed to help analysing behav­iour of the students, both with flipped classroom and without. The outcome shows positive reac­tions from the students concerning this change in pedagogics, but also some inertia in some individuals. The result shows a positive attitude change concerning communication and collabora­tion in the classroom, although no difference in academic achievement were visible. More studies are needed, but a theoretical base needs to be built before future studies can be con­ducted. Today flipped classroom is undertheorized in ways of an academic model. Future research could be theorizing flipped classroom and exploring whether implementing this pedagogic model also brings forth a change in academic achievement apart from changing the attitudes of the stu­dents.