Writing Performance, Higher-order Thinking, Engagement, and Satisfaction in Flipped Classroom Teaching Model: A Study on IELTS Candidates

Abstract

The present study aims at investigating the impact of flipped classroom teaching mode on the development of writing performance, higher order thinking skills, engagement, and satisfaction of IELTS candidates. The flipped classroom model was adapted from an experienced IELTS teacher's lesson plan. Each session of FCTM consisted of Before the lesson stage where students watched instructional videos, during the lesson phase in which students continued to work on assignment and had to finalize the writing and present it to peers to be more analyzed, and after the lesson stage in which participants were supposed to submit their assignment for grading. The findings showed that a statistically significant difference between students’ scores in the post-test in both experimental and control groups. Students' satisfaction and engagement level between the experimental group and control group on post-test phase indicated that almost the majority of students on pretest were not satisfied; nevertheless, on the post-test, they showed high satisfaction. There were highly statistically significant differences between students' level of satisfaction. As for students' engagement, the analyzed results showed that there were highly statistically significant differences between students' engagement. Considering the IELTS writing test, there was a significant difference in the scores for FCTM in essay writing of IELTS candidates and the traditional model. Specifically, our results suggest that when FCTM is used by IELTS instructors, the essay scores and performance of candidates ameliorate dramatically. Moreover, the results from the SEM reveal that there are significant relationships between the variables.